Research Highlights in 2016

OSKM-mediated reprogramming to pluripotencyin vivois facilitated by cellular senescence through the secretion of key cytokines.

A chemical approach for precisely mapping nucleosomes genome-wide provides novel insights into the regulation of transcription and splicing.

The newly identified SND pathway is an alternative route for the targeting of proteins to the endoplasmic reticulum that functions in parallel to the SRP and GET pathways.

The functional behaviour of haematopoietic stem cells is determined in a cell-autonomous manner by clone-specific epigenetic modifications.

Cadherin-based, finger-like cell–cell contacts are shown to serve as instructive structural cues that coordinate motility during collective cell migration.

Super-enhancers interact with human nucleoporins at the nuclear pore complex to regulate cell type-specific genes.

The activity of the plant photoreceptor cryptochrome 2 is regulated by a newly characterized interacting protein that prevents cryptochrome 2 homodimerization.

Selective autophagy that is dependent on the ER translocon component SEC62 mediates ER recovery following protein stress.

Genomic duplications that modify the structure and function of topologically associated domains can deregulate gene expression and cause disease without altering gene copy numbers.

Cyclin A2 ensures accurate chromosome segregation through cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activation, and proper DNA replication and repair through previously uncharacterized kinase-independent RNA-binding activity.

Elucidation of the mechanisms of autophagy and the work on designing molecular machines have been awarded with a 2016 Nobel Prize, in the fields of Physiology or Medicine and in Chemistry, respectively.

SET specifically binds to the unacetylated form of p53 to repress p53-mediated transcriptional activation.

The lipid composition of the mitochondrial membrane, in particular, synthesis of phosphatidic acid, regulates mitochondrial size by modulating fusion and fission cycles.

In budding yeast, the association of Dhh1p with ribosomes on mRNAs enriched in non-optimal codons mediates their decay.

Microtubule depolymerization can be arrested and growth rescued at sites where the lattice is self-repaired following local damage.

A new study shows that the beige-to-white adipocyte transition requires mitophagy.

A new study shows that 53BP1 modulates p53-mediated transcription independently of its functions in DNA repair.

Fibrillar α-synuclein is transferred between neuronal cells within lysosomes in tunelling nanotubes.

A new study shows that hypoxia interferes with DNA demethylation, resulting in DNA hypermethylation and repression of gene expression, which in tumours leads to the silencing of tumour suppressors.

Fascin promotes cell invasion by functioning as a mechanotransducer that binds to nesprin-2 and couples F-actin to the nuclear envelope.