IN THIS ISSUE
CELL SCIENTISTS TO WATCH
COMMENTARIES
- Third harmonic generation microscopy of cells and tissue organization
Summary: The basis of third harmonic generation microscopy and its versatile applications in cell and tissue research are reviewed, as well as its emerging applicability in clinical practice.
- Computational ‘microscopy’ of cellular membranes
Summary: Computational modelling, or ‘microscopy’, has emerged as a powerful tool to study cell membranes across a broad range of resolutions, complementing experimental microscopy methods.
SHORT REPORT
- Wnt/β-catenin and LIF–Stat3 signaling pathways converge on Sp5 to promote mouse embryonic stem cell self-renewal
Summary: This study reveals a new function of Sp5 in mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal mediated by CHIR99021 and LIF, and reprogramming of EpiSCs into naїve ESCs.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- PTP-PEST controls EphA3 activation and ephrin-induced cytoskeletal remodelling
Highlighted Article: This study shows new roles for the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP-PEST in controlling EphA3 receptor tyrosine kinase activity, trafficking and Eph-induced cell retraction.
- Role of epithelial Na+ channels in endothelial function
Summary: ENaCs endogenous to human endothelial cells are mechano-sensitive. Persistent activation of ENaCs will inevitably lead to endothelium dysfunction and even vascular diseases.
- The formins FHOD1 and INF2 regulate inter- and intra-structural contractility of podosomes
Highlighted Article: This study identifies the formins FHOD1 and INF2 as new components of podosomes in primary human macrophages, which regulate inter- and intra-structural contractility at discrete podosome substructures.
- Reactive oxygen species exert opposite effects on Tyr23 phosphorylation of the nuclear and cortical pools of annexin A2
Summary: Reactive oxygen species cause two opposite and transient Tyr23-based modifications of annexin A2; its dephosphorylation in the nucleus and phosphorylation at the cell cortex, resulting in release of the protein in exosomes.
- Mon1–Ccz1 activates Rab7 only on late endosomes and dissociates from the lysosome in mammalian cells
Highlighted Article: A combination of a Rab7 sensor and confocal FRET imaging techniques revealed that the Mon1–Ccz1 complex activates Rab7 only on late endosome and dissociates from lysosome in mammalian cells.
- Loss of PGL-1 and PGL-3, members of a family of constitutive germ-granule components, promotes germline apoptosis in C. elegans
Summary: PGL-1 and PGL-3, members of a family of constitutive germ-granule components, suppress excessive germline apoptosis by repressing both the protein levels of CED-4 and the cytoplasmic translocation of SIR-2.1 in C. elegans.
- FGF control of E-cadherin targeting in the Drosophila midgut impacts on primordial germ cell motility
Summary: FGF signaling modulates zygotic E-cadherin distribution to maintain posterior midgut epithelial 3D architecture, impacting on primordial germ cell motility during Drosophila early embryonic development.
- Srv2/CAP is required for polarized actin cable assembly and patch internalization during clathrin-mediated endocytosis
Summary: Srv2/CAP is required for efficient endocytosis owing to its role in the formation of the actin patches that aid in vesicle invagination and in the formation of the actin cables that these move along.
- PAK6 targets to cell–cell adhesions through its N-terminus in a Cdc42-dependent manner to drive epithelial colony escape
Summary: PAK6 targeting to cell–cell contacts is dependent on both a polybasic motif and binding to Cdc42. Disruption of PAK6 targeting to cell–cell contacts inhibits epithelial cell colony escape.
- CULD is required for rhodopsin and TRPL channel endocytic trafficking and survival of photoreceptor cells
Summary: CULD, a CUB- and LDLa-domain transmembrane protein that is enriched in photoreceptor cells, is required in endocytic turnover of rhodopsin and TRPL.
- Haemoglobin degradation underpins the sensitivity of early ring stage Plasmodium falciparum to artemisinins
Summary: Down-modulation of the expression of haemoglobin-degrading falcipains in P. falciparum renders early ring stage parasites resistant to artemisinins.
- Orc5 induces large-scale chromatin decondensation in a GCN5-dependent manner
Summary: Human Orc5 associates with H3 histone acetyl transferase GCN5, enhancing the chromatin-opening function of Orc5 during G1 and allows the establishment of preRCs at the origins.
- Rop, the Sec1/Munc18 homolog in Drosophila, is required for furrow ingression and stable cell shape during cytokinesis
Summary: Live-imaging genetic screens revealed that Rop, a homolog of the syntaxin-interacting protein Sec1/Munc18, is required for maintaining contractile ring integrity and cell shape during furrow ingression.
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
- Fast and precise targeting of single tumor cells in vivo by multimodal correlative microscopy
Highlighted Article: We provide here a novel correlative workflow combining intravital microscopy, microCT and 3D electron microscopy to reveal metastatic events in mouse brain and skin tissue at high resolution.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST IN OTHER COB JOURNALS
This issue
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Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editorial – The good, the bad and the very useful – at least to cell biologists
Editor-in-Chief, Michael Way, discusses the exciting potential of examining the intimate relationship between pathogens, cells and hosts for cell biology research. Submissions are welcome for the fifth JCS Special Issue, guest edited by Derek Walsh, focussing on host-pathogen interactions.
Cell Science at a Glance – The fusogenic synapse at a glance
In their Cell Science at a Glance, Ji Hoon Jim and Elizabeth H. Chen highlight the molecular, cellular and biophysical events at the asymmetric fusogenic synapse.
Review – Force-generating mechanisms of anaphase in human cells
Kruno Vukušić, Renata Buđa and Iva M. Tolić review contributions of force-generating mechanisms, acting through different microtubule populations, to chromosome segregation in human cells.
First Person interviews
Have you seen our First Person interviews with the early-career first authors of our papers? The authors talk about their work in and out of the lab, the journeys that led them to where they are now and the scientists who inspired them along the way. Recently, we caught up with first authors Bouchra Khalaf, Bapi Sarker, Amrit Bagchi and Tak Shun Fung.
Mole – Impact! III
“Over the last five years, there were 1,141,540 papers published per year that were listed in PubMed. If you read them for 8 h per day, 5 days week, for 50 weeks year, you would have to read about ten papers a minute to read them all.”
Read Mole’s thoughts on the issue of impact in scientific literature.
preLights – preLights reaches 500 posts!
The success of preLights is down to the hard work of our preLighters. Head over to the preLights website to find out more about our most active early-career-researchers.
Journal Meeting – Cell Dynamics: Host-Pathogen Interface
Registration is now open for the third instalment of the highly successful Cellular Dynamics Meeting Series, which will take place on 17-20 May 2020 and will focus on ‘Host-Pathogen Interface’.
Articles of interest in our sister journals
Scribble and Discs Large mediate tricellular junction formation
Zohreh Sharifkhodaei, Mary M. Gilbert, Vanessa J. Auld (Development 2019 146: dev174763)
Annabel Ebbing, Teije C. Middelkoop, Marco C. Betist, Eduard Bodewes, Hendrik C. Korswagen (Development 2019 146: dev180059)