RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
FIRST PERSON
OPINION
- The triple helix of collagens – an ancient protein structure that enabled animal multicellularity and tissue evolution
Summary: The triple helix is a protein structure of fundamental importance in building the extracellular matrix that enabled animal multicellularity and tissue evolution.
REVIEW
- Dynamics of cortical domains in early Drosophila development
Summary: Cortical domains are a central feature of epithelial and polarised cells. This Review presents the dynamics of cortical domains in early Drosophila embryos and discusses underlying mechanisms for formation of cortical domains.
SHORT REPORT
- m-AAA and i-AAA complexes coordinate to regulate OMA1, the stress-activated supervisor of mitochondrial dynamics
Summary: AFG3L2 and YME1L1 coordinately regulate OMA1 maturation and consequently, mitochondrial dynamics.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Aurora A kinase activity is required to maintain an active spindle assembly checkpoint during prometaphase
Summary: Inhibition of Aurora A kinase activity in prometaphase leads to a removal of Mad2 from kinetochores, the loss of the SAC and a premature exit from mitosis.
- A model suite of green algae within the Scenedesmaceae for investigating contrasting desiccation tolerance and morphology
Highlighted Article: Green algae within the Scenedesmaceae, three isolated from desert crust and two aquatic, are introduced for comparative analysis of mechanisms underlying desiccation tolerance and multicellularity.
- Identification and characterisation of a cryptic Golgi complex in Naegleria gruberi
Highlighted Article: The first micrographic evidence of a cryptic Golgi organelle in the amoeba Naegleria gruberi is presented, revealing the Golgi in this species has a rare tubular morphology.
- The cytoskeleton regulates symmetry transitions in moving amoeboid cells
Summary: Dynamic shape changes of amoeboid cells are far from random, but are the consequence of refined symmetries and symmetry changes that are orchestrated by small G-proteins and the cytoskeleton.
- Rab7 knockout unveils regulated autolysosome maturation induced by glutamine starvation
Highlighted Article: Through analysis of Rab7-knockout cells, this paper shows that Rab7 is dispensable for autophagosome–lysosome fusion and that glutamine starvation regulates autolysosome maturation in cultured mammalian cells.
- Matrix elasticity regulates mesenchymal stem cell chemotaxis
Summary: hMSCs exhibit faster chemotaxis with fewer focal adhesions and an increased protrusion rate on soft substrates, suggesting that the total speed of a cell is the sum of stiffness-dependent and chemokine-dependent components.
- Phosphorylation hotspot in the C-terminal domain of occludin regulates the dynamics of epithelial junctional complexes
Summary: A conserved sequence in occludin determines the dynamic property of tight junctions and adherens junctions in the renal and intestinal epithelia, and regulates collective cell migration.