Issues

Summary: Understanding virus–host interactions at the microscopic and macroscopic scales is key to therapeutic and vaccine development, prediction of viral emergence and prevention of future outbreaks.

Summary: Endothelial cells are exposed to mechanical forces such as shear stress exerted by blood flow. We explore the emerging role of the nucleus in how these forces are sensed and transduced.

Summary: Transition metals, such as copper, iron and zinc, are critical determinants of host immune responses to fungal pathogens. Paradoxically, metals may also support fungal virulence.

Summary: This work reinforces the fundamental role of FUS in neurodevelopment and systemic metabolism and the notion that the FUS gene should be considered in clinical neurodevelopmental genetic testing.

Summary: Whereas healthy brain contains very little glycogen, aged brains and brains of people with neurodegenerative disorders tend to accumulate glycogen. We demonstrate here that, in the Drosophila model of Huntington's disease, enhancement of glycogen synthesis in fly brain ameliorated the disease phenotype through activation of auto-lysosomal functions.

Summary: Inhibition of JAK2/STAT3 results in failure to suppress p63, resulting in defects in palatal fusion. This defect is rescued by p63 haploinsufficiency and by folic acid treatment, reactivating JAK2/STAT3.

Summary: Genetic analyses in a Drosophila disease model show that loss of Npc1 and glycosphingolipid pathway synthesis elevate glutamatergic neurotransmission within a common functional pathway, and this pathway links to subsequent neurodegeneration.

Summary: The genetic humanization of IL-15 in immunodeficient host mice uniquely supports the engraftment and growth of Sezary syndrome (SS) patient samples, resulting in the generation of new SS patient-derived xenograft models.

Summary: In rats with chronic spinal motor neuron death induced by AMPA-mediated excitotoxicity, HDAC4 inhibition through administration of sodium butyrate does not ameliorate paralysis or muscle pathology.

Summary: Multiple histone deacetylase inhibitors were identified from a chemical library screen to suppress neutrophil recruitment in a zebrafish injury model. AR-42 modulates neutrophil recruitment by suppressing the transcriptional expression of il1b/cxcl8.

Editor's choice: Putative DREAM-binding sites were identified for 151 genes associated with blood or brain abnormalities and mutation of 21 sites impacted gene expression, suggesting that p53-DREAM alterations contribute to bone marrow failure and glioblastoma cell phenotypes.

Summary: PKD1L1-linked biliary atresia is a serious childhood liver disease with no effective therapies. Deletion of zebrafish pkd1l1 results in impaired function and abnormal development of bile ducts in the liver.

Summary: The mitochondrial integrated stress response in the heart of a mouse model of Friedreich ataxia is surprisingly mild, despite a severe decrease in frataxin levels below 1% of normal.

Summary: Transcriptomic profiles from glomeruli and sciatic nerves of type 1 and type 2 diabetes mouse models support a strong influence of inflammation and genetic background on diabetic complications.

Summary: Evaluation of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based short tandem repeat (STR) profiling of human and mouse cell lines in a high-throughput format revealed that STR-NGS is a valuable platform for human and mouse cell line authentication.

Summary: High-efficiency ribonucleoprotein-mediated genome editing enables rapid functional studies in human organoids by avoiding the need for clonal selection.