Issues

Summary: Much anguish, talent, time and money are expended on cell biology using inadequately characterized commercial research antibodies, and this can lead to bad science. I summarize the situation and suggest accessible solutions.

Summary: This Review summarizes how trafficking is molecularly influenced by alternative splicing and how this interplay impacts physiology and pathological conditions.

Summary: A systematic structural analysis using negative-stain electron microscopy on many different β1 and β4 integrins showed no large ‘switchblade-like’ conformational change coupled to their affinity states.

Summary: Threonine 180 is a critical site on XIAP that directs the activity of XIAP in Wnt signaling, but not apoptosis, allowing for the possibility of designing Wnt-specific therapeutics that target this site.

Summary: The GET machinery can, in principle, process mitochondrial proteins but, under normal conditions, active mitochondrial targeting pathways dominate the kinetic competition against GET recognition.

Summary: Heparan sulfate is highly expressed in the embryonic mammalian stomach and is required for gastric development, including stratification of forestomach and specification of glandular stomach.

Summary: Hypoxia disrupts the polarity of MDCK cysts in a HIF1α-dependent manner by modulating the TGFβ pathway. BAMBI is identified as a novel HIF1-regulated gene that contributes to the hypoxia-induced polarity defect.

Summary: VLDLR is a chaperone important for membrane progesterone receptor (mPR) trafficking and is required for non-genomic progesterone signaling.

Summary: Growth factor signaling regulates the phosphorylation-dependent association of plakophilins 1 and 3 with 14-3-3 isoforms, revealing partially antagonistic functions of 14-3-3 proteins in the regulation of desmosomes.

Summary: Activated ezrin controls cortical MISP levels, which are necessary for proper NuMA polarization at the cortex and, hence, precise spindle orientation.

Summary: PIKfyve inhibition causes lysosomes to coalesce, resulting in fewer, enlarged lysosomes; TFEB-mediated lysosome biosynthesis does not contribute to swelling.

Highlighted Article: An analysis of USP35 shows that alternative isoforms can substantially contribute to expanding the functionality of deubiquitylating enzymes, hence allowing them to regulate multiple intracellular ubiquitylation events.

Summary: Increased matrix stiffness promotes keratinocyte proliferation through activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor both in vitro and in keloid scars.

Highlighted Article: The Ca²⁺-dependent formation of mitochondrial cAMP by matrix-localized soluble adenylyl cyclase intensifies further Ca²⁺ uptake into the organelle; this convergence of signalling pathways supports steroidogenesis.

Highlighted Article: Wtip is a tension-sensitive cytoskeletal adaptor that binds Shroom3 and modulates Shroom3-dependent apical constriction during Xenopus neurulation.

Highlighted Article: A novel method to measure translation elongation rate and intensity in complex and heterogeneous cell populations by combining puromycilation, translation run-off experiment and flow cytometry detection is presented.

Summary: A specifically tailored set of micropatterns is used as a cell biological tool to study the regulation of mechanosensitive transcription factors in an angiogenesis model.

Summary: Myofibroblasts are key drivers of fibrosis. Here, RNAi screening is used to identify novel regulators of myofibroblast activation, and a matrix-stiffness-dependent STAT3 activation pathway is identified.