Issues

Summary: Blood platelets are produced by megakaryocytes in the bone marrow. Here, we discuss the mechanisms of megakaryocyte differentiation and how bona fide platelets are brought into circulation.

Summary: We hypothesize that similar mechanosensitive mechanisms drive focal adhesions and invadopodia initiation and maturation, despite the differences in their morphology and functions.

Summary: ATG16L1 has numerous essential activities in autophagy, autophagy-related processes and inflammatory responses. This review summarises these functions of ATG16L1 and discusses their implications.

Summary: Review of how the flow of water across the cell surface impacts cell volume regulation, cell force generation, cell shape and cell movement in physiologically relevant environments.

Highlighted Article: Keratin 17 (K17) is a non-lamin IF protein that functions in the cell nucleus. K17 is here shown to regulate nuclear morphology, chromatin organization, LAP2 localization and cell proliferation.

Summary: Mechanical signal transfer between cell surface β1 integrin receptors, CD98hc and TRPV4 channels within focal adhesions is shown to mediate ultrarapid transmembrane mechanochemical conversion in endothelial cells.

Summary: Nucleolar size influences nuclear shape in yeast. Nucleolar expansion triggers phospholipid biosynthesis leading to nuclear envelope shape abnormalities.

Summary: TDP-43 deficiency increases the transcription-dependent accumulation of R-loops and perturbs DNA replication in proliferating cells. This R-loop accumulation, in turn, compromises genomic integrity in human cells, including neurons.

Summary: The catalytic activity of GCN2 is important for G3BP1-dependent stress granule formation in response to UV damage, but neither eIF2α phosphorylation nor mTOR inhibition are involved in the mechanism.

Highlighted Article: ER stress in mouse myoblasts activates a cell survival mechanism that involves the upregulation of Stbd1 expression that is required for the formation of glycogen-containing structures.

Summary: MFN2 and MFN1 play different roles in binding to Bcl-2 family proteins to regulate mitochondrial networks.

Summary: The smoothened receptor controls the time course of inhibitory transmission by regulating stability of the potassium-chloride cotransporter KCC2 at the plasma membrane.

Summary: Mucin-type O-glycosylation regulates mouse embryonic stem cell pluripotency by directly modulating the endocytosis of the Wnt receptor frizzled-5, finely tuning the Wnt signaling outcome.

Highlighted Article: The cationic amino acid exporter Slc7a7 is rapidly induced in zebrafish tissue macrophages upon efferocytosis, allowing them to cope with the catabolism of numerous dead cells without compromising their own viability.

Highlighted Article: By using high speed, high-resolution fluorescence microscopy of swimming Leishmania cells, we showed that the asymmetric flagellar beat always wafts in the same direction and investigate which structures are involved.

Summary: The physiological roles of PTPRT in hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic function are involved in the pathogenesis of depressive disorder.

Summary: Using Mdm36 as a tool to cluster Num1 at the cell cortex, this study reveals that there are two distinct populations of Num1, each mediating its role in spindle positioning and mitochondrial tethering, respectively.