The authors show that epithelial and mesenchymal cells navigate chemical cues via fundamentally different force-generating mechanisms. Whereas epithelial groups rely on forces produced at internal junctions, mesenchymal clusters depend on coordinated supracellular contractions, offering new insight into how diverse cell types achieve collective movement during development and disease.

Liu et al. report that linker extension in ESCRT-III converts flat spirals into rings, abolishing their capacity to execute membrane abscission for intraluminal vesicle formation. These findings establish the linker as a key regulator of assembly and confirm the essential role of the flat spiral conformation.

The amounts of sphingomyelin and cholesterol in organelle membranes are coordinately regulated. Depletion of cholesterol increases sphingomyelin synthesis resulting from increased coatomer II–mediated endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi trafficking of ceramide, the precursor to sphingomyelin. The coatomer II network protein cTAGE5 is proposed to sort ceramide-rich membrane into endoplasmic reticulum cargo exit sites.

The focal adhesion protein vinculin affects the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton, and reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton is an energetically demanding process important in cell migration. Here, Fabiano et al. establish a relationship between vinculin, cell bioenergetics, and migration behavior, and the RhoA/ROCK/myosin II pathway in MDA-MB-231 cells.

The decline of mitochondrial function with age is observed widely among organisms. In a screen to identify mutants that delay this decline, Waite et al. discover that potassium, the most abundant cation in cells, modulates mitochondrial membrane potential—a functional hallmark of mitochondrial health. This study links together mitochondrial health, potassium homeostasis, and cellular aging.

Chatterjee et al. reveal that structural snapshots of different conformations of α-HL toxin from Staphylococcus aureus, such as arc-like intermediates, heptameric prepores, and pore, and octameric species, identified from the prehemolytic and posthemolytic stages, offer step-by-step oligomerization of α-HL during erythrocyte membrane lysis.

Regulation of levels of cytoskeletal building blocks is poorly understood. Using Drosophila neurons, the authors identify a pathway that communicates changes in microtubule dynamics to the nucleus. This pathway in turn modulates the expression of γTubulin, the central microtubule nucleator.