Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
On the cover
In mouse whiskers, as well as other regions of the skin, Merkel cells (red) transmit mechanical stimuli to sensory neurons (green). Van Keymeulen et al. demonstrate that Merkel cells develop from epidermal, rather than neural crest progenitors.
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In This Issue
In Focus
Myosins pull together—separately
Study suggests that asynchronous molecular motors can integrate their actions.
People & Ideas
Irina Conboy: Making the old feel young again
Conboy has found her niche in chasing down what ails aged, decrepit muscle stem cells.
Report
DNA replication times the cell cycle and contributes to the mid-blastula transition in Drosophila embryos
Deletion of S phase disrupts mitotic timing in maternally regulated cycles, but it doesn't alter the cell cycle once zygotic transcription has begun.
Tim–Tipin dysfunction creates an indispensible reliance on the ATR–Chk1 pathway for continued DNA synthesis
Increased amounts of single-stranded DNA accumulate at replication forks when Tim–Tipin isn't around, activating an ATR-mediated DNA damage response necessary for DNA replication to proceed.
INTS3 controls the hSSB1-mediated DNA damage response
MISE is identified as a component of the Integrator complex required for DNA repair.
An eIF4E-binding protein regulates katanin protein levels in C. elegans embryos
SPN2 represses katanin translation to prevent mitotic defects (independently of ubiquitin-mediated katanin degradation).
Relative contributions of chromatin and kinetochores to mitotic spindle assembly
It's the kinetochores, not the DNA, that initiate spindle assembly.
Coupled myosin VI motors facilitate unidirectional movement on an F-actin network
A combination of experimentation and modeling reveal that multiple myosin VI molecules coordinately transport cargo over the actin filament network.
Glyburide inhibits the Cryopyrin/Nalp3 inflammasome
Glyburide, a sulfonylurea drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, shuts down IL-1β secretion by preventing Cyropyrin activation.
Autophagy promotes synapse development in Drosophila
The ubiquitin–proteosome and autophagy pathways work together to regulate synaptic growth and plasticity in response to environmental conditions.
Intraflagellar transport particle size scales inversely with flagellar length: revisiting the balance-point length control model
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii IFT particle trains, important for flagella maintenance and assembly, are observed to decrease in size as a function of cilia length.
Epidermal progenitors give rise to Merkel cells during embryonic development and adult homeostasis
Lineage-tracing experiments show that the origin of specialized mechanosensory Merkel cells in the skin is epidermal progenitors, not the neural crest.
Article
Molecular mechanisms that enhance synapse stability despite persistent disruption of the spectrin/ankyrin/microtubule cytoskeleton
Neuromuscular junctions crippled by a disrupted microtubule cytoskeleton are rescued by stress-induced activation of MAPK-JNK-Fos signaling.
Cdc42 antagonizes Rho1 activity at adherens junctions to limit epithelial cell apical tension
Rho promotes actomyosin contractility during epithelial cell remodeling, but Cdc42 keeps the epithelium in shape by limiting RhoA activity.
Electron-tomographic analysis of intraflagellar transport particle trains in situ
Ultrastructural study of Chlamydomonas cilia shows that anterograde IFT particles form trains that are long and narrow, while retrograde IFT form short, compact particle trains.
