March 2014

Research articles

    1. Evolutionary Biology

    Evolution of insect olfactory receptors

    Christine Missbach, Hany KM Dweck ... Ewald Grosse-Wilde
    Insect specific olfactory receptors are not an adaptation to a terrestrial insect lifestyle, but evolved later in insect evolution.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    2. Cell Biology

    The Ca2+-activated K+ current of human sperm is mediated by Slo3

    Christoph Brenker, Yu Zhou ... Timo Strünker
    The principal potassium ion channel in human sperm, Slo3, is primarily activated by calcium ions and controls the membrane potential of human sperm by intracellular calcium ion levels rather than intracellular pH.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Structure of bacterial cytoplasmic chemoreceptor arrays and implications for chemotactic signaling

    Ariane Briegel, Mark S Ladinsky ... Grant J Jensen
    Bacterial cytoplasmic chemoreceptors assemble into a sandwich of two hexagonally packed arrays.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    The Kinesin-12 Kif15 is a processive track-switching tetramer

    Hauke Drechsler, Toni McHugh ... Andrew D McAinsh
    The first in vitro analysis of full-length human Kif15 provides insight into how hKif15 and its inhibitory binding partner hTpx2 modulate mitotic spindle architecture.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    2. Cell Biology

    A high-resolution morphological and ultrastructural map of anterior sensory cilia and glia in Caenorhabditis elegans

    David B Doroquez, Cristina Berciu ... Daniela Nicastro
    The three-dimensional structures of 50 sensory cilia present in the head of the adult C. elegans hermaphrodite have been reconstructed to provide a foundation for investigations into the mechanisms by which the diversity of cilia structures is generated and how this structural diversity is related to specific sensory neuron functions.
    1. Neuroscience

    Fast transient networks in spontaneous human brain activity

    Adam P Baker, Matthew J Brookes ... Mark Woolrich
    Non-invasive MEG recordings reveal that patterns of spontaneous activity in the resting brain are shorter lived than previously thought.
    1. Neuroscience

    CA1 cell activity sequences emerge after reorganization of network correlation structure during associative learning

    Mehrab N Modi, Ashesh K Dhawale, Upinder S Bhalla
    As mice learn to associate events separated in time, neurons within the CA1 region of the hippocampus progressively reorganize their firing patterns, leading to a relay of cellular activity that bridges the two events.
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression

    Acetylation of histone H3 at lysine 64 regulates nucleosome dynamics and facilitates transcription

    Vincenzo Di Cerbo, Fabio Mohn ... Robert Schneider
    The acetylation of histones at specific sites close to DNA can regulate transcription.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Immunology and Inflammation

    Immunosuppression via adenosine receptor activation by adenosine monophosphate released from apoptotic cells

    Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Toshihiko Maruyama ... Shigekazu Nagata
    Apoptotic cells release molecules to recruit macrophages, but do not cause inflammation because they also secrete AMP that functions as a ‘calm down’ signal.
    1. Neuroscience

    Local GABA concentration is related to network-level resting functional connectivity

    Charlotte J Stagg, Velicia Bachtiar ... Heidi Johansen-Berg
    In the brain at rest, the degree of coordinated activity within the motor network is inversely related to levels of the inhibitory transmitter GABA in primary motor cortex.
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Molecular insights into the origin of the Hox-TALE patterning system

    Bruno Hudry, Morgane Thomas-Chollier ... Samir Merabet
    Interactions between Hox and TALE genes, which generate bilaterally symmetrical body plans, originated in early multicellular animals.
    1. Neuroscience

    Long term functional plasticity of sensory inputs mediated by olfactory learning

    Nixon M Abraham, Roberto Vincis ... Alan Carleton
    Associative learning, but not passive odorant exposure, induces a novel long lasting functional plasticity in the periphery of mouse olfactory system, making previously encountered odors easier to detect in the future.
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    A lipid bound actin meshwork organizes liquid phase separation in model membranes

    Alf Honigmann, Sina Sadeghi ... Richard Vink
    A combination of imaging experiments and computer simulations on a model lipid membrane integrate the 'picket fence' and 'raft' models, and suggest that the interplay between actin binding, lipid phase separation and curvature compartmentalize the membrane.
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Neuroscience

    Natural antisense transcripts regulate the neuronal stress response and excitability

    Xingguo Zheng, Vera Valakh ... Yehuda Ben-Shahar
    The mRNA that encodes a Drosophila sodium channel enables neurons to adapt to acute temperature changes, via a mechanism independent of its protein-coding role.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Structural basis of GSK-3 inhibition by N-terminal phosphorylation and by the Wnt receptor LRP6

    Jennifer L Stamos, Matthew Ling-Hon Chu ... William I Weis
    Phosphorylation of the Wnt receptor LRP6 directly inhibits glycogen synthase kinase-3 by acting as a pseudosubstrate that stabilizes an active conformation of the enzyme, identical to autoinhibition by phosphorylation of its N terminus.
    1. Cell Biology

    Cortical regulation of cell size by a sizer cdr2p

    Kally Z Pan, Timothy E Saunders ... Fred Chang
    It is shown that fission yeast cells sense their size by measuring their surface area through a membrane-associated sizer protein cdr2p.
    1. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    ErbB expressing Schwann cells control lateral line progenitor cells via non-cell-autonomous regulation of Wnt/β-catenin

    Mark E Lush, Tatjana Piotrowski
    Schwann cell induced quiescence of mechanosensory progenitor cells is mediated by inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Fluorescent sensors for activity and regulation of the nitrate transceptor CHL1/NRT1.1 and oligopeptide transporters

    Cheng-Hsun Ho, Wolf B Frommer
    Peptide and nitrate transporters have been converted into fluorescent reporters of transport activity and have been used to measure various transport properties including the dual affinity of the nitrate transceptor
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression

    A KRAS-directed transcriptional silencing pathway that mediates the CpG island methylator phenotype

    Ryan W Serra, Minggang Fang ... Michael R Green
    A pathway directed by the KRAS oncoprotein leads to aberrant hypermethylation and transcriptional silencing of many genes including tumor suppressors, thereby promoting tumor development.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Ecology

    Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior

    Jacqueline SR Chin, Shane R Ellis ... Joanne Y Yew
    Triacylglycerides found in the males of 11 species of Drosophila form a largely overlooked, novel, sex-specific class of pheromones that act to suppress courtship behaviour.
    1. Developmental Biology

    p53 activity is selectively licensed in the Drosophila stem cell compartment

    Annika Wylie, Wan-Jin Lu ... John M Abrams
    Ancient features of the p53 regulatory network are coupled to the stem cell compartment in normal and pathologic contexts.
    1. Cell Biology

    ERK8 is a negative regulator of O-GalNAc glycosylation and cell migration

    Joanne Chia, Keit Min Tham ... Frederic A Bard
    The ERK8 kinase blocks the export of glycosyl-tranferases from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum, and thus subsequent O-glycosylation of proteins that otherwise enhance cell motility and tissue invasion.
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Chromosomes and Gene Expression

    The Brm-HDAC3-Erm repressor complex suppresses dedifferentiation in Drosophila type II neuroblast lineages

    Chwee Tat Koe, Song Li ... Hongyan Wang
    A novel complex composed of various components of a chromatin remodeling complex, a chromatin remodeling factor and a transcription factor suppresses the dedifferentiation of intermediate neural progenitors back into neuroblasts in Drosophila.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Cancer Biology

    Extracellular matrix signatures of human mammary carcinoma identify novel metastasis promoters

    Alexandra Naba, Karl R Clauser ... Richard O Hynes
    Many extracellular matrix proteins that are up-regulated during breast tumor progression enhance metastasis, and some are prognostic indicators of poor survival.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    Greatwall-phosphorylated Endosulfine is both an inhibitor and a substrate of PP2A-B55 heterotrimers

    Byron C Williams, Joshua J Filter ... Michael L Goldberg
    The mechanism of inhibition by unfair competition is central to determining the protein phosphorylation states that govern cell cycle transitions between M phase and interphase.
    1. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    Intestinal epithelium-derived BMP controls stem cell self-renewal in Drosophila adult midgut

    Aiguo Tian, Jin Jiang
    The niche signal that ensures stem cells self-renew appropriately has been identified in the midgut of Drosophila.
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Dual mode of embryonic development is highlighted by expression and function of Nasonia pair-rule genes

    Miriam I Rosenberg, Ava E Brent ... Claude Desplan
    Pair-rule genes in the wasp Nasonia function as in Drosophila in patterning anterior segments, and similar to ancestral insects in patterning posterior segments, illustrating a mixed-mode transition state between short and long germ embryogenesis.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Cell Biology

    A proteomic chronology of gene expression through the cell cycle in human myeloid leukemia cells

    Tony Ly, Yasmeen Ahmad ... Angus I Lamond
    Quantitative analysis of protein and mRNA expression across a minimally perturbed cell cycle in human myeloid cells has identified myeloid-specific and cell cycle-regulated gene expression, including examples of isoform- and phosphorylation-specific regulation, with all data made available in a searchable, online database.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

    Membranes linked by trans-SNARE complexes require lipids prone to non-bilayer structure for progression to fusion

    Michael Zick, Christopher Stroupe ... William T Wickner
    Lipids with a propensity to form nonbilayer structures must be present for the last step of membrane fusion to take place.
    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    A model symbiosis reveals a role for sheathed-flagellum rotation in the release of immunogenic lipopolysaccharide

    Caitlin A Brennan, Jason R Hunt ... Edward G Ruby
    Both beneficial and pathogenic bacteria can use their sheathed flagella during host colonization as a novel toxin-/signal-delivery mechanism.
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Evolution of extreme resistance to ionizing radiation via genetic adaptation of DNA repair

    Rose T Byrne, Audrey J Klingele ... Michael M Cox
    Experiments on E. coli show that multiple mechanisms contribute to extreme resistance to ionizing radiation in bacteria, with mutations to three genes for DNA repair having a prominent role in one evolved population.
    1. Cell Biology

    TTC26/DYF13 is an intraflagellar transport protein required for transport of motility-related proteins into flagella

    Hiroaki Ishikawa, Takahiro Ide ... Wallace F Marshall
    Loss of one protein from the intraflagellar transport complex leads to a defect in import of a specific sub-set of proteins into the flagellum.
    1. Cell Biology
    2. Immunology and Inflammation

    Distinct structural and catalytic roles for Zap70 in formation of the immunological synapse in CTL

    Misty R Jenkins, Jane C Stinchcombe ... Gillian M Griffiths
    Inhibition of the catalytic activity of the Zap70 kinase reveals that discrete TCR-regulated events control the remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton when the cytotoxic T cell interacts with its target.
    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Structure of the SAS-6 cartwheel hub from Leishmania major

    Mark van Breugel, Rainer Wilcken ... Christopher M Johnson
    The X-ray structure of the SAS-6 cartwheel hub from Leishmania major demonstrates that SAS-6 can be sufficient to determine centriolar cartwheel symmetry.