The ability of epithelial cells to distinguish between domains on opposing cell surfaces within a tissue, a property known as planar cell polarity, relies on proteins and protein complexes directing the traffic of signaling proteins to specific locations on the cell surface membrane.
Novel imaging experiments suggest that fruit flies modify their neural circuitry for walking at slow, medium and fast speeds, and that proprioception is not essential for coordinated walking.
A compound that prevents stressors such as UV light and viral infection from downregulating protein synthesis inside cells improves memory performance in mice.
Skin cells from a patient with retinitis pigmentosa have been used to generate induced pluripotent stem cells, which could potentially form the basis of new treatments for this disease.
Structural analyses of the centriole proteins CPAP and STIL identify domains that are critical for centriole formation and provide a structural explanation for a mutation that causes human microcephaly.
Electron microscopy uncovers the structure of the origin recognition complex (ORC) in metazoans, and reveals how mutations in the ORC6 subunit lead to Meier-Gorlin syndrome in humans.
A cysteine-rich domain within the Smoothened receptor may represent a novel therapeutic target for cancers caused by abnormal functioning of the Hedgehog signaling pathway.