In the first eLife podcast we hear about the origins of multicellularity, the Irish potato famine, hepatitis viruses, how fog affects the behaviour of car drivers, and the evolution of chromatin.
E3 ubiquitin ligase Bre1-induced H2B monoubiquitination is epigenetically important for recruiting replication factor Mcm10 and cohesion establishment factors Ctf4, Ctf18 and Eco1 to early replication origins to establish sister chromatid cohesion.
Sodium ions control the rates of both substrate binding and dissociation of an archaeal homologue of glutamate transporters in a manner that minimizes binding intermediates and maximizes transport efficiency.
Molecular labeling, electrophysiology and calcium imaging have revealed a novel switching of neurotransmitter at the frog neuromuscular junction where motoneurons transiently release glutamate before acetylcholine at synapses on developing hindlimb muscles at the onset of metamorphosis.
Machine learning models of coordinated hippocampal ensemble activity during sharp wave ripple activity encode structure that mirrors the place cell map expressed during exploration, and enable a new paradigm for analyzing and understanding this offline activity.
Selfish wtf meiotic drive genes use overlapping transcripts to encode both a trans-acting poison to kill gametes that do not inherit the gene and a gamete-autonomous antidote to specifically rescue the gametes that do.
PLK-1/2-mediated SYP-4 phosphorylation is dependent on crossover precursor formation, triggering a switch in the dynamic state of the synaptonemal complex that reduces the formation of further double-strand breaks at late meiotic prophase.
The transcription factor PROP1 controls a genetic network that drives pituitary stem cells to undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal-like transition and differentiate.
Hox genes are activated sequentially and, at the same time, undergo a transition from an inactive to an active chromatin compartment, most likely to prevent posterior genes being activated too early.
