Transgenic mice with high levels of FGF21 live for longer than wild-type mice and do so without reducing food intake.

Histones bound to lipid droplets inside cells offer protection against bacteria in flies, and possibly mice, thus suggesting a possible new innate immunity pathway.

A combination of cellular, biochemical, genetic and genomic techniques have revealed a new molecular player in the production of fat cells in mice, which could improve our understanding of obesity.

The enzyme that collaborates with ubiquitin ligases to promote the release of defective polypeptides from stalled ribosomes in a process named ribosome-associated degradations has been identified as the ATPase Cdc48.

A sudden fall in the levels of the coenzyme NADPH within cells could have a central role in the process of aging.

The plant hormone ethylene regulates the expression of multiple genes in the model plant Arabidopsis, including those that respond to other hormones.

A DNA transposon, or ‘jumping gene’, controls its amplification within a genome through a competition between the enzyme multimers that are responsible for its mobility.

A cell-free biochemical assay for protein lipidation identifies the ER–Golgi intermediate compartment as a key early station in the formation of an autophagosome.

Efflux of xenobiotic fluoride from microorganisms occurs through a novel family of ion channels with stringent selectivity for fluoride ion and dual-topology molecular architecture.

The Brahma chromatin remodelling complex interacts with the Hippo signalling pathway to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells in the Drosophila midgut.