A unique form of regulation has been observed in the unfolded protein response of S. pombe, along with a novel mechanism of post-transcriptional mRNA processing.
Histones bound to lipid droplets inside cells offer protection against bacteria in flies, and possibly mice, thus suggesting a possible new innate immunity pathway.
Glenn A Maston, Lihua Julie Zhu ... Michael R Green
The transcription machinery used to regulate gene expression and self-renewal in human embryonic stem cells is different from that found in other cells.
A genome-organizing protein that is present only in the olfactory system of mice has been found to orchestrate changes in the relative numbers of different odor-sensing neurons on the basis of how active these neurons are.
Similarities in the way that nucleosomes are organized into chromatin in archaea and eukaryotes suggest that chromatin might have been involved in gene regulation before its role in DNA packaging evolved.
Anca M Farcas, Neil P Blackledge ... Robert J Klose
A protein that can recognize regions of DNA with a high proportion of unmethylated CpG dinucleotides, and then recruit polycomb group proteins to these CpG islands, has been identified.
Preventing premature interactions between microtubules and protein-based structures called kinetochores ensures that chromosomes are segregated by meiosis rather than mitosis in reproductive cells.
The discovery of a fluorescent protein that can be rapidly switched between long-lived ‘on’ and ‘off’ states will lead to a new generation of super-resolution imaging experiments on living cells.
