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Cell Res,
2014]
In a recent paper in Nature, Ermolaeva et al. uncover a systemic response to DNA damage in germ cells that protects somatic tissues, providing mechanistic insight into the bidirectional communication between germ line and soma.
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Dev Cell,
2012]
Chromatin diminution during development generates cells with varying genetic content within the same organism. Two recent papers demonstrate that in two different systems chromatin diminution removes a considerable number of genes from somatic cells, thereby restricting their expression to the germline.
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Cell Res,
2013]
It has been a long-standing enigma which scramblase causes phosphatidylserine residues to be exposed on the surface of apoptotic cells, thereby facilitating the phagocytic recognition, engulfment and destruction of apoptotic corpses. In a recent paper in Science, Nagata and coworkers reveal that the scramblases Xkr8 and its C. elegans ortholog, CED-8, are activated by caspase cleavage in apoptotic cells.
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Dev Cell,
2015]
Adherens junctions (AJs) play a crucial role in epithelial tissue development and tumorigenesis, and the mechanisms controlling their assembly and disassembly have therefore attracted considerable attention. A paper from Tsur et al. (2015) in this issue of Developmental Cell now shows how sumoylation and desumoylation of E-cadherin promotes its recruitment to AJs.
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Science,
2001]
Over the years, a steady stream of structural and regulatory RNAs have been identified. Three papers published in this issue on pages 853, 858, and 862 from the Tuschl, Bartel, and Ambros labs continue the tradition, but now prospecting for tiny RNAs of 22 nucleotides (nt). The chain of reasoning that simultaneously attracted these groups to 22 nt is convoluted but interesting.
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Dev Cell,
2011]
The entry of the sperm centrosome polarizes the anterior-posterior axis of the C. elegans zygote by inducing the formation of complementary cortical Par protein domains. Recent papers from the Seydoux and Grill laboratories (Goehring et al., 2011b and Motegi et al., 2011) reveal how two different symmetry-breaking mechanisms produce the same final pattern through interactions between Par proteins.
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Nat Methods,
2011]
Engineering precise genetic changes in a genome is powerful way to study gene function, and several recent papers describe new applications of gene-editing tools. Working with researchers at Sangamo BioSciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Barbara Meyer and her colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, described the first systems for making targeted genomic modifications in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, a valuable model organism (Wood et al., 2011).
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Neuron,
2004]
Two papers in the current issues of Neuron (Gallegos and Bargmann) and Cell (Emoto et al.) identify a conserved kinase, SAX-1/Trc, and a large protein required for Trc activity, SAX-2/Fry, as essential elements in the control of dendritic branching and tiling in Drosophila and C. elegans. The tiling and ectopic branching phenotypes of trc mutants appear to be independently generated. Thus, this kinase is the first signaling protein to be associated specifically with tiling.
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BMC Biol,
2012]
In a paper in BMC Biology Virk et al. show that Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan is extended in response to a diet of folate-deficient Escherichia coli. The deficiencies in folate biosynthesis were due to an aroD mutation, or treatment of E. coli with sulfa drugs, which are mimics of the folate precursor para-aminobenzoic acid. This study suggests that pharmacological manipulation of the gut microbiome folate status may be a viable approach to slow animal aging, and raises questions about folate supplementation.