Hot off the presses! Jan 01 Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol

The Jan 01 issue of the Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol is now up on Pubget (About Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol): if you're at a subscribing institution, just click the link in the latest link at the home page. (Note you'll only be able to get all the PDFs in the issue if your institution subscribes to Pubget.)

Latest Articles Include:

• Gene expression: An ncRNA relocation package | PDF (277 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):1 (2012)
  The localization of a gene within the nucleus is important for controlling its expression, and it must be coordinated with subnuclear architecture. Here, Yang et al.
• Cell migration: H2O2 sensing: the missing 'Lynk' | PDF (347 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):2 (2012)
  Wound healing is an intricate process involving complex signalling pathways that regulate the recruitment of immune cells to injured tissues. Initially, neutrophils are recruited in response to a burst of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at the wound site, but it has been unclear how neutrophils sense this altered redox state.
• Cytoskeleton: A stabilizing influence for K-fibres | PDF (120 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):2 (2012)
  Kinetochore fibres (K-fibres) are microtubule bundles that join kinetochores to the spindle poles. They are essential for the correct segregation of chromosomes and, as such, have been widely studied.
• Nucleoskeleton: Uncovering roles for lamin B | PDF (242 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):3 (2012)
  Lamins are intermediate filament proteins found in the nuclear lamina and throughout the nucleoplasm that regulate nuclear structure, transcriptional regulation and chromatin organization. Two new studies have sought to more precisely delineate the roles of B-type lamins, and they reveal that these proteins have key functions in spindle orientation during mitosis and in cell proliferation and senescence.
• Organelle dynamics: Stopping mitochondria in their tracks | PDF (255 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):4 (2012)
  Damaged mitochondria can be degraded through a type of organelle-specific autophagy called mitophagy. Although the Ser/Thr kinase PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) and the ubiquitin E3 ligase parkin are known to promote mitophagy, their exact roles in this process were unclear.
• Stem cells: Stem cells follow the clock | PDF (191 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):4 (2012)
  Epidermal stem cells, which ensure skin homeostasis, exist as heterogeneous populations — some stem cells respond to stimulating signals (such as WNT signals) to start proliferating, whereas others remain dormant. Janich et al.
• Cell signalling: Crystallizing WNT signalling | PDF (351 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):4 (2012)
  Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) is a co-receptor for WNT signalling that can be inhibited by the binding of Dickkopf (DKK) proteins. By solving the crystal structure of portions of the LRP6 ectodomain, in the presence or absence of the DKK1 carboxy-terminal region (DKK1-C), three studies provide insight into the conformation of LRP6 and the DKK1-mediated inhibition of WNT signalling.
• Is chromatin helical? | PDF (145 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):6 (2012)
  A long-standing question in eukaryotic cell biology and genomics is whether the interphase chromatin fibre has a foundational geometric structure — or at least one that persists over some longitudinal segment of a chromosome. Two recent studies asked if there is any regular, higher-order folding of the fibre beyond simple apposition, that is, the 'globule' which results when a polymer falls back on itself in the absence of any particular infrastructure.
• Microscopy: Easing access to the nanoscale | PDF (142 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):6 (2012)
  Cox et al. report a new high-resolution microscopy method for living cells that should be more readily accessible to cell biologists than existing super-resolution microscopy approaches.
• Cell migration: IAPs targeting RAC1 | PDF (85 KB)
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):5 (2012)
  The RAC1 GTPase can promote elongated cell morphology during cell migration. Here, Oberoi et al.
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  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):5 (2012)
  
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  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):5 (2012)
  
• Canonical and non-canonical autophagy: variations on a common theme of self-eating?
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):7 (2012)
  The autophagosome is the central organelle in macroautophagy, a vacuolar lysosomal catabolic pathway that degrades cytoplasmic material to fuel starving cells and eliminates intracellular pathogens. Macroautophagy has important physiological roles during development, ageing and the immune response, and its cytoprotective function is compromised in various diseases. A set of autophagy-related (ATG) proteins is hierarchically recruited to the phagophore, the initial membrane template in the construction of the autophagosome. However, recent findings suggest that macroautophagy can also occur in the absence of some of these key autophagy proteins, through the unconventional biogenesis of canonical autophagosomes. Such alternatives to the evolutionarily conserved scheme might provide additional therapeutic opportunities.
• Walking to work: roles for class V myosins as cargo transporters
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):13 (2012)
  Cells use molecular motors, such as myosins, to move, position and segregate their organelles. Class V myosins possess biochemical and structural properties that should make them ideal actin-based cargo transporters. Indeed, studies show that class V myosins function as cargo transporters in yeast, moving a range of organelles, such as the vacuole, peroxisomes and secretory vesicles. There is also increasing evidence in vertebrate cells that class V myosins not only tether organelles to actin but also can serve as short-range, point-to-point organelle transporters, usually following long-range, microtubule-dependent organelle transport.
• Building strong bones: molecular regulation of the osteoblast lineage
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):27 (2012)
  The past 15 years have witnessed tremendous progress in the molecular understanding of osteoblasts, the main bone-forming cells in the vertebrate skeleton. In particular, all of the major developmental signals (including WNT and Notch signalling), along with an increasing number of transcription factors (such as RUNX2 and osterix), have been shown to regulate the differentiation and/or function of osteoblasts. As evidence indicates that osteoblasts may also regulate the behaviour of other cell types, a clear understanding of the molecular identity and regulation of osteoblasts is important beyond the field of bone biology.
• Regulating the regulator: post-translational modification of RAS
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):39 (2012)
  RAS proteins are monomeric GTPases that act as binary molecular switches to regulate a wide range of cellular processes. The exchange of GTP for GDP on RAS is regulated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs), which regulate the activation state of RAS without covalently modifying it. By contrast, post-translational modifications (PTMs) of RAS proteins direct them to various cellular membranes and, in some cases, modulate GTP–GDP exchange. Important RAS PTMs include the constitutive and irreversible remodelling of its carboxy-terminal CAAX motif by farnesylation, proteolysis and methylation, reversible palmitoylation, and conditional modifications, including phosphorylation, peptidyl-prolyl isomerisation, monoubiquitylation, diubiquitylation, nitrosylation, ADP ribosylation and glucosylation.
• Endocytic control of growth factor signalling: multivesicular bodies as signalling organelles
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):53 (2012)
  Signal transduction and endocytosis are intertwined processes. The internalization of ligand-activated receptors by endocytosis has classically been thought to attenuate signals by targeting receptors for degradation in lysosomes, but it can also maintain signals in early signalling endosomes. In both cases, localization to multivesicular endosomesen route to lysosomes is thought to terminate signalling. However, during WNT signal transduction, sequestration of the enzyme glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) inside multivesicular endosomes results in the stabilization of many cytosolic proteins. Thus, the role of endocytosis during signal transduction may be more diverse than anticipated, and multivesicular endosomes may constitute a crucial signalling organelle.
• Dynamic niches in the origination and differentiation of haematopoietic stem cells
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):60 (2012)
  Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology12, 643–655 (2011) The authors wish to correct two typographical errors in the above article. On page 654, there was an error in the highlighted reference comment. The text "References 74–76 and 103 use groundbreaking imaging technology to visualize HSCs in the niche in mice. The authors of references 74, 75 and 103 image murine bones ex vivo, and the authors of references 75 and 76 image cells in the bone in vivo." should have read "References 74–76 and 103 use groundbreaking imaging technology to visualize HSCs in the niche in mice. The authors of references 74 and 103 image bones ex vivo, and the authors of references 75 and 76 image cells in the bone in vivo." Also, on page 650, 'TPO' should have been 'THPO' in figure 5 and 'TPO, thyroid peroxidase' should have read 'THPO, thrombopoietin' in the legend. The Online version has been corrected, and the authors regret any confusion caused to the readers.
• Plant cell biology: Sensing oxygen
  - Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13(1):60 (2012)
  There was an error in the definition of ERF: "EUKARYOTIC PEPTIDE CHAIN RELEASE FACTOR" should have read "ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR". This has been corrected Online.