Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Cell biology is the discipline of biological sciences that studies the structure, physiology, growth, reproduction and death of cells. Research in cell biology uses microscopic and molecular tools and examines all cell types, from unicellular organisms such as protozoa to the specialised cells that consitutute multicellular organisms.
Targeted biologics delivery requires programming multicomponent protein nanomaterials to enable selective targeting and response to environment changes in a single unified framework. A novel protein nanoparticle platform has been designed to modulate cell-surface target specificity, cargo packaging, and pH-dependent release of encapsulated cargo, providing exciting possibilities in biologics delivery.
Ferroptosis, a cell death mechanism induced by lipid peroxidation, is pivotal in tumor suppression. A recent study shows that tumor repopulating cells evade ferroptosis and develop resistance to therapy via subverting a lipid metabolism enzyme.
Stabilization of a branch structure would intuitively suggest a direct connection between trunk and bough, but in actin filament networks, cortactin clamps the branching Arp2/3 complex to the daughter filament. This has fundamental consequences for mechanistic understanding of actin branch turnover and cortactin biology.
Previous studies of the skin have suggested a neutral-to-acidic pH gradient in the outermost layer. Here, the authors perform quantitative intravital pH imaging of the stratum corneum, the outermost epidermal layer, and demonstrate three distinct pH zones - rather than a gradient - with different biological functions.
Intranuclear actin contributes to nuclear structure. Inducing actin remodeling within the nucleus regulates chromatin accessibility, and is associated with phenotypic outcomes in mesenchymal stem cells. As such, dynamic actin remodeling may modulate gene expression.
Endurance athletes and sedentary type 2 diabetes patients swapped their lifestyle for 8 weeks. Athletes store and utilise saturated fat intensely for performant physical activity, and type 2 diabetes patients reversed their dysmetabolic lipid state after endurance training.
Vesicle transport ensures cargo delivery to cellular targets. Here, Soltani et al. show that Drosophila Evi5, a multiple sclerosis risk gene in humans, controls vesicular transport of iron-bound transferrins and physically interacts with ferritin.
Shigella, an important human pathogen, can secrete effector proteins to invade host cells and evade mechanisms of cell-autonomous immunity. In a new manuscript published in Nature Communications, Xian et al. report that the Shigella kinase effector OspG promotes the ubiquitination of septin cytoskeletal proteins to evade cage entrapment.