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Yamada and colleagues report that the interaction of the β-Pix guanine exchange nucleotide factor with the GTPase activating protein, srGAP1, regulates cell migration through collagen by activating Cdc42 and suppressing RhoA activity.
Khokha and colleagues report that loss of the Timp family of metalloproteinases from stromal fibroblasts promotes a cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype and production of exosomes that stimulate cancer cell motility.
Generation of functional T-cells for therapeutic purposes requires a thymic epithelium. Blackburn and colleagues show that FOXN1 expression in fibroblasts triggers the formation of functional thymic epithelial cells that support T-cell differentiation from haematopoietic progenitors.
Joyce and colleagues analyse tumour–stroma interactions in distinct metastatic microenvironments, and show that cathepsin S promotes brain metastasis by cleaving the JAM-B junctional protein, allowing cancer cells to traverse the blood–brain barrier.
Ma and colleagues show that when the EMT-associated transcription factor ZEB1 is stabilized by the ATM kinase, it interacts with the ubiquitin protease USP7 to counteract CHK1 degradation and promote DNA repair in breast cancer cells.
Hengartner and colleagues use an RNAi-based screening approach in C. elegans to identify effectors of the chemotherapy drug vincristine. They report that the drug induces apoptosis by targeting a conserved LET-99–GPA-11–JNK1 pathway.
DNA damage induces silencing of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcription. Stucki and colleagues reveal that rRNA silencing is an ATM-dependent pan-nuclear response to irradiation, in which the nucleolar protein Treacle targets DNA-damage protein NBS1 to nucleoli.
During embryogenesis, the single layer of mouse epidermal progenitors becomes a stratified and differentiated epithelium. Fuchs and colleagues show that the polarity proteins Par3–mInsc and Gαi3 act cooperatively to polarize LGN and promote perpendicular divisions to induce stratification.
The motor protein dynein binds growing microtubule ends, but how it is recruited to plus ends has not been clear. Using in vitro reconstitution and TIRF microscopy, Surrey and colleagues identify a recruitment pathway in which the plus-end binding protein EB1 binds CLIP-170, which in turn recruits the p150 dynein subunit.
The ovary surface epithelium undergoes ovulation-induced tear and remodelling. Barker and colleagues have identified Lgr5-expressing stem cells in the mouse ovary and show that they contribute to ovary organogenesis as well as participate in epithelial repair throughout life.
Chromosomal instability (CIN) is a common feature of colorectal cancer cells and several mechanisms have been suggested for CIN generation. Bastians and colleagues find that increased microtubule plus-end stability can be triggered by AURKA overexpression and is associated with abnormal spindles and lagging chromosomes in colorectal cancer cells.
How microtubule minus ends are organized during spindle assembly has remained unclear. Lecland and Lüders demonstrate that γ-tubulin ring complexes associate with non-centrosomal minus ends, and that minus ends are transported towards spindle poles in a manner dependent on the microtubule motors dynein, HSET and Eg5.
Anderson and colleagues report that the kinesin-4 family member Kif7 binds to microtubule plus ends at cilium tips to regulate their length and structure, and to ensure the fidelity of Hedgehog signalling.
Batlle and colleagues explore the mechanisms controlling colorectal cancer initiation. They show that GATA6 promotes adenoma stem cell self-renewal and tumour formation by inhibiting BMP signalling.
Understanding how adhesion to the niche influences the behaviour of neural stem cells (NSCs) would contribute to our knowledge of tissue renewal. Farinas and colleagues have found that a metalloprotease sheds the N-cadherin ectodomain in the niche and that this participates in the activation of NSC generation and identity.
The Raf-1 kinase is important for mitogenic MAPK signalling but also inhibits pro-apoptotic Hippo signalling. Kolch and colleagues have found that the Hippo kinase LATS1 phosphorylates Raf-1 in a feedback regulatory loop to inhibit both pathways, and demonstrate by experiments and modelling that competing protein interaction can form the basis for a switch-like transition between signalling pathways.
Etienne-Manneville and colleagues demonstrate that the adherens junctions of adjacent migrating cultured cells exhibit retrograde flow along the lateral cell sides. They show that the rearward treadmilling of junctions is followed by N-cadherin endocytosis at the cell rear and anterograde trafficking to support formation of new junctional complexes at the cell front.
De Camilli and colleagues reveal that reducing cholesterol or sphingomyelin causes formation of tubular structures resembling early endocytic intermediates at the plasma membrane. These structures recruit sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1). Depleting SPHK1 inhibits endocytic recycling, revealing a link between sphingosine metabolism and endocytosis.
Gomis and colleagues report on the mechanisms driving colon cancer metastasis. They show that whereas ERK2 activity promotes colon cancer metastasis to the liver, reduced p38 signalling upregulates the PTHLH cytokine to allow liver metastatic cell extravasation and colonization of the lung.
Gundersen and colleagues report that the FHOD1 formin is involved in nuclear positioning, by physically linking nesprin-2G, a protein of the outer nuclear membrane, to actin cables, to allow the formation of the transmembrane actin-associated nuclear (TAN) lines that are needed to move the nucleus.