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The conserved chromatin remodeller DECREASED IN DNA METHYLATION 1 (DDM1) has long been an enigma given its powerful but likely indirect effect in maintaining plant DNA methylation. In this issue of Nature Cell Biology, Osakabe et al. show that the direct action of DDM1 is deposition of the H2A.W histone variant to silence transposable elements.
STING is a key player in the IFN response to cytosolic DNA, and its multimerization is commonly associated with activation of the pathway. A new study now shows that STING forms ‘puzzle’-like condensates to limit the IFN response and constrain antiviral immune activation.
Endocytosis is critical for regulating plasma membrane composition and function. The mechanisms that control the assembly and dynamic rearrangement of the endocytic protein network to enable endocytic vesicle formation have remained elusive. Two endocytic initiator proteins are now shown to form liquid-like condensates to initiate endocytosis.
The transition of endothelial cells between quiescence and proliferation is essential for regulating the extent of the vasculature that supplies oxygen and nutrients to tissues. A study now shows that the FOXO1 transcription factor regulates endothelial cell proliferation by controlling levels of the metabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate.
In response to cold stress, mammals release norepinephrine from the sympathetic nervous system to elevate thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT) in order to maintain body temperature. This study reveals that the protein AIDA connects sympathetic input, reactive oxygen species, and uncoupling protein 1-mediated adaptive thermogenesis in BAT.
TGF-β can antagonise or cooperate with WNT signalling, yet it is still unclear what mechanisms integrate the outcomes of these conserved pathways. A new study now reports that the formation of biomolecular condensates, dependent on the DACT1 protein, provides the spatial segregation needed for TGF-β to constrain WNT signalling.
Facultative heterochromatin occurs at regions that contain developmentally regulated genes. A study now reveals that the nutrient-sensitive TORC1 signalling pathway affects the RNA elimination machinery, thereby regulating the timely expression of meiotic genes embedded in facultative heterochromatic loci.
Circular RNAs regulate a variety of biological processes. Now an unexpected pathway is revealed in which a translated circular RNA derived from E-cadherin pre-mRNA activates EGFR signalling in glioblastoma cancer stem cells and acts as a ligand for the EGFR mutant EGFRVIII, a common oncogenic variant.
Anorexia commonly develops in patients with advanced cancer and is closely associated with cachexia. A new study shows that anorexia emerges earlier than cachexia in both Drosophila and mouse tumour models and that tumour-derived humoral factors induce anorexia by systemically dysregulating neuropeptides in the brain.
Karoutas and Akhtar review the roles of the nuclear lamina in chromatin-related functions, including transcription, epigenetic regulation and chromatin architecture, and their abnormalities in diseases and ageing.
Engineered, light-inducible artificial myosin motors enable selective and direct manipulation of filopodial extensions and provide refined tools to control intracellular cargo transport in vivo.
Prostate cancer is difficult to treat because of molecular, cellular and clinical heterogeneity. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, a recent study reveals unexpected transcriptomic reprograming in immune cells and non-immune components of the tumour microenvironment, which may lead to viable therapeutic approaches against prostate cancer.
Amino acids are critical nutrients that contribute to metabolic and signalling pathways required to meet energy and biosynthetic demands in T cells. A new study now demonstrates that LCK can sense intracellular asparagine to support T cell receptor-mediated CD8+ T cell activation and effector responses to pathogens and tumours.
Assembling egg cells involves cytoplasmic and nuclear processes that together enable embryonic development. A study now defines a set of transcription factors required for cytoplasmic, but not key nuclear, processes.
Qi and colleagues review CRISPR-based epigenome engineering technologies to modulate histone and DNA modifications and to perturb DNA and RNA regulatory elements and chromatin organization.
