These short, accessible 'Highlights' summarize and contextualize must-read papers related to cell signaling. These articles add background and context to summaries of primary research. 'In brief' articles emphasize key aspects of selected articles.
 | SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION: Legless flies for wingless research
A Drosophila mutant with no legs has helped to unearth two new components in the Wingless pathway.
31 May 2002 |
 | B-cell development: Heads or tails?
Notch-RBP-J signalling appears to be required for the cell-fate decision of immature transitional B cells when developing into either follicular B cells or marginal-zone (MZ) B cells.
31 May 2002 |
 | In brief: May 2002
Developmental Biology | Complex Disease | Autoimmune Disease | Neurodegenerative Disease |
 | UBIQUITYLATION: Choosing to be single
Three reports show that ubiquitin recognition and monoubiquitylation depend on the ubiquitin-interacting motif, which is found in many groups of proteins including endocytic proteins and ubiquitin ligases.
31 May 2002 |
 | ENDOCYTOSIS: A new recycling route
Mayor and colleagues have described a new endocytic pathway that delivers GPI-anchored proteins to recycling endosomes.
31 May 2002 |
 | BEHAVIOURAL GENETICS: High anxiety
By manipulating the expression of a serotonin receptor in mice, Gross et al. have brought us one step closer to understanding the role that serotonin plays in establishing normal responses to anxiety-inducing stimuli.
31 May 2002 |
 | APOPTOSIS: Cancer cells come to a sticky end
A close relationship between cells and the underlying extracellular matrix can increase their susceptibility to death following DNA damage.
24 May 2002 |
 | AUTOIMMUNITY: Mistaken identity
Elizabeth Leadbetter and co-workers, reporting in Nature, show that autoreactive B cells can be triggered by self-antigens that look foreign to innate receptors.
24 May 2002 |
 | Innate immunity: Bacterial recognition
Together, three papers support the role of a peptidoglycan recognition protein as a possible pattern-recognition receptor for the Imd signalling pathway.
24 May 2002 |
 | CELL CYCLE: Daughter control
A new study has found that Vav3 is regulated in a cell-cycle-dependent manner and could be involved in cytokinesis regulation.
24 May 2002 |
 | RECEPTOR–LIGAND INTERACTIONS:
The MIDAS touch
Arnaout and colleagues report the crystal structure of the extracellular segment of integrin aVß3 in complex with an RGD ligand.
24 May 2002 |
 | SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY: Remember PKC?
The results of two studies indicate that PKM? has an essential role in LTP and memory maintenance, adding another degree of freedom to the molecular mechanisms that underlie synaptic plasticity.
24 May 2002 |
 | LEUKAEMIA:
Common ground
Scattered evidence has implicated the Notch family in the development of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
17 May 2002 |
 | NUCLEAR RECEPTORS:
Blocking without obstruction
THC is a small molecule that antagonizes oestrogen receptor-ß by means of a novel mechanism.
17 May 2002 |
 | CELLULAR CYTOTOXICITY:
Complex killing
Recent investigations unexpectedly show that perforin can release granzyme B independent of pore formation — which indicates a completely new model of granzyme delivery.
17 May 2002 |
 | CELL POLARITY: Building site
A new multiprotein complex has been identified that localizes to tight junctions and is therefore a strong candidate for regulating epithelial cell polarity.
17 May 2002 |
 | CELL BIOLOGY OF THE NEURON:
Liprins and outs
A recent paper by Kaufmann and her colleagues provides new clues about presynaptic assembly by showing that the protein Liprin-a controls synapse morphogenesis in Drosophila.
17 May 2002 |
 | TRP CHANNELS:
Negative regulation by PLC
David Clapham and his colleagues report of a peculiarity of TRPM7: it appears to be inactivated by hydrolysis of the substrate PIP2 by PLC.
17 May 2002 |
 | RAS ACTIVATION:
Ras dives below the surface
Contrary to previous assumptions, Ras activation is not restricted to the plasma membrane. It also occurs, via similar mechanisms, on endomembranes.
17 May 2002 |
 | BONE HOMEOSTASIS:
Control yourself!
To prevent matrix-degrading osteoclasts from getting over-zealous, bone-depositing osteoblasts keep them in check, but Taniguchi's group now reports that osteoclasts also exert a considerable amount of self-control.
10 May 2002 |
 | APOPTOSIS:
A death or death situation
A report by Jonathan Ashwell and colleagues in Nature shows how components of the TNF-RII pathway might interact to promote cell death.
10 May 2002 |
 | T-CELL DEVELOPMENT:
Trapped in adolescence
Tedder and colleagues report a surprising role for CD83 - a cell-surface molecule of unknown function that is expressed by thymic epithelial and dendritic cells - in CD4+ T-cell development.
10 May 2002 |
 | TUMOUR SUPPRESSORS:
Brain-gain
By inactivating the Rb pathway in the astrocytes of mice, Terry Van Dyke and colleagues have developed a much-needed model of the most common primary human brain tumour.
10 May 2002 |
 | TECHNOLOGY:
A super tool for RNAi
Thijn Brummelkamp and colleagues have created a new vector, pSUPER, that generates siRNAs in mammalian cells and brings about sustained gene inactivation without cytotoxicity, allowing in vitro loss-of-function phenotypes to be assayed over longer periods of time.
10 May 2002 |
 | CORTICAL DEVELOPMENT:
Ena/VASP-deficient neurons go too far
Goh et al. have presented initial data that seems to confirm Ena/VASP proteins help to determine the position of pyramidal neurons in the cortex.
10 May 2002 |
 | CELL SIGNALLING:
Legless — but still the way forward
The more complex a pathway, the more the output can be fine-tuned by incoming signals. Unfortunately, this also means that there are more opportunities for things to go wrong, as highlighted by the results of three independent studies led by He, Bienz and Basler.
3 May 2002 |
 | APOPTOSIS:
The p53 mafia
New results indicate a model in which p63 and p73 regulate the ability of p53 to bind at certain promoters after its induction in response to DNA damage.
3 May 2002 |
 | T-CELL SIGNALLING:
Mechanic required
Simoncic and colleagues have reported that the Janus-family tyrosine kinases Jak1 and Jak3 are physiological substrates for Tcptp, and that defects in cytokine signalling are to blame for the defective immune homeostasis that is seen in Tcptp-/- mice.
3 May 2002 |
 | TUMOUR SUPPRESSORS:
Hard to stomach
A knockout study has serendipitously identified a candidate tumour-suppressor gene that is inactivated in a high proportion of advanced human stomach cancers.
3 May 2002 |
 | CELL SIGNALLING:
A job for AICD
New results, published by Leissring et al., indicate that AICD has an important intracellular signalling role.
3 May 2002 |
 | OBESITY:
Exercising self-control
Why do some people find it so hard to control the amount of food they eat? One idea is that this is caused by endogenous orexigen melanin-concentrating hormone.
3 May 2002 |
