Issues

Summary: Animal communication studies often assume receiver perception is equal across individuals; we found females vary in their visual physiology and perception of male signals which could influence their mating decisions.

Summary: A morphologically accurate insect wing cross-section is compared with common cross-sections reported in the literature. It was found that misrepresenting the insect wing cross-section can result in different aerodynamics. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: This work uses a modular approach to combine five genes together to build worms that are long lived and much healthier than control animals, without a significant reduction in fertility. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: This study reveals an underlying mechanism of RBS in which ESCO2 mutation results in cohesin-dependent dysregulation of transcriptional programs that include the clinically relevant signaling molecule CX43. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: Real-time imaging showed that cell membrane disruption induced cAMP and Ca²⁺ signaling in neighboring MDCK cells. These responses were required for faster cell membrane repair in neighboring cells.

Summary: We describe here a new technique to control EphB2 signaling via light and apply this new technique to investigate EphB2's functions in synaptogenesis.

Summary: We assessed the effect of cytoskeletal inhibitors and the use of a calcium ionophore as an additional stressor on mitochondrial motility and bioenergetic function in fibroblasts and fibrosarcoma cells.

Summary: Mutation of serine-173 in the kinase domain of Chk1 increases genomic instability as it abolishes the response to DNA lesions that arise while chromosomes are being copied.

Summary: RhoGEF3 is a developmentally regulated Cdc42 GEF that contributes to cortical stability during asymmetric divisions of Sensory Organ Precursor cells in Drosophila.

Summary: Wnt signalling has been shown to be important in heart development. Here, we demonstrate that the wnt receptor fzd7 is required in mediating these Wnt signals.

Summary: The inhibiting peptide for Bax, a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family of proteins, ameliorates bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice via apoptosis suppression in epithelial cells.

Summary: Drosophila testes and mammalian seminiferous tubules are surrounded by a muscle layer. Drosophila myotubes migrate towards testes in dependence of the FGF receptor Heartless, myosin II and Cadherin-N.

Summary: This study examines the micro-scale structural characteristics of the digitigrade paw pad and analyses how these structures work together to further clarify the paw pad cushioning mechanism.

Summary: Cell-autonomous death and engulfment could play an important role in regulating tumor progression and should be taken into account when considering the behavior of pro- and anti-tumoral cells in the complex tumor environment. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: The identified differentially expressed genes in naked mole rat exposed to hypoxia may provide an important genetic resource for further analyses of mammalian tolerance to hypoxia and molecular targets for the prevention of ischemic diseases. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: Competitive pressure influences the temporal structure and complexity of vocal signals. The evolution of sexual signal complexity may be susceptible to selection for plasticity related to adjusting performance to the level of competition.

Summary: Specific biomechanical gait adaptations occur as a result of variance of stepping errors during walking. Humans optimize a novel gait pattern based on different levels of error variance.

Summary: Regulating the fine structure of cell surface carbohydrates provides a mechanism for fine tuning the formation of morphogen gradients in the embryonic mouse fore-brain.

Summary: High salinity can be a factor contributing to increased cnidarian thermal tolerance, as indicated by reduced algal endosymbiont loss and reduced photosynthetic impairment in the sea anemone Aiptasia. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: Leafcutter ants communicate via substrate vibrations. Here we show that time delays between legs are used for orientation in a foraging context and that alarm pheromones interfere by changing the social context.

Summary: Functional genomics was used to investigate trehalose synthesis genes after cold acclimation in Panagrolaimus sp. DAW1, an Antarctic nematode with the ability to survive intracellular freezing.

Summary: We developed a novel mitochondria transfer platform using a microfluidic device, and succeeded in single mitochondrion transfer between live single cells.