Issues

Summary: Curiosity-driven research using simple organisms has and will continue to lead to fundamental discoveries about biology that are directly applicable to improving the human condition.

Summary: Mutations in the Q_b-SNARE GOSR2 cause progressive myoclonus epilepsies. The authors report the effect of two mutations on SNARE function to investigate their correlation with progression and severity of disease.

Summary: Chronic psychosocial stress is a known risk factor for many somatic disorders. The authors demonstrate that chronic psychosocial stress negatively affects endochondral ossification in the growth plate, as well as long-bone growth. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: Human dermal fibroblasts can be reprogrammed efficiently to adipocyte-like cells that have utility for modelling some aspects of human monogenic metabolic disease.

Summary: Consistent with the symptoms of humans with SBA, chickens with SBA-like features exhibit lower-limb paralysis within two weeks after hatching, which appeared to coincide with synaptic change-induced disruption of spinal motor networks.

Summary: Laser Doppler monitoring in combination with diffusion-weighted imaging and magnetic resonance angiography represents a reliable inclusion protocol during ischaemic surgery for the analysis of protective drugs in the acute phase of stroke.

Summary: As shown by evaluating the levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in mecp2-null zebrafish, Mecp2 is required for tnfa expression during zebrafish development and inflammation.

Summary: The insulin signaling inhibitor tribbles 3 (TRIB3) variant associated with Type II diabetes has parallel effects in a fly model system on Tribbles-regulated insulin signaling, growth and Akt activation.

Summary: We introduce a novel C. elegans model for Machado–Joseph disease for use in preclinical drug discovery and identified guanabenz as a potent neuroprotective molecule.

Summary: We demonstrate that the Lyplal1 gene is dispensable in mice, with important implications for interpretation of GWAS results linking Lyplal1 to metabolism and fat distribution. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: In mice with a humanized brain and immune system, systemic infection led to human-specific transcriptional induction of glial interferon antiviral innate immune pathways and alteration of neuronal progenitor differentiation and myelination.

Editor’s Choice: Chimeras between embryonic kidney cells and renal carcinoma cells serve as a novel model to assay the roles of co-regulated genes in kidney development and renal carcinogenesis.

Summary: Analyses of Nik^–/– mice and human gene expression data reveal a new pathway involved in the development of eosinophilic esophagitis in human patients and mouse models of the disease. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper as part of the supplementary information.

Summary: Early VGLUT1-specific parallel fiber synaptic deficits and dysregulated cerebellar circuit might be potential mediators of cerebellar dysfunction and ataxia in the KIKO mouse model of Friedreich ataxia.