Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: As an essential component of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex, dystroglycan is expressed in different tissues, and required for the proper development and maintenance of multiple systems and organs. The Drosophila stage 16 embryo shows high levels of dystroglycan (red) within muscle fibers (green), neurons, glia, epithelium and trachea, with levels being enriched at sites connecting muscles to tendons. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). See article by Carney et al. (dmm049862). Cover courtesy of Andriy Yatsenko and Halyna Shcherbata, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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EDITORIAL
Impactful disease research: a DMM year in review
Summary: Editor-in-Chief Liz Patton reflects on the achievements of DMM and looks to the future of the journal.
PERSPECTIVE
Parallel repair mechanisms in plants and animals
Summary: The biology underpinning wound repair in plants and animals is very different, but a search for parallels reveals several shared signals and analogous mechanisms that may offer valuable lessons across the two kingdoms.
REVIEW
Understanding and modeling nerve–cancer interactions
Summary: This Review summarizes what is known about the types of nerves in solid tumors, the experimental models used to study nerve–cancer interactions and the translational implications of these interactions.
EDITOR'S CHOICE
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Signaling through the dystrophin glycoprotein complex affects the stress-dependent transcriptome in Drosophila
Summary: The muscular dystrophy-associated dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) functions as an integral component of multiple signaling pathways and is involved in stress-dependent regulation of gene expression.
Increased cysteine metabolism in PINK1 models of Parkinson's disease
Summary: Increased cysteine metabolism in Parkinson's disease models.
String/Cdc25 phosphatase is a suppressor of Tau-associated neurodegeneration
Summary: Using a Drosophila model of tauopathy, expressing Tau2N4R, we show that Stg/Cdc25 activity promotes Tau dephosphorylation and suppresses neurodegeneration in the fly, independently of Tau aggregation status.
Modeling the effects of genetic- and diet-induced obesity on melanoma progression in zebrafish
Editor's choice: Obesity incidence is rising, resulting in increased occurrence of obesity-related cancers often occurring in a sex-specific manner. Here, we developed a zebrafish model to investigate the intersection between obesity, sex and melanoma.
Infiltrating circulating monocytes provide an important source of BMP4 at the early stage of spinal cord injury
Summary: Following a spinal cord injury, circulating monocytes highly express BMP4 and increase the infiltration of monocyte-derived macrophages, also with upregulated BMP4 expression, into the injured spinal cord.
Induction of pancreatic neoplasia in the KRAS/TP53 Oncopig
Summary: We induced and characterized pancreatic neoplasms in Oncopigs, observing similarities with human pancreatic cancer, and indicating potential use of the model in the development of diagnostics and therapeutics for pancreatic cancer.
Quantitative differentiation of benign and misfolded glaucoma-causing myocilin variants on the basis of protein thermal stability
Summary: Differentiating benign from misfolding, glaucoma-associated mutations in the myocilin olfactomedin domain has been a challenge. We show that the pathogenicity of myocilin variants can be predicted by a thermal stability cutoff of 47°C.
A kidney resident macrophage subset is a candidate biomarker for renal cystic disease in preclinical models
Summary: This study reveals that CD206+ kidney resident macrophages are directly associated with periods of rapid cyst formation and could serve as a biomarker for renal cystic disease in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease patients.
Laforin targets malin to glycogen in Lafora progressive myoclonus epilepsy
Summary: A new FLAG-malin mouse shows that E3 ubiquitin ligase malin associates with glycogen via laforin, uncovering molecular bases of unknown glycogen metabolism critical to Lafora disease and potentially common diseases.
FIRST PERSON
The Company of Biologists Workshops

For the last 15 years, our publisher, The Company of Biologists, has provided an apt environment to inspire biology and support biologists through our Workshops series. Read about the evolution of the Workshop series and revisit JEB's experience with hosting the first Global South Workshop.
A new perspective on disease research
DMM publishes perspectives – peer-reviewed articles that provide expert analysis of a topic important to the disease research community. Read our collection from authors presenting new or potentially controversial ideas or hypotheses, to help address future challenges and forge new directions.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say

We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.
Fast & Fair peer review

Our sister journal Biology Open has recently launched the next phase of their Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. To learn more about BiO’s progress and future plans, read the Editorial by Daniel Gorelick, or visit the Fast & Fair peer review page.
Interviews with Biologists @ 100 conference speakers

Explore our interviews with keynote speakers from the Biologists @ 100 conference, hosted to celebrate our publisher’s 100th anniversary, where we discuss climate change and biodiversity with Hans-Otto Pörtner and Jane Francis, health and disease with Charles Swanton and Sadaf Farooqi, and emerging technologies with Manu Prakash and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.