This article includes recent preLights posts that discuss preprints in the field of cell biology.
Featured preLight
Ancient origins of complex neuronal genes by Matthew J. McCoy, Andrew Z. Fire
Gain in gene architecture complexity drives the evolution of the nervous system. Schematic created by Preethi Krishnaraj and Chee Kiang Ewe. Created with BioRender.com
preLighter(s)
Preethi Krishnaraj, Graduate Student at Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
Chee Kiang Ewe, postdoctoral researcher at Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Why it was selected
“This thought-provoking preprint proposes the interesting theory which states that increase in absolute gene size may drive the evolution of gene structures and regulatory elements, which then contribute to the diversification of the nervous systems. The bioinformatic analyses are elegant and the paper is very well written. We very much enjoyed reading it!”
Other relevant preLight posts
Competition and Synergy of Arp2/3 and Formins in Nucleating Actin Waves by Xiang Le Chua et al.
Actin polymerization, wave after wave.
Selected by Roberto Amadio. Read the preLight.
Short N-terminal disordered regions and the proline-rich domain are major regulators of phase transitions for full-length UBQLN1, UBQLN2 and UBQLN4 by Thuy P. Dao et al.
Previously uncharacterized, the N-terminal region of ubiquilins is indispensable for distinct phase separation behavior.
Selected by Aniruddha Das. Read the preLight.
Tardigrades dramatically upregulate DNA repair pathway genes in response to ionizing radiation by Courtney M. Clark-Hachtel et al.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger: @ArthropodQueen and team characterize a novel mechanism of ionizing radiation tolerance in the tardigrade H. exemplaris.
Selected by Isabella Cisneros. Read the preLight.
PUFFFIN: A novel, ultra-bright, customisable, single-plasmid system for labelling cell neighbourhoods by Tamina Lebek et al.
PUFFFIN: Shining light on cell chat.
Selected by Jennifer Ann Black. Read the preLight.
Glutamate helps unmask the differences in driving forces for phase separation versus clustering of FET family proteins in sub-saturated solutions by Mrityunjoy Kar et al.
Kar, et al. examine the effect of different ions on the behavior of a self-associative protein to better understand organization within the cell. This work highlights the exquisite mechanisms that exist to organize the complex cellular environment.
Selected by Erich Sohn. Read the preLight.
Optical Control of G-Actin with a Photoswitchable Latrunculin by Nynke A. Vepřek et al.
Switch on, switch off. @n_vep and colleagues (@RuiyangB, @OertnerLab, @DirkTrauner) describe photoswitchable actin destabilisers activated by blue light. Preprint highlighted by @zhanghe_goh.
Selected by Zhang-He Goh. Read the preLight.
Mechano-dependent sorbitol accumulation supports biomolecular condensate by Stephanie Torrino et al.
Intriguing insight into the crosstalk between matrix stiffness and metabolism.
Selected by Teodora Piskova. Read the preLight.
CRISPR-dependent base editing screens identify separation of function mutants of RADX with altered RAD51 regulatory activity by Madison B. Adolph et al.
Cracking the functional domains of the RADX gene during replication.
Selected by Jessica Chevallier and Pierre Caron. Read the preLight.
Proteasome condensate formation is driven by multivalent interactions with shuttle factors and K48-linked ubiquitin chains by Kenrick A. Waite et al.
Shuttling factors Rad23 and Dsk2 contribute to the localization of proteasomes in condensate, a process that Ddi1 counteracts.
Selected by Aniruddha Das. Read the preLight.
Glial Draper signaling triggers cross-neuron plasticity in bystander neurons after neuronal cell death by Yupu Wang et al.
A novel form of neuronal plasticity - when a neuron is injured, their healthy neighbour takes up the slack.
Selected by Matthew Davies. Read the preLight.
