Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Confocal image showing a chick primary cranial neural crest cell expressing CD63–pHluorin (green). The cell was fixed and stained for HNK-1 (red), F-actin (white) and DNA (DAPI, blue). CD63–pHluorin signal identifies exosome biogenesis taking place within neural crest cells, while overlap of HNK-1 with CD63–pHluorin reveals HNK-1 as a potential neural crest cell exosome marker. See article by C. M. Gustafson et al. (jcs260272).
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
CELL SCIENTISTS TO WATCH
REVIEWS
Emerging interplay of cytoskeletal architecture, cytomechanics and pluripotency
Summary: We discuss recent findings on the mechanobiology of pluripotent stem cells, highlighting distinctive cellular properties associated with pluripotency and remaining open questions.
NMR spectroscopy, excited states and relevance to problems in cell biology – transient pre-nucleation tetramerization of huntingtin and insights into Huntington's disease
Summary: New developments in NMR permit the characterization of sparsely populated states. The application of these methods is illustrated by unraveling pre-nucleation tetramerization of huntingtin.
SHORT REPORTS
Angiomotin isoform 2 promotes binding of PALS1 to KIF13B at primary cilia and regulates ciliary length and signaling
Summary: Angiomotin isoform 2 (Ap80) interacts with KIF13B and localizes at the base of primary cilia where it recruits PALS1 and regulates ciliary length and signaling.
A CDK activity buffer ensures mitotic completion
Highlighted Article: CDK activity drives the eukaryotic cell cycle. We show that CDK activity is in surplus, and cells use this surplus to ensure mitotic completion despite CDK inhibition.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Chick cranial neural crest cells release extracellular vesicles that are critical for their migration
Summary: Extracellular vesicles are well defined in cancer, but their normal functions remain less certain. As they migrate, chick neural crest cells deposit migrasomes and release exosomes that are essential for motility.
Syntaxin 7 contributes to breast cancer cell invasion by promoting invadopodia formation
Summary: Syntaxin 7 contributes to invadopodia formation and associated activity by forming multiple SNARE complexes that support the delivery of essential cargo to invadopodial sites.
MKLP2 functions in early mitosis to ensure proper chromosome congression
Summary: Inhibition of the motor protein MKLP2 results in a mitotic arrest characterized by the presence of pole-proximal chromosomes with unstable syntelic kinetochore–microtubule attachments.
HIV and FIV glycoproteins increase cellular tau pathology via cGMP-dependent kinase II activation
Highlighted Article: HIV and FIV glycoproteins significantly increase tau release and tau hyperphosphorylation in cultured mouse cortical neurons via activation of cGMP-dependent kinase II.
Dual regulation of the actin cytoskeleton by CARMIL-GAP
Highlighted Article: Dictyostelium CARMIL-GAP supports phagocytosis and chemotaxis by regulating both capping protein and Rac1.
The long non-coding RNA MEG8 induces an endothelial barrier through regulation of microRNA-370 and -494 processing
Summary: MEG8 contributes to endothelial barrier integrity by regulating expression of miRNA-370 and miRNA-494, as well as processing of these miRNAs by interacting with RNA-binding proteins CIRBP and HADHB.
Translation initiation factor eIF4G1 modulates assembly of the polypeptide exit tunnel region in yeast ribosome biogenesis
Summary: eIF4G, a eukaryotic translation initiation factor, can facilitate polypeptide exit tunnel maturation and 27S processing correctly during 60S biogenesis.
FIRST PERSON
Call for papers - Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease
We are welcoming submissions for our upcoming special issue: Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease. This issue will be coordinated by two Guest Editors: Pleasantine Mill (University of Edinburgh) and Lotte Pedersen (University of Copenhagen). Submission deadline: 1 March 2025.
Biologists @ 100 - join us in Liverpool in March 2025
We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the Spring Meetings of the BSCB and the BSDB, the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and a DMM programme on antimicrobial resistance. Find out more and register your interest to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK.
Principles and regulation of mechanosensing
Mechanics play a fundamental role in cell physiology and represent physical mechanisms which cells use to influence function from the molecular to tissue scale. In this Review, Stefano Sala and colleagues clearly define mechanosensing and mechanotransduction, illustrate various mechanosensing mechanisms and discuss methods that cells use to regulate these processes.
JCS-FocalPlane Training Grants
Early-career researchers - working in an area covered by JCS - who would like to attend a microscopy training course, please apply. Deadline dates for 2024 applications: 7 September (decision by week commencing 8 October 2024); 22 November (decision by week commencing 16 December).
HIV-1 assembly – when virology meets biophysics
Claire Lacouture and colleagues review mechanisms of assembly of the HIV-1 structural protein Gag from biophysical and biological perspectives. The researchers highlight how HIV-1 Gag hijacks host cell factors associated with cortical actin machinery to make new viral particles.