Cell Biology

Septins coordinate cell wall integrity and lipid metabolism in a sphingolipid-dependent process

1. Alexander Mela
2. Michelle Momany

Reviewed by Review Commons

Kinesin-4 KIF21B limits microtubule growth to allow rapid centrosome polarization in T cells

1. Peter Jan Hooikaas
2. Hugo G.J. Damstra
3. Oane J. Gros
4. Wilhelmina E. van Riel
5. Maud Martin
6. Yesper T.H. Smits
7. Jorg van Loosdregt
8. Lukas C. Kapitein
9. Florian Berger
10. Anna Akhmanova

• Curated by eLife

  Summary: This is a very interesting study addressing the question of microtubule cytoskeleton reorganization in the immunological synapse. Specifically, the work demonstrates the contribution of KIF21B for the control of the T cell microtubule (MT) network required for T cell polarization during immunological synapse formation. The authors use a variety of microscopy techniques, including expansion microscopy, controlled perturbations of the cell, and computer simulations to generate their results. The authors show that knockout of KIF21B results in longer MTs that result in an inability to polarise the MT network by a mechanism consistent with dynein motor function at the immunological synapse to capture long MTs and center the MT aster at the synapse. They use the Jurkat cell line, which is a classical model for this step in immune synapse function and fully appropriate. They show that KIF21B-GFP can rescue the knockout phenotype and then use this as a way to follow KIF12B dynamics in the Jurkat cells. KIF21B works by inducing pausing and catastrophe, thus, more MTs are shorter when present. They also rescue the defect in the KIF21B KOs with 0.5 nM vinblastine, that directly increases catastrophes, shortens the MTs and restores MT network polarization to the synapse. As a functional surrogate they investigate lysosome positioning at the synapse, which is one of the proposed functions of this cytoskeletal polarization. The use of expansion microscopy in this system is relatively new and clearly very powerful. The modelling component adds to the story and supports the sliding model proposed by Poenie and colleagues in 2006, but cannot say that there is no component of end capture and shrinkage as proposed by Hammer and colleagues more recently. Experiments and modelling are performed to a high standard and the results advance the field.

Reviewed by eLife

Competition for MCM Loading at Origins Establishes Replication Timing Patterns

1. Livio Dukaj
2. Nicholas Rhind

Reviewed by Review Commons

Trim39 regulates neuronal apoptosis by acting as a SUMO-targeted E3 ubiquitin-ligase for the transcription factor NFATc3

1. Meenakshi Basu Shrivastava
2. Barbara Mojsa
3. Stéphan Mora
4. Ian Robbins
5. Guillaume Bossis
6. Iréna Lassot
7. Solange Desagher

Reviewed by Review Commons

A polarity pathway for exocyst-dependent intracellular tube extension

1. Joshua Abrams
2. Jeremy Nance

Reviewed by Review Commons

Membrane binding controls ordered self-assembly of animal septins

1. Agata Szuba
2. Fouzia Bano
3. Gerard Castro-Linares
4. Francois Iv
5. Manos Mavrakis
6. Ralf P Richter
7. Aurélie Bertin
8. Gijsje H Koenderink

Reviewed by eLife

Osmolarity-independent electrical cues guide rapid response to injury in zebrafish epidermis

1. Andrew S. Kennard
2. Julie A. Theriot

Reviewed by eLife, preLights

EFF-1 promotes muscle fusion, paralysis and retargets infection by AFF-1-coated viruses in C. elegans

1. Anna Meledin
2. Xiaohui Li
3. Elena Matveev
4. Boaz Gildor
5. Ofer Katzir
6. Benjamin Podbilewicz

Reviewed by eLife

Cardiolipin targets a dynamin related protein to the nuclear membrane

1. Usha Pallabi Kar
2. Himani Dey
3. Abdur Rahaman

Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

Phosphatidylserine prevents the generation of a protein-free giant plasma membrane domain in yeast

1. Tetsuo Mioka
2. Guo Tian
3. Wang Shiyao
4. Takuma Tsuji
5. Takuma Kishimoto
6. Toyoshi Fujimoto
7. Kazuma Tanaka

Reviewed by eLife