Cell Biology

Cross-species evaluation of TANGO2 homologs, including HRG-9 and HRG-10 in Caenorhabditis elegans, challenges a proposed role in heme trafficking

1. Sarah E Sandkuhler
2. Kayla S Youngs
3. Olivia Gottipalli
4. Laura D Owlett
5. Monica B Bandora
6. Aaliya Naaz
7. Euri Kim
8. Lili Wang
9. Andrew Wojtovich
10. Vandana Gupta
11. Michael Sacher
12. Samuel J Mackenzie

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study provides solid evidence that supports TANGO2 homologs, including HRG-9 and HRG-10, can play a role in cellular bioenergetics and oxidative stress homeostasis. It also challenges the previously reported role of TANGO in heme transport and paves the way for future mechanistic studies addressing the mechanisms of how TANGO2 regulates oxidative stress homeostasis. The strengths include the use of different model systems, genetic tools, behavioral assays and efforts by the authors in using the same reagents to reproduce results of other groups.

Reviewed by eLife

THE FAM53C/DYRK1A axis regulates the G1/S transition of the cell cycle

1. Taylar Hammond
2. Jong Bin Choi
3. Miles W Membreño
4. Janos Demeter
5. Roy Ng
6. Debadrita Bhattacharya
7. Thuyen N Nguyen
8. Griffin G Hartmann
9. Caterina I Colón
10. Carine Bossard
11. Jan M Skotheim
12. Peter K Jackson
13. Anca Pasca
14. Seth M Rubin
15. Julien Sage

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study identifies the uncharacterised protein FAM53C as a novel, potential regulator of the G1/S cell cycle transition, linking its function to the DYRK1A kinase and the RB/p53 pathways. The work is valuable and of interest to the cell cycle field, leveraging a strong computational screen to identify a new candidate. The findings are solid, although confidence in the siRNA depletion phenotypes would have been higher with rescue experiments using an siRNA-resistant cDNA and more robust quantification of some immunoassay data.

  [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

Extracellular vesicle-mediated release of bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate is regulated by LRRK2 and Glucocerebrosidase activity

1. Elsa Meneses-Salas
2. Moisés Castellá
3. Marianna Arnold
4. Frank Hsieh
5. Ruben Fernández-Santiago
6. Mario Ezquerra
7. Alicia Garrido
8. María-José Martí
9. Carlos Enrich
10. Suzanne R Pfeffer
11. Kalpana Merchant
12. Albert Lu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study presents the potentially interesting idea that LRRK2 regulates cellular BMP levels and their release via extracellular vesicles, with GCase activity further modulating this process in mutant LRRK2-expressing cells. However, some of the evidence supporting these conclusions remains incomplete, and additional work is suggested under certain conditions. Overall, the study will be of interest to cell biologists working on Parkinson's disease.

Reviewed by eLife

Adaptation of endothelial cells to microenvironment topographical cues through lysyl oxidase like-2-mediated basement membrane scaffolding

1. Marion F Marchand
2. Noémie Brassard-Jollive
3. Claire Leclech
4. Jorge Barrasa-Fano
5. Yoann Atlas
6. Claudia Umana-Diaz
7. Apeksha Shapeti
8. Corinne Ardidie-Robouant
9. Tristan Piolot
10. Sabrina Martin
11. Philippe Mailly
12. Christophe Guilluy
13. Abdul I Bakarat
14. Catherine Monnot
15. Hans Van Oosterwyck
16. Stéphane Germain
17. Laurent Muller

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents important findings describing the early assembly of vascular basement membrane and how vascular cells switch from responding to cues provided by the external environment to those provided by self-assembled basement membrane. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is convincing, with state-of-the-art microscopy and several different culture conditions examined. The work will be of interest to cell biologists studying the ECM, vascular development, as well as medical scientists focused on diseases that depend on vascular growth.

Reviewed by eLife

Noncanonical amino acid incorporation enables minimally disruptive labeling of stress granule and TDP-43 proteinopathy

1. Hao Chen
2. Haocheng Wang
3. Yuning Lu
4. Peng Chen
5. Zhongfan Zheng
6. Tao Zhang
7. Jiou Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The authors' approach to use genetic code expansion to tag two ALS proteins associated with stress granules has value and should be useful in the ALS field. Parts of the work are well done, but there are concerns that the evidence is incomplete overall, and additional controls would strengthen the study.

Reviewed by eLife

Anti-resonance in developmental signaling regulates cell fate decisions

1. Samuel J Rosen
2. Olivier Witteveen
3. Naomi Baxter
4. Ryan S Lach
5. Erik Hopkins
6. Marianne Bauer
7. Maxwell Z Wilson

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work combines theoretical analysis with precise experimental perturbation to demonstrate a previously unappreciated quantitative characteristic of the Wnt signaling pathway, which is anti-resonance, or a suppression of pathway output at intermediate activation frequencies. This effect is demonstrated experimentally with compelling evidence from optogenetic stimulation in multiple cell types, alongside modeling results that corroborate the phenomenon. While the demonstration of this phenomenon has yet to be extended to fully physiological situations, its clear existence within optogenetically stimulated systems shows that it is likely a significant factor that contributes to the behavior of this central signaling pathway.

Reviewed by eLife

Persistent contacts between Climp63 and microtubules cause mitotic defects and nuclear fragmentation

1. Jelmi uit de Bos
2. Ulrike Kutay

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study reveals that mitotic release of an ER-microtubule tether is critical for normal mitotic progression. Manipulating CLIMP63 phosphorylation, the authors provide convincing evidence that persistent microtubule-ER contacts activate the spindle assembly checkpoint and, if mitosis is forced to proceed, drive severe micronucleation. While the study provides new mechanistic insights, some evidence is indirect, and additional experiments would further refine the model.

Reviewed by eLife

Intraflagellar transport-20 coiled-coil domain mediates the channelrhodopsins trafficking to the cilia in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

1. Alka Kumari
2. Suneel Kateriya

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Stress granules and protein aggregates reveal intracellular resource competition

1. Hannah E. Buchholz
2. Sean A. Martin
3. Jane E. Dorweiler
4. Derek C. Prosser
5. Emily M. Sontag
6. Anita L. Manogaran

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Chemotherapy resistance due to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is caused by abnormal lipid metabolic balance

1. Atsushi Matsumoto
2. Akihito Inoko
3. Takuya Tanaka
4. Gen-Ichi Konishi
5. Waki Hosoda
6. Takahiro Kojima
7. Koji Ohnishi
8. Junichi Ikenouchi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper presents the fundamental discovery that lipid metabolic imbalance induced by Snail, an EMT-related transcription factor, contributes to the acquisition of chemoresistance in cancer cells. The evidence, supported by a wide range of methods and adequate quantification, provides a convincing mechanistic explanation of how Snail drives ectopic expression of the cholesterol- and drug-efflux transporter ABCA1. This work, which introduces a novel therapeutic concept targeting invasive cancer, will be of broad interest to researchers in cancer biology, lipid metabolism, and cell biology.

Reviewed by eLife