Cell Biology

A novel homeostatic mechanism tunes PI(4,5)P2-dependent signaling at the plasma membrane

1. Rachel C. Wills
2. Colleen P. Doyle
3. James P. Zewe
4. Jonathan Pacheco
5. Scott D. Hansen
6. Gerald R. V. Hammond

Reviewed by Review Commons

Differential translation of mRNA isoforms underlies oncogenic activation of cell cycle kinase Aurora A

1. Roberta Cacioppo
2. Hesna Begum Akman
3. Taner Tuncer
4. Ayse Elif Erson-Bensan
5. Catherine Lindon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  In this important study, the authors provide compelling evidence that the interplay between alternative polyadenylation (APA) of mRNA encoding Aurora Kinase A (AURKA) and hsa-let-7a miRNA governs AURKA protein levels. The authors show that short 3'UTR isoform of mRNA encoding AURKA is efficiently translated throughout the cell cycle, while the long 3'UTR isoform is suppressed by hsa-let-7a miRNA in a cell cycle-dependent manner. These findings delineate post-transcriptional mechanisms regulating AURKA expression that may be implicated in increase in AURKA protein that is frequently observed across a variety of cancers.

Reviewed by eLife

MTCH2 cooperates with MFN2 and lysophosphatidic acid synthesis to sustain mitochondrial fusion

1. Andres Goldman
2. Michael Mullokandov
3. Yehudit Zaltsman
4. Limor Regev
5. Smadar Levin-Zaidman
6. Atan Gross

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mechanistic insights into the role of Ca ²⁺ -stimulated AMPK in the secretion of cellulases during carbon stress

1. Anmoldeep Randhawa
2. Tulika Sinha
3. Maitreyee Das
4. Olusola A. Ogunyewo
5. Kamran Jawed
6. Syed Shams Yazdani

Reviewed by Review Commons

Global analysis of contact-dependent human-to-mouse intercellular mRNA and lncRNA transfer in cell culture

1. Sandipan Dasgupta
2. Daniella Y Dayagi
3. Gal Haimovich
4. Emanuel Wyler
5. Tsviya Olender
6. Robert H Singer
7. Markus Landthaler
8. Jeffrey E Gerst

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors show that tunneling nanotubes or TNTs are used by cells to transfer full-length mRNAs. The data show that as much as 1% of the endogenous mRNA are passed between cells by this procedure. The transferred mRNA affect the transcriptome of the acceptor cells thus highlighting the significance of this nanotube mediated trafficking of mRNA between cells. We appreciate the difficulty of this exercise. The strength of the presented evidence could be questioned based on technical limitations.

Reviewed by eLife

Probe-free optical chromatin deformation and measurement of differential mechanical properties in the nucleus

1. Benjamin Seelbinder
2. Susan Wagner
3. Manavi Jain
4. Elena Erben
5. Sergei Klykov
6. Iliya Dimitrov Stoev
7. Venkat Raghavan Krishnaswamy
8. Moritz Kreysing

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Seelbinder et al. describe a new method for perturbing chromatin in living cells by local heating. Employing this approach, the authors uncover interesting behaviors that underscore the variability in the mechanical response of subnuclear domains and structures. The study is timely, and if some conceptual and technical aspects are improved, it should be of broad interest to both the cell biophysics and cell biology communities, in particular since the method can also be applied to study mechanical relationships of subcellular compartments in other cellular and multicellular systems.

Reviewed by eLife

The ATM-E6AP-MASTL axis mediates DNA damage checkpoint recovery

1. Yanqiu Li
2. Feifei Wang
3. Xin Li
4. Ling Wang
5. Zheng Yang
6. Zhongsheng You
7. Aimin Peng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports the important finding that there appears to be a timer that monitors the repair of DNA after damage and regulates whether cells are subsequently able to enter mitosis. The authors identify proteins important for this decision and propose a mechanism supported by solid but not conclusive data. This study will be of interest to researchers in the fields of DNA damage repair and cell cycle control.

Reviewed by eLife

Altered cohesin dynamics and histone H3K9 modifications contribute to mitotic defects in the cbf11Δ lipid metabolism mutant

1. Akshay Vishwanatha
2. Jarmila Princová
3. Patrik Hohoš
4. Róbert Zach
5. Martin Převorovský

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mitotic chromosomes scale to nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio and cell size in Xenopus

1. Coral Y Zhou
2. Bastiaan Dekker
3. Ziyuan Liu
4. Hilda Cabrera
5. Joel Ryan
6. Job Dekker
7. Rebecca Heald

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study combines experiments in developing embryos and embryo extracts to investigate a fundamental relationship in biology - how the size of mitotic chromosomes scales with changes in cell size during development. By combining the unique tools available in the Xenopus system with modern genomic approaches, the authors convincingly demonstrate that mitotic chromosome scaling is mediated by differential loading of maternal chromatin remodeling factors during interphase. Although it remains unclear exactly how these factors impact chromosome size, the findings reported here will be of broad interest to the cell biology community and are likely to spawn new avenues of experimental inquiry aimed at understanding intracellular scaling relationships.

Reviewed by eLife

The carboxyl-terminal sequence of PUMA binds to both anti-apoptotic proteins and membranes

1. James M Pemberton
2. Dang Nguyen
3. Elizabeth J Osterlund
4. Wiebke Schormann
5. Justin P Pogmore
6. Nehad Hirmiz
7. Brian Leber
8. David W Andrews

Reviewed by Review Commons