Article
Cell Biology
Alicia Llorente, Maria Teresa Blasco, Irene Espuny, Marc Guiu, Cecilia Ballare, Enrique Blanco, Adria Caballe, Anna Bellmunt, Fernando Salvador, Andrea Morales, Marc Nunez, Guillem Loren, Francesca Imbastari, Marta Fidalgo, Cristina Figueras-Puig, Patrizia Gibler, Mariona Graupera, Freddy Monteiro, Antoni Riera, Ingunn Holen, Alexandra Avgustinova, Luciano Di Croce, Roger R. Gomis
Summary: MAF amplification increases the risk of breast cancer metastasis through various mechanisms. The study found that MAF directly interacts with estrogen receptor alpha, promoting a chromatin landscape that favors metastasis. After exposure to estrogen, certain metastasis-promoting genes are activated in a MAF-dependent manner. The histone demethylase KDM1A plays a crucial role in maintaining this pro-metastatic gene expression program.
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Violette Da Cunha, Morgan Gaia, Hiroyuki Ogata, Olivier Jaillon, Tom O. Delmont, Patrick Forterre
Summary: This study reveals the presence and expression of actin-related genes in viral genomes, suggesting that viruses recruited these genes from ancient protoeukaryotic hosts and transferred them to give rise to eukaryotic actins, which could have contributed to the emergence of the modern eukaryotic cytoskeleton.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Mohammad Yaghoobi, Morteza Azizi, Amir Mokhtare, Farhad Javi, Alireza Abbaspourrad
Summary: This study reveals the mechanism by which the female reproductive tract guides and selects high-quality sperm in mammalian species using rheotaxis. A new method to evaluate sperm rheotaxis ability is introduced, which could be a potential biomarker for determining male fertility and developing microfluidic devices for fertility prediction. The findings also suggest a possible role of rheotaxis in preventing sperm with fragmented DNA from fertilization.
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Claire Harper, Anne McNamara, David G. Spiller, Jayne C. Charnock, Michael R. H. White, Julian R. E. Davis
Summary: Pituitary cells display heterogeneity in calcium activity and prolactin transcription, with a significant correlation between spontaneous calcium spikes and bursts in prolactin expression. There may be two subsets of cells within the population based on their basal calcium activity, with different transcriptional responses to stimulation. Maintaining a bimodal population phenotype may be driven by calcium activation and histone acetylation.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR ENDOCRINOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
V. B. Dugina, G. S. Shagieva, P. B. Kopnin
Summary: Cytoplasmic actin isoforms play important roles in cellular processes and their imbalances are linked to pathology. Understanding the underlying mechanisms is relevant for both basic research and clinical applications. Study of actin diversity and function in cancer may contribute to treatment strategies.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maria Zena Miranda, Zsuzsanna Lichner, Katalin Szaszi, Andras Kapus
Summary: A lesser known downstream effect of Rho family GTPases is the regulation of gene expression through the organization of the cytoskeleton. The key transcription factor MRTF plays a central role in this process, affecting various cellular functions related to cytoskeleton remodeling, contractility, and other processes. Additionally, MRTF is involved in the pathobiology of kidney disease, particularly in fibrotic processes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Brian K. Haarer, Morgan L. Pimm, Ebbing P. de Jong, David C. Amberg, Jessica L. Henty-Ridilla
Summary: Biochemical studies of human actin and its binding partners have mainly used a-actin from skeletal muscle, which is abundant and easily purified. However, there is concern that these proteins may behave differently from actin in non-muscle cells. To address this, researchers developed Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that express beta- or.-actin as their sole source of actin, allowing for the study of cytoplasmic actins. These purified beta- or.-actin isoforms polymerize and interact with various binding partners, including profilin, mDia1, fascin, and thymosin-beta 4 (T beta 4). The higher affinity of T beta 4 and profilin for beta- or.-actin compared to a-actin highlights the importance of testing actin ligands with specific isoforms.
JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Qiao Liu, Shengquan Chen, Rui Jiang, Wing Hung Wong
Summary: Recent advances in single-cell technologies have enabled large-scale profiling of chromatin accessibility at the single-cell level, but computational analysis faces challenges due to high dimensionality and sparsity of data. Researchers propose a computational tool, scDEC, based on deep generative neural networks for scATAC-seq analysis, showing superior performance in multiple datasets and experimental settings. The generative power of scDEC helps infer cell trajectory and state during differentiation, potentially revealing cell types and within-cell-type variations.
NATURE MACHINE INTELLIGENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Huy Q. Le, Matthew A. Hill, Ines Kollak, Martina Keck, Victoria Schroeder, Johannes Wirth, Wioletta Skronska-Wasek, Eva Schruf, Benjamin Strobel, Heiko Stahl, Franziska E. Herrmann, Alexandre R. Campos, Jun Li, Karsten Quast, Dagmar Knebel, Coralie Viollet, Matthew J. Thomas, David Lamb, James P. Garnett
Summary: This study identified EZH2 as a key regulator of fibrosis in injured lung epithelium, showing the molecular mechanisms of TAK1 and EZH2 phosphorylation driven by epithelial injury. The formation of a transcriptional complex after EZH2 liberation promotes aberrant epithelial repair programmes.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nikola Lukic, Trishna Saha, Stefanie Lapetina, Michal Gendler, Gilad Lehmann, Anthony J. Koleske, Hava Gil-Henn
Summary: Cell migration is crucial for tissue construction and regeneration, playing key roles in processes such as embryonic development, immune responses, and wound healing. Disruptions in cell motility can lead to pathological disorders, including chronic inflammation and cancer metastasis. Actin polymerization-mediated cell-edge protrusions initiate various cellular processes and can be assessed through a method for quantitative analysis of cell-edge protrusion dynamics.
JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Maria Osmala, Gokcen Eraslan, Harri Lahdesmaki
Summary: ChromDMM is a mixture model based on multiple chromatin features, which accurately clusters genomic regions and discovers distinctive patterns of epigenetic signals at regulatory elements. Validated with simulated data and ENCODE data, ChromDMM demonstrates higher accuracy and robustness.
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Antonina Alexandrova, Maria Lomakina
Summary: Tumor shrinkage is not the only indicator of treatment success, as cancer progression and metastasis formation play crucial roles. The plasticity of tumor cells in switching between different migration modes contributes to their ability to avoid treatment. Identifying specific markers for migratory plasticity is important for successful treatment.
FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Oncology
Huey-Miin Chen, Ana Nikolic, Divya Singhal, Marco Gallo
Summary: This review explores the relationship between cancer stem cells (CSCs) and treatment resistance in glioblastoma (GBM), as well as the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to epigenomic heterogeneity and therapy resistance. Understanding these mechanisms can provide promising applications for epigenetic treatment approaches in treating GBM.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Cierra J. Walker, Claudia Crocini, Daniel Ramirez, Anouk R. Killaars, Joseph C. Grim, Brian A. Aguado, Kyle Clark, Mary A. Allen, Robin D. Dowell, Leslie A. Leinwand, Kristi S. Anseth
Summary: Increased extracellular stiffness activates fibroblasts, leading to the transformation of transiently activated fibroblasts into myofibroblasts with condensed chromatin. The condensed chromatin structure of myofibroblasts is associated with cytoskeletal stability, and nuclear mechanosensing plays a key role in driving distinct chromatin signatures in persistently activated fibroblasts.
NATURE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jason H. Brickner
Summary: This article discusses the mechanisms by which histone modifications can be inherited and relates them to the phenomenon of epigenetic transcriptional memory. Recent studies have found that the histone H3 lysine 4 dimethylation associated with this memory plays a critical role in sustaining memory and can be stably maintained through multiple mitoses. This chromatin-mediated inheritance mechanism involves a physical interaction between an H3K4me2 reader, SET3C, and an H3K4me2 writer, Spp1(-) COMPASS. This is the first example of chromatin-mediated inheritance of a mark that promotes transcription.
ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
(2023)
