CORRESPONDENCE
- Sun proteins and Dpy19l2 forming LINC-like links are critical for spermiogenesis
Summary: In this response to Pasch et al.’s (2015) discovery that Sun4 is essential for sperm head formation, the authors highlight that like Sun4, Dpy19l2 has a likely LINK-like function and that it also plays a crucial role in spermiogenesis and male infertility.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- C. elegans flavin-containing monooxygenase-4 is essential for osmoregulation in hypotonic stress
Summary: C. elegans lacking fmo-4 fail to clear body water following hypotonic exposure resulting in rapid swelling and rupture, indicating that FMO-4 is required in the hypoosmotic stress response.
- Feliform carnivores have a distinguished constitutive innate immune response
Summary: The innate immunocompetence of six free-ranging carnivores is independent of their foraging behaviour, body mass or social organisation but reflects their phylogenetic relatedness.
- Training differentially regulates elastin level and proteolysis in skeletal and heart muscles and aorta in healthy rats
Summary: Endurance training increases elastin content in muscles but not in the aorta. The activities of enzymes responsible for ECM remodeling increase only in skeletal muscle. These changes seem to be adaptive.
- MicroRNA-204 modulates colorectal cancer cell sensitivity in response to 5-fluorouracil-based treatment by targeting high mobility group protein A2
Summary: miR-204 upregulates 5-Fu chemosensitivity via the downregulation of HMGA2 in colorectal cancer and provides significant insight into the mechanism of 5-Fu resistance in colorectal cancer patients.
- VEGF-A isoforms program differential VEGFR2 signal transduction, trafficking and proteolysis
Summary: We show that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) isoforms program differential tyrosine phosphorylation, ubiquitylation, endocytosis and proteolysis of the receptor tyrosine kinase, VEGFR2.
- Trim37-deficient mice recapitulate several features of the multi-organ disorder Mulibrey nanism
Summary: A congenic Trim37-deficient mouse model recapitulates several features of the human disorder Mulibrey nanism, and thus provides a good model to study disease pathogenesis related to TRIM37 deficiency.
- Survival of glucose phosphate isomerase null somatic cells and germ cells in adult mouse chimaeras
Summary: Some Gpi1−/− somatic cells, lacking the glycolytic enzyme GPI, survived in mouse chimaeras. Breeding experiments showed that some GPI-null oocytes and spermatozoa were viable and functional.
- Olfactory organ of Octopus vulgaris: morphology, plasticity, turnover and sensory characterization
Summary: A 3D reconstruction of the Octopus vulgaris olfactory organ, as well as the localization of PCNA and (for the first time) OMP-like proteins in cephalopod mature olfactory chemosensory neurons are described.
- CLIC1 regulates dendritic cell antigen processing and presentation by modulating phagosome acidification and proteolysis
Summary: DC phagosomes from CLIC1−/− mice display impaired acidification and in vivo and in vitro antigen processing and presentation, revealing CLIC1−/− as a potential therapeutic target in reducing the adaptive immune response in autoimmune diseases.
- Garlic exerts allelopathic effects on pepper physiology in a hydroponic co-culture system
Summary: Garlic exerts allelopathic effects on pepper physiology in a hydroponic co-culture system, with low concentrations of garlic root promoting pepper growth, but high concentrations having deleterious effects.
- Simultaneous optimisation of earwig hindwings for flight and folding
Summary: Adjustments of the wing structure in earwig hindwings enable passive wing control during flapping flight. With an expansion of the claval flexion line, the highly foldable wing can withstand deformations during flapping flight and stay unfolded.
- PRDM14 promotes RAG-dependent Notch1 driver mutations in mouse T-ALL
Summary: PRDM14 promotes an epigenetic state that facilitates RAG-dependent Notch1 driver mutations, coupling progenitor cell expansion with genomic instability to produce T-ALL with shorter latency than other NOTCH1-driven mouse models.
- Time-resolved functional analysis of acute impairment of frataxin expression in an inducible cell model of Friedreich ataxia
Summary: The use of a new mammalian cell model with inducible homozygous and heterozygous frataxin knockout allows new insights into the chronology and causes of the disease Friedreich ataxia.
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
- Functional characterisation of human synaptic genes expressed in the Drosophila brain
Summary: This report describes a resource collection of Drosophila melanogaster strains expressing human synaptic genes and methods that can be applied in order to investigate the genes' function.
This issue
Other journals from The Company of Biologists
First person interview – Mary Salcedo
Have you seen our interviews with early-career first authors of our papers? In the latest issue, first author Mary Salcedo discusses her latest Methods and Techniques paper in which a newly created method geometrically analyses 789 insect wings.
Find out how Pamela Imperadore’s Travelling Fellowship grant from The Company of Biologists took her to Germany, where she used new imaging techniques to investigate the cellular machinery underlying octopus arm regeneration. Don’t miss the next application deadline for 2020 travel, coming up on 29 November. Where will your research take you?
On the cover, David Coppola, Brent Craven and their colleagues refute a widely-debated theory of olfactory coding first suggested by the Nobel Laureate Lord Adrian over half a century ago.
Biology Open has strong credentials and publishing with us is easy and fast. BiO aims to provide rapid publication for scientifically sound observations and valid conclusions in developmental, cell, experimental and translational biology. Submit your paper here – you’ll be in good company!
Recent cell science highlights in BiO – Masamitsu Sato and colleagues show that the conserved microtubule-associated protein CLASP facilitates bundling of spindle microtubules in early mitosis.
Transfer to Biology Open
If your submission to one of our sister journals, Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology or Disease Models & Mechanisms, is unsuccessful, you can transfer your paper and any reviews directly to Biology Open. The majority of papers transferred with reviews are accepted for publication - find out more.
BiO joins the Review Commons initiative
Biology Open is pleased to be a part of the new and exciting Review Commons initiative, launched by EMBO and ASAPbio. Streamlining the publishing process, Review Commons enables high-quality peer review to take place before journal submission. Papers submitted to Review Commons will be assessed independently of any journal, focusing solely on the paper’s scientific rigor and merit.
preLights - Mammalian Y RNAs are modified at discrete guanosine residues with N-glycans
Connor Rosen discusses his selected preprint by Carolyn Bertozzi, Ryan Flynn and their co-workers on the glycosylation of small non-coding RNAs in mammalian cells.