News & Comment

Repair of DNA double-strand breaks requires chromatin opening; however, the mechanisms involved were unclear. This work shows that sequential histone deamidation and acetylation modifications induce chromatin decompaction by reducing positive charge at the DNA–nucleosome interface.

A distinct population of adipose progenitor cells contributes to the accumulation of visceral white adipose tissue in middle-aged male mice.

A 2012 study discovered that RNA–binding proteins are more numerous and diverse than previously thought, many having non-canonical RNA-binding domains.

Pia Cosma recounts the development of STORM, which was the first microscopy method to break the diffraction limit of light.

Evandro De-Souza discusses an article by Dillin and Taylor that revealed the importance of neurons in organism-wide stress responses and the role of such cell-nonautonomous stress responses in ageing.

A study that helped explain how lack of sequence conservation can go hand in hand with functional conservation.

The authors of a new study characterize blebbisomes, large extracellular vesicles that contain functional mitochondria and other organelles and have significant roles in inter-cellular communication and the tumour microenvironment.

This study shows that zotatifin selectively inhibits the translation of prostate cancer oncogene transcripts by restructuring their 5′ untranslated regions. In mice, this agent reversed treatment resistance, which led to improved survival.

Carrie Bernecky describes why the first solved structure of RNA polymerase II was important for transcription researchers, structural biologists, and beyond.

Subunits of mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomes need to be targeted to their correction cellular location. A study identified a mitochondrial avoidance segment in a eukaryotic cytosolic ribosome subunit that prevents its mislocalization to mitochondria.

Synonymous mutations can promote tumorigenesis by perturbing m⁶A modification of tumour suppressor mRNAs.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Wang and Cheng (Deng Lab) describe an improved protocol for the generation of human pluripotent stem cells by chemical reprogramming based on the targeting of epigenetic obstacles.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Zhang and Owyong (Hong lab) discuss the development of a fluorescent probe that binds disordered proteins in situ and allows their enrichment and identification using a mass-spectrometry-based workflow.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Zong (Zhou lab) describes how using genetic code expansion enabled the precise incorporation of post-translational modifications such as lysine lactylation into proteins, allowing the authors to investigate their role in cellular processes.

This study uncovered how extracellular vesicles carrying gasdermin D pores propagate pyroptosis between cells, exacerbating inflammation.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Goronzy (Guttman lab) describes the development of ChIP-DIP, a high-throughput, split-pool barcoding method that enables genome-wide profiling of hundreds of regulatory proteins, transforming our ability to study the regulation of gene activity across cell types and biological contexts.

Centromeres are silenced in aged cells by the epigenetic downregulation of centromere transcription.

Intriguing findings in yeast suggested that centromeres ‘tag’ DNA as self and allow its condensation during mitosis; vice versa, if a certain DNA is condensed during mitosis, it harbours a centromere.

This study provides a framework to predict whether protein complexes assemble co- or post-translationally based solely on protein structures.

Marina Lusic recounts seminal papers that showed that nuclear pore complexes and association with the nuclear lamina can shape borders between genomic domains and gene regulation.