Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 741 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2777

Authors: Mo Chen & James L. Manley

Alternative splicing of mRNA precursors provides an important means of genetic control and is a crucial step in the expression of most genes. Alternative splicing markedly affects human development, and its misregulation underlies many human diseases. Although the mechanisms of alternative splicing have been studied

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 736 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2781

Author: Rachel David

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) function in post-transcriptional gene silencing by directly inhibiting mRNA translation or by inducing mRNA deadenylation, which promotes mRNA decay. Fabian et al., in a paper published in Molecular Cell, provide new insights into the mechanism by which miRNAs promote mRNA deadenylation

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 736 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2783

Author: Kim Baumann

Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase known to initiate cytoplasmic signalling cascades that regulate various processes, including cell cycle progression, apoptosis, mitotic recombination, genetic instability and heterochromatin modifications. In Nature, Tony Kouzarides and colleagues now report an unprecedented role for JAK2

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 736 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2785

Author: Kim Baumann

This year's Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award goes to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their discoveries on nuclear reprogramming. This process instructs fully differentiated adult cells to revert to early embryonic stem (ES) cells, which, when transplanted into an egg, can restart

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 739 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2788

Author: Katharine H. Wrighton

In the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, cellular stress induces mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP). This results in the release of proteins from the mitochondrial intermembrane space that activate caspase cysteine proteases. So-called initiator caspases cleave and activate downstream caspases, which subsequently cleave other cellular substrates to

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 735 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2790

Author: Francesca Cesari

Autophagy-related protein 5 (ATG5) and ATG7 are thought to be essential for mammalian autophagy (also known as macroautophagy) — the lysosomal breakdown of organelles, proteins and other components of the cytoplasm to sustain metabolism during starvation and metabolic stress. Now, a study in Nature

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 738 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2791

Author: Mary Muers

The list of biological processes that are controlled by chromatin structure or small RNAs has expanded rapidly in recent years, and a few examples are emerging in which these two modes of regulation are connected. Research presented in three companion papers now links an RNA

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 755 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2780

Authors: Yihong Ye & Michael Rape

The modification of proteins with ubiquitin chains can change their localization, activity and/or stability. Although ubiquitylation requires the concerted action of ubiquitin-activating enzymes (E1s), ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) and ubiquitin ligases (E3s), it is the E2s that have recently emerged as key mediators of chain assembly.

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 765 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2782

Authors: Kristen J. Verhey & Jennetta W. Hammond

Kinesins are a family of molecular motors that use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to move along the surface of, or destabilize, microtubule filaments. Much progress has been made in understanding the mechanics and functions of the kinesin motors that play important parts in cell

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 804 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2784

Authors: Shahragim Tajbakhsh & Cayetano Gonzalez

Old and newly synthesized centrosomes have different microtubule nucleating abilities and they contribute to cell polarity when they migrate to opposite poles during cell division. The asymmetric localization of epigenetic marks and kinetochore proteins could lead to the differential recognition of sister chromatids and the

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 778 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2786

Authors: Miguel Vicente-Manzanares, Xuefei Ma, Robert S. Adelstein & Alan Rick Horwitz

Non-muscle myosin II (NM II) is an actin-binding protein that has actin cross-linking and contractile properties and is regulated by the phosphorylation of its light and heavy chains. The three mammalian NM II isoforms have both overlapping and unique properties. Owing to its position downstream

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 791 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2787

Authors: Takuji Yamada & Peer Bork

Despite only becoming popular at the beginning of this decade, biomolecular networks are now frameworks that facilitate many discoveries in molecular biology. The nodes of these networks are usually proteins (specifically enzymes in metabolic networks), whereas the links (or edges) are their interactions with other

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 734 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2792

Author: Katharine H. Wrighton

Mature microRNAs (miRNAs) result from the cleavage of precursor miRNAs by the miRNA-generating complex, which in humans consists of Dicer and the HIV TAR RNA-binding protein (TRBP). Some mature miRNAs promote cell growth, whereas others suppress it. Qinghua Liu and colleagues now show that the

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 737 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2793

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Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 738 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2794

Author: Kim Baumann

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — somatic and adult stem cells that are reprogrammed to a pluripotent state by the transient expression of various transcription factors — offer great promise for future regenerative therapies. Two studies, published in Cell Stem Cell, now report the

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 733 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2795

The past month was particularly exciting for molecular and cell biologists. First, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”.

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 735 (2009). doi:10.1038/nrm2789

Author: Anne-Claude Gingras

Whereas some important discoveries shine sudden and unexpected light on a research area, other seminal advances result from the contributions of several groups, and the realization of their impact comes years after the initial breakthrough. The discovery of the mRNA cap offers one example of