Featured
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Letter |
S-Geranylgeranyl-l-glutathione is a ligand for human B cell-confinement receptor P2RY8
S-geranylgeranyl-l-glutathione (GGG) is identified as a cell signalling molecule that interacts with the receptor P2RY8 to mediate migration inhibition and growth regulation of germinal-centre B cells.
- Erick Lu
- , Finn D. Wolfreys
- & Jason G. Cyster
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Letter |
Neutrophil swarms require LTB4 and integrins at sites of cell death in vivo
Two-photon intravital imaging is used here to define the regulation of interstitial neutrophil migration at local sites of cell death upon sterile tissue injury and infection; leukotriene B4 (LTB4) is shown to act between neutrophils as a signal relay molecule that acts to enhance the radius of neutrophil recruitment within the inflamed interstitium, and also to control, in concert with integrin receptors, dense neutrophil clustering for tight wound seal formation.
- Tim Lämmermann
- , Philippe V. Afonso
- & Ronald N. Germain
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Letter |
Follicular T-helper cell recruitment governed by bystander B cells and ICOS-driven motility
ICOS ligand expression by bystander B cells is shown to induce pseudopod extension and migration of CXCR5-expressing T-helper cells into B-cell follicles, where they provide help to cognate B cells for germinal centre development.
- Heping Xu
- , Xuanying Li
- & Hai Qi
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Letter |
Controlling interneuron activity in Caenorhabditis elegans to evoke chemotactic behaviour
Optogenetic neuronal control of freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans to drive the animals up virtual ‘optical’ gradients combined with real-time tracking demonstrates that a single pair of interneurons is technically sufficient to determine such guided locomotion.
- Askin Kocabas
- , Ching-Han Shen
- & Sharad Ramanathan
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News & Views |
Adaptation by target remodelling
Bacteria direct their movement in response to certain chemicals by controlling the rotation of whip-like appendages called flagella. The sensitivity of the response can be adjusted at the signal's target, the flagellar motor. See Letter p.233
- Gerald L. Hazelbauer
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Letter |
Adaptation at the output of the chemotaxis signalling pathway
The motor driving cells during chemotaxis is very sensitive to levels of CheY-P, a signalling protein; counter-intuitively, the motor is tuned to the cells’ output of CheY-P by adjusting the number of CheY-P receptors in the motor, thereby increasing or decreasing the motor’s sensitivity to CheY-P.
- Junhua Yuan
- , Richard W. Branch
- & Howard C. Berg
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Research Highlights |
Bacteria signal to survive
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Letter |
Interdependence of behavioural variability and response to small stimuli in bacteria
In his study of Brownian motion, Einstein realized that the same random molecular movements characterizing a substance at rest should affect, for example, the drag it opposes to a particle pushed through it. This was later generalized as the fluctuation–response theorem (FRT), but whether and how it may apply to biological systems, which operate far from equilibrium, has remained an open question. Based on the unmatched fine-scale measurements possible in the study of bacterial chemotaxis, it is now revealed that the FRT does apply in this case, and ways to dissect which features in the biochemical network couple its internal states with its responses to external stimuli are suggested.
- Heungwon Park
- , William Pontius
- & Philippe Cluzel
A GPR174–CCL21 module imparts sexual dimorphism to humoral immunity