Membrane trafficking articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    A type of sugar transporter has been discovered that exports glucose from cells. In plants, these transporters are targeted by disease-causing microbes that divert sugar production for their own use. See Article p.527

    • Nicholas J. Talbot

  • Letter |

    The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is made up of vascular endothelial cells and was thought to have formed postnatally from astrocytes. Two independent studies demonstrate that this barrier forms during embryogenesis, with pericyte/endothelial cell interactions being critical to regulate the BBB during development. A better understanding of the relationship among pericytes, neuroendothelial cells and astrocytes in BBB function will contribute to our understanding of BBB breakdown during central nervous system injury and disease.

    • Annika Armulik
    • , Guillem Genové
    •  & Christer Betsholtz

  • Letter |

    Apoptotic cells discharge ATP and UTP, which act as 'find-me' signals for phagocytes that in turn engulf dying cells before potentially harmful cellular contents are released. These authors show that the release of ATP and UTP is exclusively by means of the plasma membrane channel pannexin 1, which is opened specifically by caspase activity.

    • Faraaz B. Chekeni
    • , Michael R. Elliott
    •  & Kodi S. Ravichandran

  • Letter |

    Cell death by apoptosis is crucial for tissue development and function, and occurs throughout life. Apoptotic cells must be cleared by phagocytic cells, but the mechanisms that regulate cell clearance in vivo remain unclear. Here, a conserved engulfment protein, ELMO1, is shown to be required for the phagocytic clearance of apoptotic germ cells by Sertoli cells in mouse testes. The findings make a compelling case for the relationship between engulfment and tissue homeostasis in vivo.

    • Michael R. Elliott
    • , Shuqiu Zheng
    •  & Kodi S. Ravichandran

  • News & Views |

    Cargo-carrying vesicles can assemble from hundreds of locations on the cell membrane, but how these sites are selected has been unclear. A small family of membrane-sculpting proteins may select the perfect location.

    • Linton M. Traub
    •  & Beverly Wendland

  • Letter |

    Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic human pathogen that secretes organelles called micronemes during infection. This is important for parasite motility, host-cell invasion and egress. It is now shown that the secretion of micronemes is dependent on the T. gondii calcium-dependent protein kinase 1. This kinase is not found in the parasite's mammalian hosts, and might represent a valid drug target.

    • Sebastian Lourido
    • , Joel Shuman
    •  & L. David Sibley

  • Article |

    Here, multivesicular body (MVB) biogenesis is reconstituted using giant unilamellar vesicles and all of the ESCRT complexes. ESCRT-0 is required for clustering of cargo proteins, whereas ESCRT-I and -II in combination deform the membrane into buds, in which cargo is confined. ESCRT-III subunits localize to the bud neck and are required for scission of the membrane to form intraluminal vesicles. These results explain how ESCRT complexes sequester cargo proteins into MVBs.

    • Thomas Wollert
    •  & James H. Hurley

  • Article |

    A new strategy is presented to accurately profile the activity of human genes in endocytosis by combining genome-wide RNAi, automated high-resolution confocal microscopy and quantitative multi-parametric image analysis. Several novel components of endocytosis and endosome trafficking were uncovered; a systems analysis further revealed that the cell regulates the number, size and concentration of cargo within endosomes.

    • Claudio Collinet
    • , Martin Stöter
    •  & Marino Zerial

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