Conserved and Divergent Roles of FGF Signaling in Mouse Epiblast Stem Cells and Human Embryonic Stem Cells

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Highlights? Nanog is a direct target of Activin and SMAD2/3 but not FGF-ERK in EpiSCs ? FGF signaling inhibits neuroectodermal commitment of EpiSCs and hESCs ? FGF inhibition relieves Klf2 repression and reverts EpiSCs to an ESC-like state ? mESCs transition to an EpiSC-like state with LIF inhibition and FGF activation     

Unilateral Dampening of Bmp Activity by Nodal Generates Cardiac Left-Right Asymmetry

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Highlights? Cardiac laterality involves Nodal modulating an antimotogenic Bmp activity ? The Nodal target Hyaluronan synthase 2 unilaterally dampens Bmp signaling activity ? Nonmuscle myosin II is positively regulated by Bmp within cardiac tissue ? High levels of nonmuscle myosin II activity reduce cardiac cell motility     

Structure of the Pentameric Ligand-Gated Ion Channel GLIC Bound with Anesthetic Ketamine

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Highlights? The structure of ketamine-bound GLIC reveals an anesthetic binding site ? The study provides compelling evidence for allosteric inhibition by anesthetics ? Ketamine inhibition on GLIC is similar to competitive antagonist action on nAChRs ? Ketamine directly acts on pLGICs in addition to NMDA receptors     

Chromosome Engineering Allows the Efficient Isolation of Vertebrate Neocentromeres

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Highlights? Chromosome engineering efficiently generates neocentromeres in chicken DT40 cells ? CENP-A reproducibly occupies an ～40 kb genomic region at each neocentromere ? Nonkinetochore CENP-A appears to function as a seed for neocentromere assembly     

SIP1 Mediates Cell-Fate Decisions between Neuroectoderm and Mesendoderm in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

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Highlights? Smad-interacting protein 1 (SIP1) regulates hESC differentiation ? SIP1 upregulation promotes neuroectodermal differentiation ? SIP1 inhibits mesendodermal and endodermal differentiation ? SMAD2/3 and NANOG/OCT4/SOX2 cooperatively regulate SIP1 expression     

Dynamin 2 Potentiates Invasive Migration of Pancreatic Tumor Cells through Stabilization of the Rac1 GEF Vav1

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Highlights? Dyn2 promotes lamellipodia formation and pancreatic tumor cell migration ? Direct binding between Dyn2 and Vav1 promotes Rac1 activation and migration ? Dyn2 binding protects Vav1 from degradation by the lysosome ? Vav1 is targeted for degradation through an interaction with Hsc70     

Keeping cell identity in Arabidopsis requires PRC1 RING-finger homologs that catalyze H2A monoubiquitination

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Highlights? AtBMI1A/B proteins prevent misexpression of embryonic traits in somatic cells ? PRC2 and AtBMI1A/B proteins maintain cells in their differentiated state ? AtBMI1A/B proteins mediate H2A monoubiquitination     

Keratocyte Fragments and Cells Utilize Competing Pathways to Move in Opposite Directions in an Electric Field

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Highlights? A cell fragment is the simplest motile electric-field-sensing unit ? Keratocyte cells and fragments migrate in opposite directions in an electric field ? Competition of two signal transduction pathways underlies keratocyte galvanotaxis ? Protrusive and contractile actin networks are steered by the electric field     

Two Deubiquitylases Act on Mitofusin and Regulate Mitochondrial Fusion along Independent Pathways

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Highlights? Mitochondrial fusion is regulated by independent ubiquitylation pathways ? The deubiquitylase Ubp2 promotes fusion, whereas Ubp12 inhibits fusion events ? Self-assembly and ubiquitylation cooperatively enable mitochondrial fusion ? Yeast mitofusin is sequentially ubiquitylated     

ESCs Require PRC2 to Direct the Successful Reprogramming of Differentiated Cells toward Pluripotency

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Highlights? Mouse pluripotent cells reprogram human B cells in heterokaryons ? ESCs lacking PRC1 or PRC2 cannot successfully reprogram ? Failure of PRC1/2-deficient ESCs to reprogram is functionally dominant ? PRC1/2 play a critical role in the chromatin reorganization required for reprogramming     

Structural Characterization of a Mouse Ortholog of Human NEIL3 with a Marked Preference for Single-Stranded DNA

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Highlights? Neil3 is an Fpg/Nei DNA glycosylase of the base excision repair pathway ? Neil3 excises a broad spectrum of base lesions, with a marked preference for ssDNA ? We report a crystal structure of Neil3 DNA glycosylase ? The structure provides valuable insights into Neil3′s unusual substrate specificity     

Cap-assisted internal initiation of translation of histone H4

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Highlights? Two structural elements of histone H4 mRNA drive translation initiation ? Ribosome is tethered by an eIF4E-binding site located in the coding region ? A RNA three-way helix junction element positions ribosome on the start codon ? The m⁷G cap-binding pocket formed by the mRNA controls histone translation     

Myosin-IXA regulates collective epithelial cell migration by targeting RhoGAP activity to cell-cell junctions

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Highlights? Myosin-IXA, an actin-motor- and RhoGAP-protein, is required for collective migration ? Myosin-IXA is required for radial actin bundle assembly at nascent cell-cell contacts ? The localization of myosin-IXA to actin bundles is dependent on its motor domain ? Myosin-IXA RhoGAP domain locally inhibits Rho stabilizing nascent cell-cell contacts     

Evidence for Geomagnetic Imprinting as a Homing Mechanism in Pacific Salmon

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Highlights? Sockeye salmon use geomagnetic imprinting as a homing mechanism ? The homing route of salmon is predicted by magnetic field drift (secular variation)     

EMT and dissemination precede pancreatic tumor formation

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Highlights? Invading cells exhibit EMT in an autochthonous model of pancreatic cancer ? Mutant cells enter the circulation before cancer is found on histology ? Circulating pancreatic cells (CPCs) express cancer stem cell-associated markers ? Inflammation is necessary and sufficient for EMT, invasion, and dissemination     

Rspo3 binds syndecan 4 and induces Wnt/PCP signaling via clathrin-mediated endocytosis to promote morphogenesis

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Highlights? Discovery that Rspo3 binds syndecan 4 ? Rspo3/Sdc4 induce Wnt/PCP signaling via clathrin-mediated endocytosis ? Rspo3/PCP signaling is essential for gastrulation and cartilage morphogenesis