Research Highlights

Short, accessible synopses of recent important articles concerning signalling pathways.

August 2009

• Cell signalling: Telomerase gets Wnt talking

  

  What do Wnt-β-catenin signalling and telomerase have in common? Both can activate quiescent epidermal stem cells in vivo. However, how telomerase does this, and whether its role in this process is linked to Wnt-β -catenin signalling, was unknown. Steven Artandi and colleagues now reveal that the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) portion of telomerase interacts with the ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling factor BRG1 (also known as SMARCA4), at specific chromatin sites in Wnt-dependent target genes, to regulate Wnt-β-catenin-mediated transcription.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10 504 - 505 doi:10.1038/nrm2739

• Cancer biology: WAVEing goodbye to invasion

  

  The WAVE complex regulates cytoskeletal dynamics by activating the Arp2/3 complex, which induces actin nucleation. WAVE-mediated actin reorganization has also been linked to cell adhesion. Gregory Hannonand colleagues now show that reduced expression of the WAVE subunit cytoplasmic FMR1 interacting protein 1 (CYFIP1) causes loss of epithelial cell adhesion and promotes tumour progression, which implicates CYFIP1 as a suppressor of invasion in epithelial cancers.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10 506 - 507 doi:10.1038/nrm2732

• Metastasis: T-ALL order

  

  Children and adolescents diagnosed with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) are often treated with cranial radiotherapy and chemotherapy injected into the cerebrospinal fluid to reduce the risk of central nervous system (CNS) relapse. Although this increases long-term survival, the side effects can be considerable. Iannis Aifantis and colleagues have identified a chemokine receptor, CCR7, as being crucial for CNS infiltration, paving the way for reducing the toxicity of treatments used to prevent CNS relapse.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Cancer 9 531 doi:10.1038/nrc2701

• Pain: A parting of ways

  

  Delta and mu opioid receptors (DORs and MORs) were widely believed to act cooperatively in the regulation of pain by endogenous or therapeutic opioids. However, Basbaum and colleagues now report that these receptors are differentially expressed and regulate different pain modalities, suggesting that we may have to reconsider existing hypotheses about their function and interactions.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10 544 - 545 doi:10.1038/nrn2688

• Neuronal plasticity: Mossy fibres WNT more contact with CA3

  

  Living in a stimulating environment has cognitive benefits for humans and animals alike, and hippocampal neurons in particular show structural plasticity in response to environmental manipulations. Gogolla et al. now show that environmental enrichment produces a net global increase in synapse densities in the hippocampus, which at mossy-fibre-CA3 synapses depends on WNT signalling.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10 546 doi:10.1038/nrn2684