Annual review of cell and developmental biology最新文献

Cells must tightly regulate their gene expression programs and yet rapidly respond to acute biochemical and biophysical cues within their environment. This information is transmitted to the nucleus through various signaling cascades, culminating in the activation or repression of target genes. Transcription factors (TFs) are key mediators of these signals, binding to specific regulatory elements within chromatin. While live-cell imaging has conclusively proven that TF-chromatin interactions are highly dynamic, how such transient interactions can have long-term impacts on developmental trajectories and disease progression is still largely unclear. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the dynamic nature of TF functions, starting with a historical overview of early live-cell experiments. We highlight key factors that govern TF dynamics and how TF dynamics, in turn, affect downstream transcriptional bursting. Finally, we conclude with open challenges and emerging technologies that will further our understanding of transcriptional regulation.

Recent advances in single-molecule imaging of mRNAs in fixed and living cells have enabled the lives of mRNAs to be studied with unprecedented spatial and temporal detail. These approaches have moved beyond simply being able to observe specific events and have begun to allow an understanding of how regulation is coupled between steps in the mRNA life cycle. Additionally, these methodologies are now being applied in multicellular systems and animals to provide more nuanced insights into the physiological regulation of RNA metabolism.

Intercellular signaling molecules, known as morphogens, act at a long range in developing tissues to provide spatial information and control properties such as cell fate and tissue growth. The production, transport, and removal of morphogens shape their concentration profiles in time and space. Downstream signaling cascades and gene regulatory networks within cells then convert the spatiotemporal morphogen profiles into distinct cellular responses. Current challenges are to understand the diverse molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying morphogen gradient formation, as well as the logic of downstream regulatory circuits involved in morphogen interpretation. This knowledge, combining experimental and theoretical results, is essential to understand emerging properties of morphogen-controlled systems, such as robustness and scaling.

Cell-cell communication is critical for the development and function of multicellular organisms. A crucial means by which cells communicate with one another is physical interactions between receptors on one cell and their ligands on a neighboring cell. Trans ligand:receptor interactions activate the receptor, ultimately leading to changes in the fate of the receptor-expressing cells. Such trans signaling is known to be critical for the functions of cells in the nervous and immune systems, among others. Historically, trans interactions are the primary conceptual framework for understanding cell-cell communication. However, cells often coexpress many receptors and ligands, and a subset of these has been reported to interact in cis and profoundly impact cell functions. Cis interactions likely constitute a fundamental, understudied regulatory mechanism in cell biology. Here, I discuss how cis interactions between membrane receptors and ligands regulate immune cell functions, and I also highlight outstanding questions in the field.

Our understanding of cell and developmental biology has been greatly aided by a focus on a small number of model organisms. However, we are now in an era where techniques to investigate gene function can be applied across phyla, allowing scientists to explore the diversity and flexibility of developmental mechanisms and gain a deeper understanding of life. Researchers comparing the eyeless cave-adapted Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, with its river-dwelling counterpart are revealing how the development of the eyes, pigment, brain, cranium, blood, and digestive system evolves as animals adapt to new environments. Breakthroughs in our understanding of the genetic and developmental basis of regressive and constructive trait evolution have come from A. mexicanus research. They include understanding the types of mutations that alter traits, which cellular and developmental processes they affect, and how they lead to pleiotropy. We review recent progress in the field and highlight areas for future investigations that include evolution of sex differentiation, neural crest development, and metabolic regulation of embryogenesis.

Microtubules are essential dynamic polymers composed of α/β-tubulin heterodimers. They support intracellular trafficking, cell division, cellular motility, and other essential cellular processes. In many species, both α-tubulin and β-tubulin are encoded by multiple genes with distinct expression profiles and functionality. Microtubules are further diversified through abundant posttranslational modifications, which are added and removed by a suite of enzymes to form complex, stereotyped cellular arrays. The genetic and chemical diversity of tubulin constitute a tubulin code that regulates intrinsic microtubule properties and is read by cellular effectors, such as molecular motors and microtubule-associated proteins, to provide spatial and temporal specificity to microtubules in cells. In this review, we synthesize the rapidly expanding tubulin code literature and highlight limitations and opportunities for the field. As complex microtubule arrays underlie essential physiological processes, a better understanding of how cells employ the tubulin code has important implications for human disease ranging from cancer to neurological disorders.

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) decode messenger RNA codons to peptides at the ribosome. The nuclear genome contains many tRNA genes for each amino acid and even each anticodon. Recent evidence indicates that expression of these tRNAs in neurons is regulated, and they are not functionally redundant. When specific tRNA genes are nonfunctional, this results in an imbalance between codon demand and tRNA availability. Furthermore, tRNAs are spliced, processed, and posttranscriptionally modified. Defects in these processes lead to neurological disorders. Finally, mutations in the aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) also lead to disease. Recessive mutations in several aaRSs cause syndromic disorders, while dominant mutations in a subset of aaRSs lead to peripheral neuropathy, again due to an imbalance between tRNA supply and codon demand. While it is clear that disrupting tRNA biology often leads to neurological disease, additional research is needed to understand the sensitivity of neurons to these changes.

Toll signaling plays a crucial role in pathogen defense throughout the animal kingdom. It was discovered, however, for its function in dorsoventral (DV) axis formation in Drosophila. In all other insects studied so far, but not outside the insects, Toll is also required for DV patterning. However, in insects more distantly related to Drosophila, Toll's patterning role is frequently reduced and substituted by an expanded influence of BMP signaling, the pathway implicated in DV axis formation in all major metazoan lineages. This suggests that Toll was integrated into an ancestral BMP-based patterning system at the base of the insects or during insect evolution. The observation that Toll signaling has an immune function in the extraembryonic serosa, an early differentiating tissue of most insect embryos, suggests a scenario of how Toll was co-opted from an ancestral immune function for its new role in axis formation.