REVIEWS
- Rodent models in Down syndrome research: impact and future opportunities
Summary: Mouse models have boosted therapeutic options for Down syndrome, and improved models are being developed to better understand the pathophysiology of this genetic condition.
- Central and peripheral circadian clocks and their role in Alzheimer's disease
Summary: This Review summarizes how studies in Drosophila and mouse models accelerate our understanding of the links between circadian rhythm dysfunctions and age-related neurodegenerative disorders, especially Alzheimer's disease.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- The chromatin remodeling BAP complex limits tumor-promoting activity of the Hippo pathway effector Yki to prevent neoplastic transformation in Drosophila epithelia
Summary: Using a Drosophila model of epithelial transformation, the authors identify the SWI/SNF BAP complex as an element that represses Yorkie activity and cooperates with the Yorkie protein in malignant tumor formation.
- p53-independent DUX4 pathology in cell and animal models of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
Summary: DUX4 is thought to mediate cytopathology through p53. Here, DUX4 is shown to kill primary myoblasts and promote pathological phenotypes in the iDUX4[2.7] mouse model on the p53-null background, calling into question this notion.
- Activation of the Nkx2.5–Calr–p53 signaling pathway by hyperglycemia induces cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in adult zebrafish
Summary: Induction of hyperglycemia gives rise to cardiac apoptosis and dysfunction in adult zebrafish via the Nkx2.5–Calr–p53 signaling pathway, resulting in adult cardiomyopathy.
- Adipose tissue and metabolic and inflammatory responses to stroke are altered in obese mice
Summary: Obesity, a co-morbidity for stroke, affected the acute metabolic and inflammatory response to stroke, highlighting the importance of considering comorbidities in preclinical stroke research, especially when identifying biomarkers.
- Increased acetylation of microtubules rescues human tau-induced microtubule defects and neuromuscular junction abnormalities in Drosophila
Highlighted Article: Increased acetylation of microtubules by genetic and pharmacological approaches rescues human tau overexpression-induced toxicity in Drosophila muscles and neurons.
- MMP-14 overexpression correlates with the neurodegenerative process in familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy
Summary: MMP-14 overexpression correlates with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy disease and progression, as determined using mouse models and human samples. TTR gene silencing in the preclinical model decreases MMP-14 plasma levels.
- The Parkinson's disease-associated protein DJ-1 plays a positive nonmitochondrial role in endocytosis in Dictyostelium cells
Editor's choice: The Dictyostelium homologue of the Parkinson's disease-associated protein DJ-1 is located in the cytosol, and its loss causes cytopathological defects in endocytic and autophagic cell death pathways, but stimulates respiration by functionally normal mitochondrial respiratory complexes.
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Other journals from The Company of Biologists
Editor’s choice – Perturbed development of cranial neural crest cells in association with reduced sonic hedgehog signaling underlies the pathogenesis of retinoic-acid-induced cleft palate
Takashi Yamashiro and colleagues identify the critical role of the retinoic acid-Sonic hedgehog signalling pathway in cranial neural crest and palate development.
A new Resource article by Nguyen et al. describes CFIN, a novel deep learning image analysis platform to assess cardiac function in embryonic zebrafish.
Yuyu Niu and colleagues summarise the history of genome editing in non-human primates and discusses the challenges and prospects of the technology.
Have you seen our interviews with the early-career first authors of our papers? Recently, we caught up with Alexander Akerberg and Jocelyn Wessels.
Travelling Fellowship – New imaging approach unveils a bigger picture
Find out how Pamela Imperadore’s Travelling Fellowship grant from The Company of Biologists took her to Germany, where she used new imaging techniques to investigate the cellular machinery underlying octopus arm regeneration. Don’t miss the next application deadline for 2020 travel, coming up on 29 November. Where will you go?
preLights – HSP110 dependent HSP70 disaggregation machinery mediates prion-like propagation of amyloidogenic proteins in metazoa
Highlighted by Tessa Sinnige, a recent preprint from Carmen Nussbaum-Krammer and co-workers shows that Hsp110 activity protects against amorphous protein aggregation but promotes amyloid aggregation and toxicity in C. elegans models.