Vincenz L et al. (2014) Cell "Sugarcoating ER Stress."

Hartl FU, Vincenz L

[Cell, 2014]

The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) generates metabolites for protein N- and O-glycosylation. Wang et al. and Denzel et al. report a hitherto unknown link between the HBP and stress in the endoplasmic reticulum. These studies establish the HBP as a critical component of the cellular machinery of protein homeostasis.

Carstens RP (2014) Mol Cell "Networking in an alternative splicing world."

Carstens RP

[Mol Cell, 2014]

Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system, Norris et al. (2014) define complex combinatorial regulation of alternative splicing at single-neuron resolution and illustrate functional coherence among components of a splicing regulatory network controlled by a neuronal splicing factor.

Storelli G et al. (2013) Cell Metab "Metformin, microbes, and aging."

Storelli G, Leulier M, Tefit M

[Cell Metab, 2013]

The mechanisms underlying the biological activity of metformin, a widely prescribed drug to treat type 2 diabetes, remain elusive. In a recent issue of Cell, Cabreiro et al. report that in C. elegans, metformin indirectly impacts lifespan by altering the methionine metabolism of its microbial partner E. coli (Cabreiro et al., 2013).

Louis T et al. (2014) Cell "Neurons and behavior: ex uno, plures."

Louis T, Tomchik SM

[Cell, 2014]

Li et al. demonstrate that a single interneuron can regulate analog- and digital-like behaviors guided by two different postsynaptic neurons. Releasing a single neurotransmitter onto downstream neurons that express receptors with distinct biophysical properties enables a small set of neurons to direct a range of functional responses.

Douglas PM et al. (2014) Cell Res "The disposable soma theory of aging in reverse."

Dillin A, Douglas PM

[Cell Res, 2014]

In a recent paper in Nature, Ermolaeva et al. uncover a systemic response to DNA damage in germ cells that protects somatic tissues, providing mechanistic insight into the bidirectional communication between germ line and soma.

Lakhina V et al. (2015) Cell "For longevity, perception is everything."

Murphy CT, Lakhina V

[Cell, 2015]

Aging is a risk factor for chronic diseases, and identifying targets for intervention is a goal of the aging field. Burkewitz et al. now describe a mechanism that mediates the specific role for AMPK in longevity, whereby its activity in neurons modulates metabolism and mitochondrial integrity in peripheral tissues.

Kristan WB (2015) Cell "Pinning down randomness."

Kristan WB

[Cell, 2015]

While some behavioral responses to a stimulus are invariant in animals, most are more likely to be variable or stochastic. In this issue, Gordus et al. illuminate a set of combinatorial neuronal activities that control the variability of a chemotactic behavior in response to an odor, providing a tractable system for understanding how stochastic circuit dynamics affect behavior.

Fan W et al. (2015) Cell "Turning up the heat on membrane fluidity."

Fan W, Evans RM

[Cell, 2015]

How do cells maintain the fluidity of cellular membrane in response to temperature fluctuation? In this issue of Cell, Ma et al. identify a regulatory circuit involving a heat-induced acyl-CoA dehydrogenase that controls the lipid saturation level and the fluidity of cellular membranes by transcriptionally regulating a lipid desaturase.

Teng X et al. (2010) Cell "The apoptosome at high resolution."

Hardwick JM, Teng X

[Cell, 2010]

The mechanism by which the apoptosome activates caspases during apoptosis has been controversial. Qi et al. (2010) now present a crystal structure of a funnel-shaped octameric apoptosome complex from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that challenges currently held assumptions about the human apoptosome structure.

Coleman JJ et al. (2009) Cell Host Microbe "The tangled web of signaling in innate immunity."

Coleman JJ, Mylonakis E

[Cell Host Microbe, 2009]

Similarities in innate immune signaling exist between mammals and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Now, Ziegler et al. (2009) and Ren et al. (2009) demonstrate that a protein kinase C delta homolog in C. elegans is involved in innate immunity, providing evidence that the conservation of immune signaling networks extends further than previously thought.