Volume 18 Issue 16: August 26, 2008

Next issue: September 9, 2008

Research Highlights

An upper limit for mitotic spindle length

Microtubule motor function of Costal2 in Hedgehog signaling

HIV nuclear import by transportin-SR2

Tumor induction by centrosomal defects in Drosophila

Genetic structure of European human populations

Analysis of multiple motor-based transport

Current Biology publishes papers online ahead of the print issue on a weekly basis. This week's batch includes papers on the role of scaffold proteins in graded MAPK signaling; HIV nuclear import by transportin-SR2; Fli1 in hemangioblast development; SUMO-mediated regulation of astral microtubules; an upper limit of mitotic spindle length; the influence of sound on processing of visual motion direction; mTORC1 regulation by RSK-mediated Raptor phosphorylation; cooperation of zona occludens protein with the cadherin-catenin complex; monophyletic origin for bilaterian visual systems; repression of the FT florigen by TEMPRANILLO proteins; and effects of ECM rigidity on invadopodia activity. Click here to see all papers published early online.

The Featured Article is freely available to all readers.

Membrane Localization of Scaffold Proteins Promotes Graded Signaling in the Yeast MAP Kinase Cascade
Satoe Takahashi and Peter M. Pryciak

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling adopts different input—output behaviors depending on the physiological context, including either switch-like or graded responses to increasing levels of stimulus. Here, Takahashi and Pryciak investigate the determinants of graded signaling in the yeast mating MAPK pathway and find that the scaffold protein Ste5 mediates the assembly of signaling complexes at the plasma membrane, counteracting the switch-like behavior intrinsic to the MAPK cascade and promoting graded signaling.

This piece is freely available to all readers.

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NEW! LabLinks: Systems Biology
October 3, 2008 - Boston, MA
Free Symposium Organized by Cell Press

Exciting Biologies 2008: Biology of Cognition
October 16-18, 2008, Chantilly, France
A meeting organized by Massachusetts General Hospital, Fondation Ipsen and Cell Press