G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) form the largest family of membrane-protein receptors and drug targets. With over 800 different family members in humans, GPCRs regulate diverse intracellular signalling cascades in different cell types, tissues and organ systems. Whilst GPCRs sense a plethora of environmental stimuli, the appropriate cellular response is primarily triggered by binding to four major Gα protein families encoded by 16 human genes.
The key to GPCR-G protein selectivity
Integral component of the Wnt enhancesome identified
The Wnt signalling pathway is an ancient cell communication pathway that has important roles in development and cancer. Wnt signals elicit context-dependent transcriptional responses by stabilising a cytoplasmic effector called beta-catenin. This controls the embryonic development of tissues and organs in all animals, from the most primitive ones all the way to humans.
First complete 3D genome structure from individual mammalian cells
DNA in the nucleus is arranged into nucleosomes to produce an 11nm fibre which then intricately folds into high order assemblies. This nuclear organisation – the 3D arrangement of the genome within the nucleus – is critically linked to nuclear processes. Previously it has only been possible to analyse genome organisation across populations of cells.
How astrocytes control circadian time-keeping in our principal body clock
The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN) is our principal “body clock”, controlling our daily (circadian) rhythms of physiology and behaviour that adapt us to the 24-hour cycle of day and night. It ensures that numerous other local tissue clocks distributed across the body are in tune with each other and with the external light-dark cycle.
New insights into how peptides became a part of the ancient RNA world
In all present-day organisms, information encoded in DNA, the genetic material of the cell, is converted via an RNA intermediate into proteins, the molecular machines of the cell. However, evidence suggests that in a distant evolutionary past our single-celled ancestors used only RNA for both genetic information storage and metabolism. A cornerstone of this “RNA world” would have been an RNA able to replicate itself.