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Cancer cells can recycle mitochondrial components through a pathway that does not require autophagosomes.

Monitoring of environmental polyamines controls the dispersal of Vibrio cholerae biofilms.

SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a prevents autophagosome-lysosome fusion.

ATDC promotes pancreatic cancer progression and chemoresistance by disrupting KEAP1-mediated ubiquitylation of NRF2.

DDIT4 and IFRD1 trigger the inhibition and reactivation of MTORC1 during regenerative repair.

Commensal-derived d -lactate promotes pathogen capture and clearance by Kupffer cells in the liver.

Toxin-stimulated immune signaling helps neonatal mice distinguish between harmless skin colonizers and potential pathogens.

Chronic inflammation causes olfactory stem cells to become quiescent and secrete immunomodulatory cytokines.

The molecules that bacteria use to coordinate virulence-promoting collective behaviors also activate mast cells.

The LCCL domain of cochlin protects hearing by sequestering bacterial pathogens and stimulating innate immune responses.

Lysosomal signaling enables stem cell differentiation by sequestering the transcription factor Tfe3 in the cytoplasm.

Bone Biology Heterotopic ossification (HO) is the formation of ectopic bone in soft tissues at sites of injury-induced inflammation. Working in mice, Mundy et al. found that inflammatory cells and skeletal progenitor cells initially recruited to sites of HO formation expressed the gene Inhba , which encodes the TGF-β superfamily member activin A. Treating mice with an activin A–neutralizing antibody inhibited HO formation. These results suggest that interfering with activin A signaling may be effective in patients with HO. Sci. Signal. 14 , eabd0536 (2021).

Host and Microbe The gut microbiome plays an important role in the gut-brain axis, a system of bidirectional communication between the central and enteric nervous systems. Zhang et al. analyzed the presence and abundance of brain peptides—the peptidome—along with the gut microbiomes of mice fed two different species of probiotics. Probiotic treatment altered the abundances of many neuropeptides in a manner that correlated with changes in the composition of the gut microbiome, varied by brain region, an d depended on the probiotic species, whether the probiotic was live or heat-killed, and the duration of treatment. Sci. Signal. 13 , eabb0443 (2020).

Bacterial Signaling Salmonella enterica commonly causes gastroenteritis, b ut it can also disseminate from the gut to cause invasive infections. Carabajal et al. found that Salmonella modified its virulence gene expression program in response to long-chain unsaturated fatty acids such as those found in the gut and in bile. Oral administration of conjugated linoleic acid enhanced both gut colonization and dissemination of Salmonella to the spleen. Long-chain unsaturated fatty acids thus fine-tune the fate of Salmonella during infection. Sci. Signal. 13 , eaaz3334 (2020).

Cell Biology Adherent cells position their spindle poles parallel to the plane of the substrate and orient the spindle within that plane according to cell shape–dependent mechanical forces. Anastasiou et al. found that proper spindle positioning in cultured cells was supported by integrin-mediated cell–extracellular matrix adhesion. Adhesion-dependent integrin activation was not required to position spindles parallel to the substrate plane, but force-dependent integrin activation was required to orient spindles in response to mechanical cues generated by adhesion topology. Sci. Signal. 13 , eaax9940 (2020).

Reproductive Biology The embryo-surrounding amnion remodels through epithelial-tomesenchymal transition (EMT) and the reverse process, termed MET. Richardson et al. found that in amnions from mice and human term births, EMT was greater after labor compared with before the onset of labor. Oxidative stress and the inflammatory cytokine transforming growth factor–β, which are increased at the end of pregnancy, promoted EMT, whereas the pregnancy maintenance hormone progesterone promoted MET. These data suggest that oxidative stress and inflammatory factors accumulate at parturition to trigger EMT and amnion weakening and rupture. Sci. Signal. 13 , eaay1486 (2020).

A cell wall component of mycobacteria stimulates vascularization of granulomas.

A Helicobacter pylori exotoxin manipulates host cell metabolism by inducing amino acid starvation and inhibiting mTORC1 signaling.

The response to bacterial infection alters the circadian rhythm of Arabidopsis thaliana .

Antibiotic treatment alters host cell metabolism in a manner that affects both the efficacy of the drug and the immune response to infection.

This week’s articles highlight proteostasis in the germ line, tumor cell survival in high-oxygen environments, and gut symbiont metabolites that affect intestinal physiology and systemic immunity.

This week’s articles highlight structural insights into peptide loading of MHC; the mechanism by which light opens a channel protein; and how regulation of a host metabolic enzyme affects viral replication.

This week’s articles highlight interactions between astrocytes and neurons that influence both cell types’ form and function; a genetic basis for individual variation in aging; and the mechanism by which an E3 ubiquitin ligase adaptor affects synaptic transmission.

This week’s papers address the involvement of TGF-β signaling in the differentiation of T H 17 cells, a checkpoint that restrains the antitumor and antivirus activities of natural killer cells, and a mechanism for erasing a parental epigenetic memory in plant embryos.

Secreted phospholipase A 2 protects against helminth infection by damaging parasite larvae.

This week’s articles highlight inflammatory memory in epithelial stem cells; ubiquitin-specific protease inhibitors that target cancer cells; the identification of a sphingosine 1-phosphate exporter; and G protein signaling hotspots on the plasma membrane.

The articles highlighted this week focus on signaling events that control appetite and weight; the effects of Hippo signaling on cell function during cardiac repair; a mechanism that drives cancer drug addiction; inactivation of a kinase complex by structural rearrangement; and the mechanism by which a noncoding viral RNA inhibits host cell apoptosis.

This week’s articles highlight the role of vitamin C in hematopoietic cells; a source of maternal inflammation that contributes to neurodevelopmental defects; the blocking of a niche factor that promotes the growth of gliomas; and a protein that influences DNA repair pathway choice.

This week’s articles highlight the role of AMPA receptor diffusion in long-term potentiation; a mutation in an embryonic cell lineage that leads to adult neurodegeneration; the structural basis of cGAS activation; a posttranslational modification of the melanocortin-1 receptor that protects against melanoma; and factors from maternal cells that determine whether daughter cells will proliferate.

This week’s articles identify a mutation in the acetylcholine receptor that protects poison frogs from the neurotoxin that they produce; explain a key difference between neurons from Parkinson’s patients and those from mouse models of the disease; and review the intermolecular interactions that drive the formation of membraneless intracellular compartments.

This week’s articles highlight the immune response to intestinal helminth parasites and an mRNA modification that determines cell fate.

This week’s articles describe an alternative mechanism of secretion that is deployed by intestinal cells in the presence of pathogens; how the immune system protects the lungs from inhaled fungal spores; and metabolic reprogramming of tissue-resident antigen-presenting cells in the lung.

This week’s article is a review that highlights how epigenetic factors may make cells more or less susceptible to oncogenic transformation.

This week’s articles highlight a newly discovered DNA repair system and the role of an inherited repressive epigenetic mark in fly embryonic development.

This week’s articles describe mechanisms that control the proliferation of cardiac cells during injury repair, personalized vaccines for treating cancer, and a mechanism by which malaria parasites sense host nutrients.

This week’s article offers a possible explanation for how Zika virus causes microcephaly.

This week’s articles address the release of volatile organic compounds from plant cells, a gene regulatory network that ensures proper neural patterning despite variability in morphogen gradients, and a role for adenosine signaling in the plasticity of an auditory circuit.

This week’s articles highlight a mechanism by which melanoma cells prepare the metastatic niche, intestinal defense against rotavirus, and immune tolerance in the human fetus.

Muscles in the mouse iris are intrinsically sensitive to light.

This week’s articles address the biochemistry of PKA activation, neuronal signaling that controls whether worms are awake or asleep, and how gut microbial metabolism modifies the effects of nutrients, drugs, and toxins on the host.

This week’s articles describe engineered exosomes for treating pancreatic cancer, the role of the endoplasmic reticulum in cancer cell apoptosis, the priming of brown fat for cold-induced thermogenesis, synapse loss in a mouse model of lupus, and communication between cells of different lineages during liver development.

Innate immune signaling feeds forward to control the rate at which macrophages phagocytose bacteria.

This week’s articles highlight a compound that may be useful for treating cryptosporidiosis and a kinase complex that links cell division to cellular metabolism.

This week’s articles explore the structural basis for nitrate sensing in bacteria, the importance of attenuating healing responses to reduce fibrosis and allergy, and the recruitment of chromatin silencing factors in X chromosome inactivation.

Extracellular processing of ATP in the fish olfactory epithelium produces adenosine that is perceived by olfactory neurons.

This week’s article is about a lipid that stimulates or inhibits mTORC1 signaling depending on where in the cell the lipid is made.

This week’s articles highlight new research that identifies a microRNA decay pathway that promotes cell cycle progression; an interactive atlas of the subcellular localization of thousands of human proteins, which may help refine signaling networks; and a review of symbiotic plant-microbe interactions.

This week’s articles highlight plant growth responses to nutrients; axonal pathfinding; an unexpected source of tumor niche cells; photosensation in the fly brain; the selectivity of GPCRs for specific G proteins; balancing mTORC signaling; and a connection between gut microbes and brain vasculature malformations.

This week’s articles identify a repulsive guidance system that controls the recruitment of T cells to germinal centers; a mechanism for controlling the transfer of nutrients from the placenta to early mouse embryos; and the subcellular location of calcium dynamics in astrocytes.