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Breaking New Cell Biology Research

Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia genes converge on Golgi-to-lysosome traffic in microglia

Mutations in LRP10 cause familial Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. However, its cellular function(s) and thus the mechanisms leading to disease have remained elusive. This study defines a novel role for LRP10 in trafficking of progranulin (linked to frontotemporal dementia) from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to lysosomes and disease-causing mutations in LRP10 fail to support progranulin trafficking to lysosomes. Analysis of a new strain of LRP10 KO mice furthermore revealed that microglia are particularly sensitive to loss of LRP10. These findings are relevant to fundamental cell biology of the secretory and endolysosomal pathway and this convergence of disease genes on microglial trafficking of progranulin has implications for the neurodegenerative diseases arising from LRP10 and progranulin mutations.

Source: biorXiv
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  • A new pathway for nutrient response at lysosomes

    TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) participates in many important cellular processes innate immunity, metabolism and organelle quality control. This study identifies new functions for TBK1 at lysosomes where it is important for the ability of cells to properly respond to changes in amino acid availability. This study shows that TBK1 undergoes dynamic recruitment to lysosomes when amino acids are abundant and that this results in an activation of TBK1. It furthermore identifies Rab7 as an important target of TBK1 at lysosomes that is critical for the ability of TBK1 to activate the mechanistic target of rapamcyin complex 1 (mTORC1), a major regulator of anabolic processes. Interestingly, a TBK1 mutant that causes neurodegenerative diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia) is constitutive active at lysosomes.

    Source: The EMBO Journal
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  • Amory Prize Is Presented to Haifan Lin

    Yale President Peter Salovey hosted a celebration of stem cell biologist Haifan Lin as he received the Amory Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Source: American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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  • FLASH-PAINT enables highly-multiplexed super-resolution microscopy

    Super-resolution microscopy reveals the local distribution of proteins inside cells at the nanoscale but is in practice limited to visualizing only 2 to 3 different proteins in the same cell. FLASH-PAINT breaks this limit and empowers cell biologists to interrogate the complex spatial relationships between an essentially unlimited number of different molecules.

    Source: Cell
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  • Saving the Planet Through Biochemistry

    In her Nature Cell Biology piece, Karla Neugebauer discusses linking cell biology with climate change, highlighting her course on Biochemistry and Climate. She emphasizes the molecular basis of environmental impacts. Neugebauer urges integrating climate change into STEM curricula for a holistic understanding and inspires action from the next generation.

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  • Supersize the cell

    A breakthrough microscopy technique now enables researchers to observe previously unseen molecular processes within genetic material.

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