BMC Biology

A Bounty of Nanobodies for Cell Biology

Colin Taylor, David Prole and colleagues generated a toolkit of intrabodies fused to functional modules that allow visualization and manipulation of diverse cellular processes in live cells, including signaling dynamics, sequestration of proteins and identification of contact sites among organelles.

Tackling Waste in Publishing

We consider papers reviewed at other journals on the basis of existing referee reports, and share our reviews with other journals. Find out more about portable peer review at BMC Biology.

(Randomly) Bringing Microtubules Together

By coupling direct in vivo observation of interpolar bundle formation with modeling, Nenad Pavin, Iva Tolić and colleagues demonstrate that during the mitotic spindle assembly random rotational motion helps microtubules find each other, and that subsequent accumulation of motors drives interpolar bundle formation.

Monitoring Flux in Signalling Pathways

Christopher Brown and colleagues develop an assay that allows quantification of the signaling flux through the RAS/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways, showing that 4EBP1 is their critical regulator and a key transducer of resistance mechanisms that affect small molecule inhibition of these pathways.

The Many Roles of MOV10

Ke Zheng and colleagues examine the role of the RNA helicase MOV10 in mammalian germ cells, demonstrating its function in shaping the spermatogonial progenitor cell transcriptome through interactions with splicing factors and regulation of miRNA biogenesis.

Inferring Metabolic Dependencies in Cancer

Tomer Shlomi and colleagues develop predictive models for cancer cell line-specific dependences on hundreds of metabolic genes, identifying associations between metabolic enzymes and molecular features such as cancer lineage, oncogenic mutations, and RNA expression of neighboring enzymes.

Featured Opinion

Cell size sensing—a one-dimensional solution for a three-dimensional problem?

Ida Rishal and Mike Fainzilber

Published on: 29 April 2019

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Content type: Review
| 24 May 2019

Synthetic cell division via membrane-transforming molecular assemblies

Authors: Simon Kretschmer, Kristina A. Ganzinger, Henri G. Franquelim and Petra Schwille
Content type: Research article
| 23 May 2019

Pivoting of microtubules driven by minus-end-directed motors leads to spindle assembly

Authors: Lora Winters, Ivana Ban, Marcel Prelogović, Iana Kalinina, Nenad Pavin and Iva M. Tolić
Content type: Methodology article
| 23 May 2019

A genetically encoded toolkit of functionalized nanobodies against fluorescent proteins for visualizing and manipulating intracellular signalling

Authors: David L. Prole and Colin W. Taylor
Content type: Research article
| 22 May 2019

Monitoring flux in signalling pathways through measurements of 4EBP1-mediated eIF4F complex assembly

Authors: Yuri Frosi, Rachael Usher, Dawn Thean Gek Lian, David P. Lane and Christopher J. Brown
Content type: Research article
| 14 May 2019

Biological and RNA regulatory function of MOV10 in mammalian germ cells

Authors: Kaiqiang Fu, Suwen Tian, Huanhuan Tan, Caifeng Wang, Hanben Wang, Min Wang, Yuanyuan Wang, Zhen Chen, Yanfeng Wang, Qiuling Yue, Qiushi Xu, Shuya Zhang, Haixin Li, Jie Xie, Mingyan Lin, Mengcheng Luo…

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Research
The golden death bacillus Chryseobacterium nematophagum is a novel matrix digesting pathogen of nematodes
Antony P. Page, Mark Roberts, Marie-Anne Félix, Derek Pickard, Andrew Page and William Weir
Published on: 28 February 2019

Research
Inferring cancer dependencies on metabolic genes from large-scale genetic screens
Shoval Lagziel, Won Dong Lee and Tomer Shlomi
Published on: 30 APril 2019

Research
Ontogenetic and phylogenetic simplification during white stripe evolution in clownfishes
Pauline Salis, Natacha Roux, Olivier Soulat, David Lecchini, Vincent Laudet and Bruno Frédérich
Published on: 5 September 2018

Research
In vivo assembly and trafficking of olfactory Ionotropic Receptors
Liliane Abuin, Lucia L. Prieto-Godino, Haiyun Pan, Craig Gutierrez, Lan Huang, Rongsheng Jin and Richard Benton
Published on: 17 April 2019

Research
Derivation of adult canine intestinal organoids for translational research in gastroenterology
Lawrance Chandra, Dana C. Borcherding, Dawn Kingsbury, Todd Atherly, Yoko M. Ambrosini, Agnes Bourgois-Mochel, Wang Yuan, Michael Kimber, Yijun Qi, Qun Wang, Michael Wannemuehler, N. Matthew Ellinwood, Elizabeth Snella, Martin Martin, Melissa Skala, David Meyerholz, Mary Estes, Martin E. Fernandez-Zapico, Albert E. Jergens, Jonathan P. Mochel and Karin Allenspach
Published on: 11 April 2019

Opinion
Cell size sensing—a one-dimensional solution for a three-dimensional problem?
Ida Rishal and Mike Fainzilber
Pubished on: 29 April 2019

Comment
Open questions: CRISPR biology
Eugene V. Koonin
Published on: 24 September 2018

Comment
Open questions: How many genes do we have?
Steven L. Salzberg
Published on: 20 August 2018

Comment
Open questions: why are babies rarely born with cancer?
Michelle Monje
Published on: 1 November 2018

Review
Horizons in the evolution of aging
Thomas Flatt and Linda Partridge
Published on: 20 August 2018

Content type: Research article
| 24 September 2009

scribblemutants promote aPKC and JNK-dependent epithelial neoplasia independently of Crumbs

Authors: Gregory R Leong, Karen R Goulding, Nancy Amin, Helena E Richardson and Anthony M Brumby
Content type: Review
| 28 October 2011

Molecular dynamics simulations and drug discovery

Authors: Jacob D Durrant and J Andrew McCammon
Content type: Question and Answer
| 30 September 2011

Q&A: What is the Golgi apparatus, and why are we asking?

Authors: Sean Munro
Content type: Research article
| 23 November 2009

Mapping cortical hubs in tinnitus

Authors: Winfried Schlee, Nadia Mueller, Thomas Hartmann, Julian Keil, Isabel Lorenz and Nathan Weisz
Content type: Research article
| 12 November 2014

Reagent and laboratory contamination can critically impact sequence-based microbiome analyses

Authors: Susannah J Salter, Michael J Cox, Elena M Turek, Szymon T Calus, William O Cookson, Miriam F Moffatt, Paul Turner, Julian Parkhill, Nicholas J Loman and Alan W Walker

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Focus: Pathogens

Read the latest reviews on Pathogens across BMC flagship journals.

Zika vaccines and therapeutics: landscape analysis and challenges ahead
Annelies Wilder-Smith, Kirsten Vannice, Anna Durbin, Joachim Hombach, Stephen J. Thomas, Irani Thevarjan and Cameron P. Simmons
Published in BMC Medicine on: 6 June 2018

Q&A: What are pathogens, and what have they done to and for us?
Francois Balloux and Lucy van Dorp
Published in BMC Biology on: 19 October 2017

Developing Zika vaccines: the lessons for disease X
Alan D. T. Barrett
Published in Genome Medicine on: 26 June 2018

Genomic approaches for understanding dengue: insights from the virus, vector, and host
Shuzhen Sim and Martin L. Hibberd
Published in Genome Biology on: 2 March 2016