Biology & Life Sciences

Editor’s Picks: Cell Biology

Published December 7, 2018 Curated Collections

Cell biologists investigate fundamental aspects of life, from the basic building blocks of the cell to how cells grow, divide and interact with each other. In conjunction with the 2018 ASCB Meeting PLOS ONE Senior Editor Nicola Stead and PLOS Biology Managing Editor Hashi Wijayatilake have collated recent papers highlighting the varied and critical research PLOS journals publish in this area.

Image Credit: pbio.1002537

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Cell Division and Regulation
Cell Motility and Migration
Protein Trafficking and Cellular Transport
Cell Biology of Neurons
Cell Energetics and Metabolism
Cell Biology Imaging & Methods
Cancer Cell Biology

Cell Division and Regulation

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10.1371/journal.pbio.2003268

PLOS Biology A map of protein dynamics during cell-cycle progression and cell-cycle exit
September 11, 2017 Sara Gookin, Mingwei Min, Harsha Phadke, Mingyu Chung, Justin Moser, Iain Miller, Dylan Carter, Sabrina L. Spencer
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10.1371/journal.pone.0204680

PLOS ONE Cyclin-dependent kinase modulates budding yeast Rad5 stability during cell cycle
September 26, 2018 Masafumi Hayashi, Kenji Keyamura, Takashi Hishida
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005099

PLOS Biology Evolution of mitotic spindle behavior during the first asymmetric embryonic division of nematodes
January 22, 2018 Aurore-Cécile Valfort, Caroline Launay, Marie Sémon, Marie Delattre
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10.1371/journal.pone.0199699

PLOS ONE CHIP E3 ligase mediates proteasomal degradation of the proliferation regulatory protein ALDH1L1 during the transition of NIH3T3 fibroblasts from G₀/G₁ to S-phase
July 6, 2018 Qasim A. Khan, Peter Pediaditakis, Yuryi Malakhau, Amin Esmaeilniakooshkghazi, Zahra Ashkavand, Valentin Sereda, Natalia I. Krupenko, Sergey A. Krupenko
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005388

PLOS Biology Centromeric signaling proteins boost G1 cyclin degradation and modulate cell size in budding yeast
August 6, 2018 Joan M. Martínez-Láinez, David F. Moreno, Eva Parisi, Josep Clotet, Martí Aldea
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10.1371/journal.pone.0192087

PLOS ONE A drift-diffusion checkpoint model predicts a highly variable and growth-factor-sensitive portion of the cell cycle G1 phase
February 12, 2018 Zack W. Jones, Vito Quaranta, Leonard A. Harris, Darren R. Tyson, Rachel Leander
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10.1371/journal.pone.0185637

PLOS ONE Cyclin D/CDK4/6 activity controls G1 length in mammalian cells
January 8, 2018 Peng Dong, Carolyn Zhang, Bao-Tran Parker, Lingchong You, Bernard Mathey-Prevot
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10.1371/journal.pgen.1007691

PLOS Genetics Amn1 governs post-mitotic cell separation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
October 1, 2018 Ou Fang, Xiaohua Hu, Lin Wang, Ning Jiang, Jixuan Yang, Bo Li, Zewei Luo
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10.1371/journal.pgen.1007029

PLOS Genetics Cdk1 phosphorylation of Esp1/Separase functions with PP2A and Slk19 to regulate pericentric Cohesin and anaphase onset
March 21, 2018 Noel Lianga, Carole Doré, Erin K. Kennedy, Elaine Yeh, Elizabeth C. Williams, Camille Marie Fortinez, Alick Wang, Kerry S. Bloom, Adam D. Rudner

Cell Motility and Migration

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10.1371/journal.pone.0203040

PLOS ONE Characterization of EGF-guided MDA-MB-231 cell chemotaxis in vitro using a physiological and highly sensitive assay system
September 13, 2018 Verena Biswenger, Nina Baumann, Johannes Jürschick, Martina Häckl, Christopher Battle, Jan Schwarz, Elias Horn, Roman Zantl
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10.1371/journal.pone.0194003

PLOS ONE Frazzled can act through distinct molecular pathways in epithelial cells to regulate motility, apical constriction, and localisation of E-Cadherin
March 8, 2018 Sofia Golenkina, Vishal Chaturvedi, Robert Saint, Michael J. Murray
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10.1371/journal.pone.0192558

PLOS ONE Estimation of actomyosin active force maintained by tropomyosin and troponin complex under vertical forces in the in vitro motility assay system
February 8, 2018 Shuya Ishii, Masataka Kawai, Shin'ichi Ishiwata, Madoka Suzuki
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10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005927

PLOS Computational Biology Inferring cell state by quantitative motility analysis reveals a dynamic state system and broken detailed balance
January 16, 2018 Jacob C. Kimmel, Amy Y. Chang, Andrew S. Brack, Wallace F. Marshall

Protein Trafficking and Cellular Transport

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10.1371/journal.pone.0206944

PLOS ONE Investigation of Ldb19/Art1 localization and function at the late Golgi
November 7, 2018 Jorge Y. Martínez-Márquez, Mara C. Duncan
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2004786

PLOS Biology Morphological changes of plasma membrane and protein assembly during clathrin-mediated endocytosis
May 3, 2018 Aiko Yoshida, Nobuaki Sakai, Yoshitsugu Uekusa, Yuka Imaoka, Yoshitsuna Itagaki, Yuki Suzuki, Shige H. Yoshimura
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10.1371/journal.pone.0196717

PLOS ONE Plasma membrane insertion of KCa2.3 (SK3) is dependent upon the SNARE proteins, syntaxin-4 and SNAP23
May 16, 2018 Claudia A. Bertuccio, Tony T. Wang, Kirk L. Hamilton, Diego J. Rodriguez-Gil, Steven B. Condliffe, Daniel C. Devor
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005599

PLOS Biology Mechanotransduction in talin through the interaction of the R8 domain with DLC1
July 20, 2018 Alexander William M. Haining, Rolle Rahikainen, Ernesto Cortes, Dariusz Lachowski, Alistair Rice, Magdalena von Essen, Vesa P. Hytönen, Armando del Río Hernández
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10.1371/journal.pone.0195005

PLOS ONE BBS1 is involved in retrograde trafficking of ciliary GPCRs in the context of the BBSome complex
March 28, 2018 Shohei Nozaki, Yohei Katoh, Takuya Kobayashi, Kazuhisa Nakayama
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2006026

PLOS Biology FusC, a member of the M16 protease family acquired by bacteria for iron piracy against plants
August 2, 2018 Rhys Grinter, Iain D. Hay, Jiangning Song, Jiawei Wang, Don Teng, Vijay Dhanesakaran, Jonathan J. Wilksch, Mark R. Davies, Dene Littler, Simone A. Beckham, Ian R. Henderson, Richard A. Strugnell, Gordon Dougan, Trevor Lithgow
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005140

PLOS Biology Surf4 (Erv29p) binds amino-terminal tripeptide motifs of soluble cargo proteins with different affinities, enabling prioritization of their exit from the endoplasmic reticulum
August 7, 2018 Ying Yin, Mekka R. Garcia, Alexander J. Novak, Allison M. Saunders, Raira S. Ank, Anna S. Nam, Larry W. Fisher
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10.1371/journal.pone.0207521

PLOS ONE Lysine at position 329 within a C-terminal dilysine motif is crucial for the ER localization of human SLC35B4
November 20, 2018 Bożena Bazan, Maciej Wiktor, Dorota Maszczak-Seneczko, Teresa Olczak, Beata Kaczmarek, Mariusz Olczak
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005377

PLOS Biology A noncanonical role for dynamin-1 in regulating early stages of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in non-neuronal cells
April 18, 2018 Saipraveen Srinivasan, Christoph J. Burckhardt, Madhura Bhave, Zhiming Chen, Ping-Hung Chen, Xinxin Wang, Gaudenz Danuser, Sandra L. Schmid
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2004411

PLOS Biology Role of the AP-5 adaptor protein complex in late endosome-to-Golgi retrieval
January 30, 2018 Jennifer Hirst, Daniel N. Itzhak, Robin Antrobus, Georg H. H. Borner, Margaret S. Robinson
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10.1371/journal.pgen.1007456

PLOS Genetics CHMP1B is a target of USP8/UBPY regulated by ubiquitin during endocytosis
June 22, 2018 Xènia Crespo-Yàñez, Carmen Aguilar-Gurrieri, Anne-Claire Jacomin, Agnès Journet, Magda Mortier, Emmanuel Taillebourg, Emmanuelle Soleilhac, Winfried Weissenhorn, Marie-Odile Fauvarque
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10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006150

PLOS Computational Biology Structural organization and energy storage in crosslinked actin assemblies
May 29, 2018 Rui Ma, Julien Berro

Cell Biology of Neurons

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10.1371/journal.pone.0206743

PLOS ONE Basal autophagy is required for promoting dendritic terminal branching in Drosophila sensory neurons
November 5, 2018 Sarah G. Clark, Lacey L. Graybeal, Shatabdi Bhattacharjee, Caroline Thomas, Surajit Bhattacharya, Daniel N. Cox
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10.1371/journal.pone.0193257

PLOS ONE PTEN suppresses axon outgrowth by down-regulating the level of detyrosinated microtubules
April 4, 2018 Christina Kath, Paloma Goni-Oliver, Rainer Müller, Carsten Schultz, Volker Haucke, Britta Eickholt, Jan Schmoranzer
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10.1371/journal.pgen.1007095

PLOS Genetics A MIG-15/JNK-1 MAP kinase cascade opposes RPM-1 signaling in synapse formation and learning
December 11, 2017 Oliver Crawley, Andrew C. Giles, Muriel Desbois, Sudhanva Kashyap, Rayna Birnbaum, Brock Grill
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10.1371/journal.pone.0193302

PLOS ONE The cellular uptake of angiogenin, an angiogenic and neurotrophic factor is through multiple pathways and largely dynamin independent
February 27, 2018 Ross Ferguson, Vasanta Subramanian
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10.1371/journal.pone.0197886

PLOS ONE Pleomorphic linkers as ubiquitous structural organizers of vesicles in axons
June 4, 2018 Nikolas Schrod, Dimitri Vanhecke, Ulrike Laugks, Valentin Stein, Yoshiyuki Fukuda, Miroslava Schaffer, Wolfgang Baumeister, Vladan Lucic

Cell Energetics and Metabolism

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10.1371/journal.pbio.2003992

PLOS Biology Mitochondria are physiologically maintained at close to 50 °C
January 25, 2018 Dominique Chrétien, Paule Bénit, Hyung-Ho Ha, Susanne Keipert, Riyad El-Khoury, Young-Tae Chang, Martin Jastroch, Howard T. Jacobs, Pierre Rustin, Malgorzata Rak
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005886

PLOS Biology Transcriptional programming of lipid and amino acid metabolism by the skeletal muscle circadian clock
August 10, 2018 Kenneth Allen Dyar, Michaël Jean Hubert, Ashfaq Ali Mir, Stefano Ciciliot, Dominik Lutter, Franziska Greulich, Fabiana Quagliarini, Maximilian Kleinert, Katrin Fischer, Thomas Oliver Eichmann, Lauren Emily Wright, Marcia Ivonne Peña Paz, Alberto Casarin, Vanessa Pertegato, Vanina Romanello, Mattia Albiero, Sara Mazzucco, Rosario Rizzuto, Leonardo Salviati, Gianni Biolo, Bert Blaauw, Stefano Schiaffino, N. Henriette Uhlenhaut

Cell Biology Imaging & Methods

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10.1371/journal.pbio.2005970

PLOS Biology CellProfiler 3.0: Next-generation image processing for biology
July 3, 2018 Claire McQuin, Allen Goodman, Vasiliy Chernyshev, Lee Kamentsky, Beth A. Cimini, Kyle W. Karhohs, Minh Doan, Liya Ding, Susanne M. Rafelski, Derek Thirstrup, Winfried Wiegraebe, Shantanu Singh, Tim Becker, Juan C. Caicedo, Anne E. Carpenter
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10.1371/journal.pone.0198330

PLOS ONE Nano-scale microfluidics to study 3D chemotaxis at the single cell level
June 7, 2018 Corina Frick, Philip Dettinger, Jörg Renkawitz, Annaïse Jauch, Christoph T. Berger, Mike Recher, Timm Schroeder, Matthias Mehling
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10.1371/journal.pbio.2004049

PLOS Biology Reporters to mark and eliminate basal or luminal epithelial cells in culture and in vivo
June 20, 2018 Olmo Sonzogni, Jennifer Haynes, Laurie A. Seifried, Yahia M. Kamel, Kai Huang, Michael D. BeGora, Faith Au Yeung, Celine Robert-Tissot, Yujing J. Heng, Xin Yuan, Gerbug M. Wulf, Ken J. Kron, Elvin Wagenblast, Mathieu Lupien, Thomas Kislinger, Gregory J. Hannon, Senthil K. Muthuswamy

Cancer Cell Biology

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10.1371/journal.pone.0199191

PLOS ONE The phosphoglycerate kinase 1 variants found in carcinoma cells display different catalytic activity and conformational stability compared to the native enzyme
July 11, 2018 Annarita Fiorillo, Maria Petrosino, Andrea Ilari, Alessandra Pasquo, Alessandra Cipollone, Maristella Maggi, Valerio Consalvi, Roberta Chiaraluce
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10.1371/journal.pone.0194183

PLOS ONE Presence of stromal cells in a bioengineered tumor microenvironment alters glioblastoma migration and response to STAT3 inhibition
March 22, 2018 R. Marisol Herrera-Perez, Sherry L. Voytik-Harbin, Jann N. Sarkaria, Karen E. Pollok, Melissa L. Fishel, Jenna L. Rickus
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10.1371/journal.pbio.3000051

PLOS Biology TRIM59 promotes breast cancer motility by suppressing p62-selective autophagic degradation of PDCD10
November 8, 2018 Peng Tan, Youqiong Ye, Lian He, Jiansheng Xie, Ji Jing, Guolin Ma, Hongming Pan, Leng Han, Weidong Han, Yubin Zhou
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10.1371/journal.pone.0195401

PLOS ONE Functional disruption of the Golgi apparatus protein ARF1 sensitizes MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells to the antitumor drugs Actinomycin D and Vinblastine through ERK and AKT signaling
April 3, 2018 Charlotte Luchsinger, Marcelo Aguilar, Patricia V. Burgos, Pamela Ehrenfeld, Gonzalo A. Mardones
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10.1371/journal.pone.0206881

PLOS ONE Differential roles of gangliosides in malignant properties of melanomas
November 21, 2018 Yuhsuke Ohmi, Mariko Kambe, Yuki Ohkawa, Kazunori Hamamura, Orie Tajima, Rika Takeuchi, Koichi Furukawa, Keiko Furukawa
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10.1371/journal.pone.0193779

PLOS ONE Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase activity promotes invasion of endocrine resistant breast cancer cells
March 28, 2018 Maitham A. Khajah, Princy M. Mathew, Yunus A. Luqmani