PTEN inhibits AMPK to control collective migration.

Pten is one of the most frequently mutated tumour suppressor gene in cancer. PTEN is generally altered in invasive cancers such as glioblastomas, but its function in collective cell migration and invasion is not fully characterised. Herein, we report that the loss of PTEN increases cell speed during collective migration of non-tumourous cells both in vitro and in vivo.

How Daughters Tell Their Mums to Behave.

Most tissues include several cell types, which generally develop or get repaired synchronously so as to remain properly organized. In a recent Cell Stem Cell article, Ning et al. (2020) reveals how the tensile state of the skin suprabasal cells non-autonomously regulate stem cell behavior in the basal layer.

Publisher Correction: An actin-based viscoplastic lock ensures progressive body-axis elongation.

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Publisher Correction: An actin-based viscoplastic lock ensures progressive body-axis elongation.

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An actin-based viscoplastic lock ensures progressive body-axis elongation.

Body-axis elongation constitutes a key step in animal development, laying out the final form of the entire animal. It relies on the interplay between intrinsic forces generated by molecular motors, extrinsic forces exerted by adjacent cells and mechanical resistance forces due to tissue elasticity or friction. Understanding how mechanical forces influence morphogenesis at the cellular and molecular level remains a challenge.

Connexin 30 controls astroglial polarization during postnatal brain development.

Astrocytes undergo intense morphological maturation during development, changing from individual sparsely branched cells to polarized and tremendously ramified cells. Connexin 30, an astroglial gap-junction channel-forming protein expressed postnatally, regulates the extension and ramification of astroglial processes. However, the involvement of connexin 30 in astroglial polarization, which is known to control cell morphology, remains unexplored.

Adherens junction treadmilling during collective migration.

Collective cell migration is essential for both physiological and pathological processes. Adherens junctions (AJs) maintain the integrity of the migrating cell group and promote cell coordination while allowing cellular rearrangements. Here, we show that AJs undergo a continuous treadmilling along the lateral sides of adjacent leading cells.

Regulation of centrosome movements by numb and the collapsin response mediator protein during Drosophila sensory progenitor asymmetric division.

Asymmetric cell division generates cell fate diversity during development and adult life. Recent findings have demonstrated that during stem cell divisions, the movement of centrosomes is asymmetric in prophase and that such asymmetry participates in mitotic spindle orientation and cell polarization. Here, we have investigated the dynamics of centrosomes during Drosophila sensory organ precursor asymmetric divisions and find that centrosome movements are asymmetric during cytokinesis.

Phosphorylation networks regulating JNK activity in diverse genetic backgrounds.

Cellular signaling networks have evolved to enable swift and accurate responses, even in the face of genetic or environmental perturbation. Thus, genetic screens may not identify all the genes that regulate different biological processes. Moreover, although classical screening approaches have succeeded in providing parts lists of the essential components of signaling networks, they typically do not provide much insight into the hierarchical and functional relations that exist among these components.

JNK signaling controls border cell cluster integrity and collective cell migration.

Collective cell movement is a mechanism for invasion identified in many developmental events. Examples include the movement of lateral-line neurons in Zebrafish, cells in the inner blastocyst, and metastasis of epithelial tumors [1]. One key model to study collective migration is the movement of border cell clusters in Drosophila.