How to prepare and deliver a great talk.

Giving effective and interesting talks are key skills for scientists at every stage of their career. This installment of the Words of Advice series provides some insights into preparing and delivering compelling presentations, as well as alleviating pretalk nerves.

How to design an outstanding poster.

Poster sessions are an important forum for getting feedback on your results and engaging with the scientific community. In this instalment of the Words of Advice series, we provide you with a guide to designing an outstanding poster and offer tips on how to effectively communicate your results using your poster.

Writing a successful fellowship or grant application.

Writing a competitive grant application is an essential skill for any scientist who wants to embark on an independent career. This instalment of the Words of Advice series provides a comprehensive guide to preparing a successful grant or personal fellowship application.

Scientific career paths - part II.

In the second part of our Words of Advice on science careers, we bring you the perspectives of established scientists who enjoy successful, fulfilling careers in academia, the patent office and a publishing company. We also get the thoughts of a PhD student on her internship at The FEBS Journal's Editorial Office. Get inspired by these scientists and trace your own path towards a rewarding science career.

Variable repeats in the eukaryotic polyubiquitin gene ubi4 modulate proteostasis and stress survival.

Ubiquitin conjugation signals for selective protein degradation by the proteasome. In eukaryotes, ubiquitin is encoded both as a monomeric ubiquitin unit fused to a ribosomal gene and as multiple ubiquitin units in tandem. The polyubiquitin gene is a unique, highly conserved open reading frame composed solely of tandem repeats, yet it is still unclear why cells utilize this unusual gene structure.

Malaria, metabolism and mathematical models.

Understanding the dynamic behaviour of the Plasmodium falciparum metabolism during infection can help identify targets for drug development. In this Commentary, we highlight recently published studies in The FEBS Journal that cover mathematical modelling of glycolysis in P. falciparum and the identification and in vivo validation of metabolic drug targets.

Constraints and consequences of the emergence of amino acid repeats in eukaryotic proteins.

Proteins with amino acid homorepeats have the potential to be detrimental to cells and are often associated with human diseases. Why, then, are homorepeats prevalent in eukaryotic proteomes? In yeast, homorepeats are enriched in proteins that are essential and pleiotropic and that buffer environmental insults. The presence of homorepeats increases the functional versatility of proteins by mediating protein interactions and facilitating spatial organization in a repeat-dependent manner.

Avoiding common pitfalls of manuscript and figure preparation.

Accurate and clear representation of scientific data is essential for the advancement of science. In this instalment of the Words of Advice series, we feature guidelines and tips on best practices for writing manuscripts, designing experiments and preparing figures and images for publication.

Scientific career paths - part I.

In this instalment of the Words of Advice series, PhD-level scientists working in a wide range of disciplines share with us their insider's view on their roles, the steps they took to enter these professions and the attributes needed for a successful career.

How to write a scientific paper.

In the first instalment of the Words of Advice series, we feature the essentials of good manuscript writing with practical tips on how to plan, organise and write a standout scientific paper.

β-catenin signalling in dermal papilla cells leads to a hairy situation.

Dermal papilla (DP) are specialised mesenchymal cells that activate the formation of new hair follicles. In this issue of The FEBS Journal, Zhang and colleagues show that enhancing the β-catenin signalling pathway in DP cells allows faster and denser hair growth, providing a potential target for hair loss treatments and for improving hair regeneration techniques.

Large-scale analysis of tandem repeat variability in the human genome.

Tandem repeats are short DNA sequences that are repeated head-to-tail with a propensity to be variable. They constitute a significant proportion of the human genome, also occurring within coding and regulatory regions. Variation in these repeats can alter the function and/or expression of genes allowing organisms to swiftly adapt to novel environments.

Beyond junk-variable tandem repeats as facilitators of rapid evolution of regulatory and coding sequences.

Copy Number Variations (CNVs) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have been the major focus of most large-scale comparative genomics studies to date. Here, we discuss a third, largely ignored, type of genetic variation, namely changes in tandem repeat number. Historically, tandem repeats have been designated as non functional "junk" DNA, mostly as a result of their highly unstable nature.

Variable tandem repeats accelerate evolution of coding and regulatory sequences.

Genotype-to-phenotype mapping commonly focuses on two major classes of mutations: single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variation (CNV). Here, we discuss an underestimated third class of genotypic variation: changes in microsatellite and minisatellite repeats. Such tandem repeats (TRs) are ubiquitous, unstable genomic elements that have historically been designated as nonfunctional "junk DNA" and are therefore mostly ignored in comparative genomics.

Many fructosamine 3-kinase homologues in bacteria are ribulosamine/erythrulosamine 3-kinases potentially involved in protein deglycation.

The purpose of this work was to identify the function of bacterial homologues of fructosamine 3-kinase (FN3K), a mammalian enzyme responsible for the removal of fructosamines from proteins. FN3K homologues were identified in approximately 200 (i.e.

Identification of protein-ribulosamine-5-phosphatase as human low-molecular-mass protein tyrosine phosphatase-A.

Ribulosamines, which are substrates for the deglycating enzyme fructosamine-3-kinase-related protein, are presumably formed intracellularly through glycation of proteins with ribose 5-phosphate followed by dephosphorylation of resulting RN5Ps (ribulosamine 5-phosphates) by a putative RN5Pase (ribulosamine-5-phosphatase). Ribose 5-phosphate is known to be a potent glycating agent and we show in the present study that it reacts approximately 10 and 80-fold more rapidly with protein than ribose and glucose respectively. We also show that tissue extracts and, most particularly, erythrocyte extracts contain a protein-RN5Pase.

Plant ribulosamine/erythrulosamine 3-kinase, a putative protein-repair enzyme.

FN3K (fructosamine 3-kinase) is a mammalian enzyme that catalyses the phosphorylation of fructosamines, which thereby becomes unstable and detaches from proteins. The homologous mammalian enzyme, FN3K-RP (FN3K-related protein), does not phosphorylate fructosamines but ribulosamines, which are probably formed through a spontaneous reaction of amines with ribose 5-phosphate, an intermediate of the pentose-phosphate pathway and the Calvin cycle. We show in the present study that spinach leaf extracts display a substantial ribulosamine kinase activity (approx.