Mouse polycomb group gene Cbx2 promotes osteoblastic but suppresses adipogenic differentiation in postnatal long bones.

A set of key developmental genes is essential for skeletal growth from multipotent progenitor cells at weaning. Polycomb group proteins, which regulate such genes contributes to the cell lineage commitment and subsequent differentiation via epigenetic chromatin modification and remodeling. However, it is unclear which cell lineage and gene sets are targeted by polycomb proteins during skeletal growth.

Initiation of human astrovirus type 1 infection was blocked by inhibitors of phosphoinositide 3-kinase.

Background: Upon initial contact with a virus, host cells activate a series of cellular signaling cascades that facilitate viral entry and viral propagation within the cell. Little is known about how the human astrovirus (HAstV) exploits signaling cascades to establish an infection in host cells. Recent studies showed that activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) is important for HAstV infection, though the involvement of other signaling cascades remains unclear.