This week’s articles describe how cellular metabolism contributes to the development of lymphatic vessels, a proinflammatory cytokine that acts as a neuromodulator, how mechanical force frees a growth factor from its protein cage, and the gating mechanism of a cyclic nucleotide–gated ion channel.
DEVELOPMENT
Metabolic control of lymphatic development
Wong et al. found that a rate-controlling enzyme in fatty acid β-oxidation affected epigenetic control of genes required for lymphangiogenesis.
NEUROSCIENCE
Cytokine as neuromodulator
Chen et al. report that the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 acts on neurons to affect sensory responses in Caenorhabditis elegans.
BIOCHEMISTRY
How mechanical force frees TGF-β
Dong et al. show how binding of an integrin to pro–TGF-β1 allows the growth factor to be released when mechanical force is applied through the integrin (see also Ha).
Gating mechanism explained
Li et al. solved the structure of a cyclic nucleotide–gated ion channel and offer an explanation for how intracellular cycle nucleotides—not voltage—gate these channels.
