This week’s articles explore the structural basis for nitrate sensing in bacteria, the importance of attenuating healing responses to reduce fibrosis and allergy, and the recruitment of chromatin silencing factors in X chromosome inactivation.
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
Bacterial sensing mechanism revealed
Gushchin et al. solved crystal structures of a transmembrane sensor protein to show how sensing of nitrate occurs in bacteria.
TISSUE REPAIR
Local macrophage clean-up
Minutti et al. and Bosurgi et al. showed that the cytokine interleukin-4 is required for macrophage-mediated tissue repair and remodeling (see also Bouchery and Harris).
X INACTIVATION
Polycomb steps to inactivate X
Almeida et al. redefined how polycomb recruitment in X inactivation occurs by showing that PRC1 initiates the recruitment of PRC2 in response to Xist RNA expression.