Contents
Vol 2007, Issue 376
Contents
Perspective
- Understandable Complexity
The book "An Introduction to Systems Biology" offers a look at the design principles of biological control circuits.
Editors' Choice
- Signaling the Way Home
Dendritic cells convert vitamin D3 into the active form and thereby direct T cell homing to skin.
- Caspase for Cell Movement
Caspase 11 promotes cell migration by participating in regulation of actin dynamics.
- The Calcium Sensor for Slow Afterhyperpolarization
The calcium sensor hippocalcin mediates potassium channel activation that protects neurons from hyperexcitability.
- Variation on Synaptic Potentiation
In an unusual form of plasticity, certain synapses in rat interneurons are strengthened if presynaptic activity occurs while the postsynaptic cell is at rest or hyperpolarized.
- The Heart of Metabolic Syndrome?
A mutation in a key signaling pathway causes both coronary artery disease and a metabolic syndrome, explaining why these disorders are often associated with one another.
- Atypical Antipsychotics Activate Hypothalamic AMPK
Orexigenic effects of atypical antipsychotic drugs may be mediated through blockade of the H1R and the associated activation of hypothalamic AMPK.
- Drugs, Dopamine, and Disposition
Rats that tend to abuse cocaine have lower dopamine receptor availability even before drug exposure, suggesting that this trait is preexisting and not a result of drug abuse.
- MAPK Cascade in Stomatal Specification
A mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade appears critical to maintaining the one-cell spacing of stomata in plant leaves.
- Interfering with Interferon
A kinase activated in response to viral infection unexpectedly acts directly on a transcription factor for antiviral genes.
