A new synopsis outlines the study by Brunner et al. that reveals a functional rule for N-terminal acetylation in higher eukaryotes, called the (X)PX rule, and describing a generic method that prevents this modification and thus allows the study of N-terminal acetylation in any given protein.
A collection of essays, perspectives, and reviews, produced with support from Google.org, describes how genomics can revolutionize our understanding of emerging infectious disease. The collection has contributions from nearly all the PLoS Journals; PLoS Biology offers an introductory Editorial from Jonathan Eisen and Catriona MacCallum, a Perspective from W. Florian Fricke et al. on the role of genomics in biosecurity, and Google.org's Perspective from Rajesh Gupta et al. advocating an Infectious Disease Genomics Project. You can listen to an audio interview discussion of the issues raised by this collection.
A new synopsis explains a study by Walther et al. showing that non-neuronal, peripheral serotonin deficiency causes diabetes mellitus, and identifying an intracellular role for serotonin in the regulation of insulin secretion.
Immune activation is often associated with inflammation, but inflammation's role in the expansion of antigen-specific immune responses remains unclear. This primer focuses on recent findings by Gumperz et al. that show how specific natural killer T cells are activated by inflammatory messengers, thus illuminating the cellular and molecular links between immunity and inflammation.
This synopsis discusses the Lebrand et al. study exploring how neurons, glia, and callosal axons operate as a "ménage à trois" in the development of the corpus callosum.
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