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"Rogers, Gregory"
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The hero of Little Street
When a boy being chased through present-day London seeks refuge in the National Gallery, a dog escapes from the painting of one Dutch master and together they leap into the painting of another, where their adventures in seventeenth-century Delft are a prelude to returning to London and continuing the chase.
Book
Compassion Training Alters Altruism and Neural Responses to Suffering
Compassion is a key motivator of altruistic behavior, but little is known about individuals’ capacity to cultivate compassion through training. We examined whether compassion may be systematically trained by testing whether (a) short-term compassion training increases altruistic behavior and (b) individual differences in altruism are associated with training-induced changes in neural responses to suffering. In healthy adults, we found that compassion training increased altruistic redistribution of funds to a victim encountered outside of the training context. Furthermore, increased altruistic behavior after compassion training was associated with altered activation in brain regions implicated in social cognition and emotion regulation, including the inferior parietal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and in DLPFC connectivity with the nucleus accumbens. These results suggest that compassion can be cultivated with training and that greater altruistic behavior may emerge from increased engagement of neural systems implicated in understanding the suffering of other people, executive and emotional control, and reward processing.
Journal Article
Future knight
In 1409, skinny, clumsy Roland, the ten-year-old son of a blacksmith, pursues his dream of becoming a knight.
BOOK
Centrosome instability: when good centrosomes go bad
The centrosome is a tiny cytoplasmic organelle that organizes and constructs massive molecular machines to coordinate diverse cellular processes. Due to its many roles during both interphase and mitosis, maintaining centrosome homeostasis is essential to normal health and development. Centrosome instability, divergence from normal centrosome number and structure, is a common pathognomonic cellular state tightly associated with cancers and other genetic diseases. As novel connections are investigated linking the centrosome to disease, it is critical to understand the breadth of centrosome functions to inspire discovery. In this review, we provide an introduction to normal centrosome function and highlight recent discoveries that link centrosome instability to specific disease states.
Journal Article
At the joust
Roland, a scrawny, aspiring knight prone to hiccups, serving as a page in Twofold Castle, attends his first tournament, where knights from near and far take part in a full day of jousting.
BOOK
Analysis of a rare progeria variant of Barrier-to-autointegration factor in Drosophila connects centromere function to tissue homeostasis
Barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF/BANF) is a nuclear lamina protein essential for nuclear integrity, chromatin structure, and genome stability. Whereas complete loss of BAF causes lethality in multiple organisms, the A12T missense mutation of the BANF1 gene in humans causes a premature aging syndrome, called Néstor-Guillermo Progeria Syndrome (NGPS). Here, we report the first in vivo animal investigation of progeroid BAF, using CRISPR editing to introduce the NGPS mutation into the endogenous Drosophila baf gene. Progeroid BAF adults are born at expected frequencies, demonstrating that this BAF variant retains some function. However, tissue homeostasis is affected, supported by studies of the ovary, a tissue that depends upon BAF for stem cell survival and continuous oocyte production. We find that progeroid BAF causes defects in germline stem cell mitosis that delay anaphase progression and compromise chromosome segregation. We link these defects to decreased recruitment of centromeric proteins of the kinetochore, indicating dysfunction of cenBAF, a localized pool of dephosphorylated BAF produced by Protein Phosphatase PP4. We show that DNA damage increases in progenitor germ cells, which causes germ cell death due to activation of the DNA damage transducer kinase Chk2. Mitotic defects appear widespread, as aberrant chromosome segregation and increased apoptosis occur in another tissue. Together, these data highlight the importance of BAF in establishing centromeric structures critical for mitosis. Further, these studies link defects in cenBAF function to activation of a checkpoint that depletes progenitor reserves critical for tissue homeostasis, aligning with phenotypes of NGPS patients.
Journal Article
Centrosome loss results in an unstable genome and malignant prostate tumors
Localized, nonindolent prostate cancer (PCa) is characterized by large-scale genomic rearrangements, aneuploidy, chromothripsis, and other forms of chromosomal instability (CIN), yet how this occurs remains unclear. A well-established mechanism of CIN is the overproduction of centrosomes, which promotes tumorigenesis in various mouse models. Therefore, we developed a single-cell assay for quantifying centrosomes in human prostate tissue. Surprisingly, centrosome loss—which has not been described in human cancer—was associated with PCa progression. By chemically or genetically inducing centrosome loss in nontumorigenic prostate epithelial cells, mitotic errors ensued, producing aneuploid, and multinucleated cells. Strikingly, transient or chronic centrosome loss transformed prostate epithelial cells, which produced highly proliferative and poorly differentiated malignant tumors in mice. Our findings suggest that centrosome loss could create a cellular crisis with oncogenic potential in prostate epithelial cells.
Journal Article
Culture of Drosophila S2 cells and their use for RNAi-mediated loss-of-function studies and immunofluorescence microscopy
Cultured
Drosophila
cell lines have become an increasingly popular model system for cell biological and functional genomic studies. One of the most commonly used lines, S2 cells, is particularly useful as it is easy to grow and maintain in the lab, is highly susceptible to gene inhibition using RNAi and is well suited to high-resolution light microscopic assays. Here, we provide protocols for the routine culture and RNAi treatment of S2 cells and methods to prepare these cells for fluorescence microscopy. Using these techniques, loss-of-function experiments may be performed after 4–7 d of RNAi-mediated protein depletion.
Journal Article
Autoinhibition and relief mechanism for Polo-like kinase 4
Polo-like kinase 4 (Plk4) is a master regulator of centriole duplication, and its hyperactivity induces centriole amplification. Homodimeric Plk4 has been shown to be ubiquitinated as a result of autophosphorylation, thus promoting its own degradation and preventing centriole amplification. Unlike other Plks, Plk4 contains three rather than two Polo box domains, and the function of its third Polo box (PB3) is unclear. Here, we performed a functional analysis of Plk4’s structural domains. Like other Plks, Plk4 possesses a previously unidentified autoinhibitory mechanism mediated by a linker (L1) near the kinase domain. Thus, autoinhibition is a conserved feature of Plks. In the case of Plk4, autoinhibition is relieved after homodimerization and is accomplished by PB3 and by autophosphorylation of L1. In contrast, autophosphorylation of the second linker promotes separation of the Plk4 homodimer. Therefore, autoinhibition delays the multiple consequences of activation until Plk4 dimerizes. These findings reveal a complex mechanism of Plk4 regulation and activation which govern the process of centriole duplication.
Significance Polo-like kinases (Plks) are a conserved family of enzymes that function as master regulators for the process of cell division. Among their duties, Plks control the assembly of centrosomes, tiny organelles that facilitate mitotic spindle assembly and maintain the fidelity of chromosome inheritance. Plks are overexpressed in cancer, and therefore it is critical to unravel the normal regulation of these kinases. Here, we studied Plk4 regulation whose activity controls centrosome number. We showed that, as do other Plks, Plk4 autoinhibits its kinase activity. However, Plk4 is unique in its ability to relieve autoinhibition through a third Polo box domain not present in other Plk family members. Moreover, autoinhibition controls Plk4 oligomerization, which ultimately governs its stability and thus centrosome duplication.
Journal Article
A centrosome interactome provides insight into organelle assembly and reveals a non-duplication role for Plk4
The centrosome is the major microtubule-organizing centre of many cells, best known for its role in mitotic spindle organization. How the proteins of the centrosome are accurately assembled to carry out its many functions remains poorly understood. The non-membrane-bound nature of the centrosome dictates that protein–protein interactions drive its assembly and functions. To investigate this massive macromolecular organelle, we generated a ‘domain-level’ centrosome interactome using direct protein–protein interaction data from a focused yeast two-hybrid screen. We then used biochemistry, cell biology and the model organism
Drosophila
to provide insight into the protein organization and kinase regulatory machinery required for centrosome assembly. Finally, we identified a novel role for Plk4, the master regulator of centriole duplication. We show that Plk4 phosphorylates Cep135 to properly position the essential centriole component Asterless. This interaction landscape affords a critical framework for research of normal and aberrant centrosomes.
The centrosome is a large intracellular structure that serves as the microtubule-organising center, but how it is accurately assembled is not known. Here the authors generate a ‘domain-level’ centrosome interactome and show that Plk4 positions the essential centriole component Asterless by phosphorylating Cep135.
Journal Article