We investigated the importance of adrenal hormones and a daily feeding rhythm as rhythmic outputs of the biological clock to synchronize day/night rhythms in (clock) gene expression in white adipose tissue (WAT). We found that at least one of these two outputs should be present in order for WAT clock gene rhythms to be maintained.

A novel distal regulatory element 5.5URR could mediate positive feedback regulation of the STAT1 gene expression. Through this autoregulation, the 5.5URR could also contribute to the amplification and/or prolongation of intracellular IFN signals.

During archaeosine biosynthesis, ArcTGT first replaces the guanine base at position 15 with preQ₀. We found the ArcTGT K_m strongly correlated with the T_m, suggesting that the unstable tRNA containing fewer modified nucleosides served as a better ArcTGT substrate. This result shows that preQ₀ incorporation into tRNA by ArcTGT takes place early in the archaeal tRNA modification process.

We utilized the Drosophila antennal lobe, the first olfactory center in the brain, as a model for studying neural map formation. Here, we show that a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor Atonal-positive ORNs is required for the antennal lobe formation and axon targeting of Amos-positive ORNs, another type of ORN specified by the bHLH transcription factor Amos. We provide genetic and immunohistochemical evidences suggesting that the correct axon targeting of Atonal-positive ORNs is essential for the formation of the whole antennal lobe structure.

Autophagy is a crucial degradation system, and required for initiation of meiosis in yeast. However, roles of autophagy in meiosis remain unclear. We show that autophagy is required for efficient meiosis progression and proper meiotic chromosome segregation in fission yeast.

Geng et al. show that nectin-1 is specifically involved in GABAergic inhibitory synaptic transmission by the postsynaptic mechanism. As functions of the neuronal network are significantly regulated by GABAergic inhibition, nectin-1 may play an important role in the information processing in the CA3 region of the hippocampus, a key brain structure for learning and memory.

microRNA-31 (miR-31) was identified as a positive regulator of endothelial–mesenchymal transition (EndMT) and EndMT-associated unique secretory phenotype induced by TGF-β. miR-31 targets negative regulators of MRTF-A and inflammatory response, VAV3 and Stk40. Interestingly, TGF-β induces shortening of Stk40 3′UTR by alternative polyadenylation and trimming of internal poly(A) sequence in the 3′UTR and enhances the target efficiency of Stk40 for miR-31 to suppress Stk40.