Behind the stoNE wall: A fervent activity for nuclear lipids.

The four main types of biomolecules are nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. The knowledge about their respective interactions is as important as the individual understanding of each of them. However, while, for example, the interaction of proteins with the other three groups is extensively studied, that of nucleic acids and lipids is, in comparison, very poorly explored. An iconic paradigm of physical (and likely functional) proximity between DNA and lipids is the case of the genomic DNA in eukaryotes: enclosed within the nucleus by two concentric lipid bilayers, the wealth of implications of this interaction, for example in genome stability, remains underassessed. Nuclear lipid-related phenotypes have been observed for 50 years, yet in most cases kept as mere anecdotical descriptions. In this review, we will bring together the evidence connecting lipids with both the nuclear envelope and the nucleoplasm, and will make critical analyses of these descriptions. Our exploration establishes a scenario in which lipids irrefutably play a role in nuclear homeostasis.

Daughter cell-targeted mRNAs can achieve segregation without the universal Endoplasmic Reticulum docker She2p.

The establishment of cell polarity in eukaryotes involves the asymmetric distribution of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, establishment of the cell polarity that gives rise to mother and daughter cells concurs with the selective targeting of more than 30 mRNAs toward the bud tip. Different mRNAs are segregated at different cell cycle stages, namely early during S phase, in a process dependent on anchoring to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), or later in G2 or mitosis, in an ER-independent manner. In spite of this difference, this transport requires in all cases the Myo4p motor and its interaction with actin, the adaptor protein She3p and a third, RNA-binding protein docking this complex at the mRNA itself. This protein is universally considered to be She2p. Yet, the majority of mRNAs whose segregation was shown to be She2p-dependent are not S-phase segregated ones. In other processes aimed at establishing polarity, such as during pheromone-stimulated G1 arrest, the coupling of mRNAs to the ER during their transport is She2p-independent. We have therefore asked if the segregation to the bud of a model S-phase-specific mRNA, EAR1, is dependent on She2p or not. We report that a modest yet consistent percentage of EAR1 segregating particles achieves polarization without She2p. Our data invite to a re-evaluation of the absolute necessity for She2p for daughter cell-targeted mRNAs distribution.