361 papers
Cell biology is the study of life at its most fundamental unit: the cell. This field explores how these microscopic building blocks function, communicate, and replicate to sustain living organisms, from the simplest bacteria to complex human tissues. By understanding the machinery inside a cell, scientists unlock secrets about growth, disease, and the very nature of existence itself.
At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint uploaded to bioRxiv within this dynamic category. Our team processes each submission to provide both accessible plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries, ensuring you can grasp complex discoveries without getting lost in dense jargon. Below are the latest papers in cell biology, offering a fresh look at the inner workings of life as they are shared with the world.
Using microneedle manipulation, this study reveals that mammalian anaphase midzone bundles are mechanically coupled both locally and globally via a PRC1-dependent mechanism, allowing the spindle to function as a single mechanical unit that resists force over short timescales while remodeling over longer periods to ensure robust chromosome segregation.
This paper proposes a physical theory of epigenetic memory based on a spreading-writing-erasing model that explains how chromatin compartmentalization balances stability and plasticity, while predicting that noise in histone segregation and rapid proliferation enhance reprogramming efficiency and that chromatin reorganization drives cellular senescence.
This study demonstrates that nanovibrational stimulation rapidly induces actin-myosin mediated stiffening and solid-like behavior in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, though prolonged exposure may eventually reverse these effects, highlighting the importance of temporal optimization for enhancing mechanotransduction.
This study introduces spatial Organellomics (sOrganellomics), an imaging workflow that leverages multi-organelle features to map functional cell state diversity and metabolic adaptation in tissues, revealing novel hepatocyte organization patterns and linking architectural remodeling to bioenergetic heterogeneity in vivo.
This study reveals that alphaherpesviruses (HSV-1 and PRV) hijack the host DNA damage response by inducing the nuclear export and cytosolic MDM2-mediated degradation of class I histone deacetylases (HDAC1/2), a mechanism essential for efficient viral replication and a promising target for therapeutic intervention.
This study demonstrates that AT2-intrinsic expression of misfolded Z-AAT protein drives conserved proteotoxic and inflammatory stress responses, leading to aberrant cell fate adoption and increased susceptibility to emphysema, thereby establishing a cell-autonomous mechanism contributing to Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency pathogenesis beyond the traditional protease-antiprotease imbalance.
Using a mouse model of 5-fluorouracil-induced mucositis, this study reveals that chemotherapy-induced oral mucosal injury is primarily driven by p53-mediated cell cycle arrest rather than apoptosis, accompanied by unique metabolic reprogramming and diverse epithelial progenitor dynamics that collectively determine tissue repair outcomes.
This study identifies the histone methyltransferase Dot1L as an epigenetic gatekeeper that restricts adult bone regeneration, demonstrating that its genetic or pharmacological inhibition expands injury-responsive CXCL12⁺ stromal progenitors and accelerates early bone formation.
This study uses a computational model to demonstrate that immune cells utilize autoattractants to coordinate collective migration, revealing that an optimal balance between signal production and removal creates a critical boundary where efficient chemotaxis is maximized just before the system transitions into inefficient aggregation.
Periodic red light exposure mitigates aging in mice by downregulating SIRT4 in keratinocytes, which activates fatty acid metabolism and the TCA cycle to increase acetyl-CoA and H3K9ac levels, thereby reshaping senescence-related gene expression through synergistic metabolic and epigenetic regulation.