Turn Down the Noise

Turn It Down a Notch

In the developing vertebrate embryo, segmentation initiates through the formation of repeated segments, or somites, on either side of the posterior neural tube along the anterior to posterior axis. The periodicity of somitogenesis is regulated by a molecular oscillator, the segmentation clock, driving cyclic gene expression in the unsegmented paraxial mesoderm, from which somites derive. Three ...

Signal Amplification: Let's Turn Down The Lights

G protein activation by membrane-bound receptors initiates a chain reaction that amplifies cellular responses to external signals. In retinal photoreceptors, amplification by the phototransduction cascade is regulated by quickly switching off the visual pigment that acts as the receptor for light.

Neural Energetics: Hungry Flies Turn Down the Visual Gain

Food-deprived flies reduce the gain of a visual-motion-sensitive interneuron whilst walking, and the optomotor reflex to which it contributes, providing evidence of coupling between nutritional state, behavior and neural activity.

Keeping the Noise Down in ES Cells

A new report (Szutorisz et al., 2006) suggests that embryonic stem (ES) cells adopt an unusual strategy to remain perpetually poised for differentiation. Apparently, ES cells use the proteasome to target transcriptional preinitiation complexes, thus minimizing transcriptional noise at genes that promote differentiation.

To the Framingham data, turn, turn, turn.