Cutting edges

by Vivienne Baillie Gerritsen

Things may appear different to you depending on how you look at them - or at which angle you approach them. What you will make of them will also depend on what you already know about them. This is true for people as it is for any problem you may have undertaken to solve. Take plasma membrane rupture (PMR), for instance. In PMR, a cell's membrane is breached so that its insides seep out and the cell, unable to repair its membrane faster than it is damaged, gradually dies. PMR is not a passive event but brought about by a protein known as NINJ1. A name which may ring a bell for some readers, and rightly so. Early on in the year, I wrote about the role this protein has in creating rips in cell membranes. So why write about NINJ1 again? Because it is intriguing to see how the understanding of a given biological mechanism can change depending on the data that is available. Today, a second team of scientists suggests that NINJ1 does not just cause slits in the plasma membrane but rather cuts out holes, much in the way you would cut out shapes with a cutter in biscuit dough.

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Protein Spotlight (ISSN 1424-4721) is a monthly review written by the Swiss-Prot team of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. Spotlight articles describe a specific protein or family of proteins on an informal tone. Follow us: Subscribe · Twitter · Facebook

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