biosights: September 4, 2017

Synaptic activity shifts dendritic lysosomes

Invading pathogens or other toxic agents can trigger the assembly of the inflammasome adaptor ASC into large, intracellular specks that activate caspase-1 to initiate a proinflammatory cell death called pyroptosis. Kuri et al. follow the dynamics of ASC speck formation in live zebrafish, revealing their lethal effects on epidermal keratinocytes and their subsequent engulfment and degradation by macrophages. This biosights episode presents the paper by Kuri et al. from the September 4th, 2017, issue of The Journal of Cell Biology and includes an interview with two of the paper's authors, Paola Kuri and Maria Leptin (EMBL). Produced by Caitlin Sedwick and Ben Short. See the associated paper in JCB for details on the funding provided to support this original research.