There is a Japanese legend of an extraordinary strong child ‘Kintaro’, who caught a carp, taller than himself, only with his arms. Carp are familiar to people all over Japan as Koinobori (carp streamer) that is put up in May for their children's healthy growth. In this drawing, Kintaro is showing his extraordinary grip that acts as an external force to drive cellular convergent extension (a process in which a tissue is elongated along a certain axis by cell intercalation in animal development) to elongate the carp's body. The progression status of the convergent extension can be observed by the pattern of the carp's colored scales. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 5, 2015-05 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Genome editing technologies have been invented and improved in recent years, and there is a growing expectation that the technologies can be utilized as a tool not only for molecular biological studies, but also for genetic therapies. Among them, CRISPR‐Cas9 system that was originally found as a part of the bacterial adaptive immune system gets noticed for its easy introduction. Here, users are only required to design a guide RNA with a 20‐nt sequence that is complementary to the target DNA sequence and co‐express Cas9 with the RNA in vivo, then Cas9 protein will cleave the target DNA in a site‐specific manner. This is a portrait of a kabuki actor who plays Cas9 as indicated by the crest “ku” (‘nine’) on kimono he is wearing. The “actor” definitely has a promising future ahead of him. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 4, 2015-04 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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One of the highlights of the month of July in Japan is Tanabata (Star Festival). Tanabata, a festival to pray to the stars in the Milky Way in summer, was imported from ancient China. People in Edo era started to decorate bamboo branches with ‘tanzaku’ (small pieces of paper) on which they wrote their wishes, and to pray the wishes would come true. The bamboo branches in this drawing are likened to histone tails (H2A, H2B, H4 and H3 from the left). The tanzakus represent epigenetic modifi cations (acetylation, methylation and phosphorylation) of amino acid residues in histone tails. If you use this histone bamboo, mind that you have to phrase your wishes with the types, positions and combinations of decorations (or modifications). You need a textbook to perform modifi cations correctly. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 7, 2015-07 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Kappa, a mischievous monster found in Japanese folklore, supposedly lives in a stream or pond, and has webbed hands and feet so that it's good at swimming. Human hands also have an interdigital web in the early embryo, but it disappears by apoptotic programmed cell death like a tadpole's tail. The intracellular signaling pathway that triggers apoptosis has been studied well; the signal flows down the ‘cascade’ that consists of multiple caspases (Cysteine‐ASPartic proteASE) such as caspase 9 or 3 encoded by CASP9 or CASP3, respectively. This poor Kappa in this drawing has been saturated with the water flowing down the caspase cascade, and its vaunted web is in danger of disappearing by apoptosis. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 20, Iss. 10, 2015-10 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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Kappa, a mischievous monster found in Japanese folklore, supposedly lives in a stream or pond, and has webbed hands and feet so that it's good at swimming. Human hands also have an interdigital web in the early embryo, but it disappears by apoptotic programmed cell death like a tadpole's tail. The intracellular signaling pathway that triggers apoptosis has been studied well; the signal flows down the ‘cascade’ that consists of multiple caspases (Cysteine‐ASPartic proteASE) such as caspase 9 or 3 encoded by CASP9 or CASP3, respectively. This poor Kappa in this drawing has been saturated with the water flowing down the caspase cascade, and its vaunted web is in danger of disappearing by apoptosis. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan)

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GENES TO CELLS, Vol. 1356-9597, Iss. 10, 2015-10 ,pp. : i-i

John Wiley & Sons Inc

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