EDITOR'S CHOICE IN CELL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

The paper
M.R. Rutkowski et al., “Microbially driven TLR5-dependent signaling governs distal malignant progression through tumor-promoting inflammation,” Cancer Cell, 27:27-40, 2015.

The polymorphism
The gut microbiome influences nonintestinal cancer progression, but the role of toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), an immune system protein that recognizes commensal bacteria, was a mystery. As more than seven percent of people have nonfunctional TLR5, José Conejo-Garcia of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and colleagues explored how TLR5 impacts tumor growth.