DNA-binding proteins articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of human RAD51 in complex with the nucleosome show that RAD51 can adopt two conformations—rings and filaments—and reveal how RAD51 binds to the nucleosome through its N-terminal lobe domain.

African swine fever virus type II DNA topoisomerase (AsfvTop2) is known to change DNA topology by employing a complex catalytic cycle and is involved in the early stages of viral gene replication, however, the structural and regulatory functions of AsfvTop2 remain underexplored. Here, the authors use cryo-EM to demonstrate six conformers of apo-AsfvTop2 as well as the structures of AsfvTop2-DNA-inhibitor complexes, revealing experimental evidence of their substrate binding mechanism that also shed light to other enzymes.

A protein-agnostic bioinformatic tool is capable of predicting transcription factor:DNA interactions, facilitating genome mining for chemical-inducible synthetic biology sensors.

This study identifies the WYL domain-containing regulator SiwR as activator of a DNA damage inducible operon. The findings underscore the role of WYL domains as signal-sensing switches in bacterial adaptation to changing environments and stress.

Cas12f1 is a member of type V Cas12 family, which has a hypercompact size. A Cas12f1-based adenine base editor has now been developed that is small enough to be loaded into a single AAV vector without compromising editing activity.