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Crystallographic, biophysical and in silico analyses indicate that the conformational state of the mechanosensitive channel MscS is determined by the reorganization, due to changes in membrane tension, of the lipids within and around the protein.
New data show that R loops differentially modulate binding of chromatin remodelers Tip60–p400 and PRC2 at coding and noncoding gene promoters of mouse ESCs and thereby control transcription and cellular differentiation.
New crystal structures and supporting functional assays identify the p19 and p45 subunits of Tetrahymena telomerase as homologs of the Stn1 and Ten1 subunits of the CST complex, which coordinates telomere replication.
Preference of EGFR for substrates that are primed by prior phosphorylation provides the molecular explanation for integration of Src and EGFR signaling via Src-mediated phosphorylation of the adaptor protein Shc1.
Telomerase is a unique reverse transcriptase in that it repetitively uses a short piece of its RNA component as template to synthesize DNA. A new crystal structure of a part of the Tetrahymena telomerase ribonucleoprotein reveals how reverse transcription is limited to this specific template region.
Newly synthesized 60S ribosomal subunits are licensed for translation through the release of the antiassociation factor eIF6. A new study shows by cryo–electron microscopy how eIF6 eviction results from a long-range allosteric cascade that involves SBDS, the protein mutated in Shwachman-Diamond syndrome.
Deciphering the complexity of events at telomeres has enhanced understanding of how telomeres function to maintain genome integrity and how their dysfunction gives rise to human disease.
Cancer cells that lack telomerase activity can maintain telomere lengths that permit continued proliferation via a recombination-based pathway called alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). This Review summarizes recent insights into the mechanism of ALT function and how it is repressed in normal cells to permit telomere attrition that limits replication.
Transcription of telomeres generates long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) composed of telomeric repeat sequences (TERRA) that hybridize with telomeric DNA and are components of telomeric heterochromatin. This Perspective considers the physiological roles of TERRA in telomere homeostasis and proposes that TERRA's functions are determined by the state of its telomere targets.
Telomerase is a nucleoprotein complex of a reverse transcriptase and an RNA that binds complementary telomeric-repeat DNA sequences and directs their extension. In this Commentary, the authors propose how hairpin structures formed by telomeric DNA repeats promote addition of telomerase repeats and why telomere sequences are evolutionarily conserved despite the problems that they pose to DNA replication.
Telomerase recruitment and activity are regulated by telomere-bound proteins that protect the chromosome ends. In this Perspective, the authors discuss recent advances in understanding how the interactions of shelterin and telomerase components contribute to telomere-length homeostasis.
The shelterin complex sequesters the linear ends of chromosomes and prevents telomeres from being recognized as DNA double-strand breaks. In this Review, the authors discuss the complex interactions between shelterin components and DNA damage–response factors and consider shelterin's emerging roles as regulators of genome integrity and cell fate.
Genetic mutations that compromise telomere-length maintenance give rise to a group of related human diseases called telomere biology disorders. This Review discusses the molecular functions impaired by disease-associated mutations as well as modes of inheritance and clinical manifestations.
The SUMO E3 ligase ZNF451 is a representative member of a new class of SUMO enzymes that execute catalysis via tandem SUMO-interaction motifs, thus allowing efficient SUMO-chain formation.
Single-particle electron microscopy reconstruction of the budding yeast replisome locates leading-strand Pol ε and lagging-strand Pol α on opposite sides of the CMG helicase and suggests a new DNA path through the complex during replication.
A proteomics approach using MS2 as an RNA tag is used to provide snapshots of nascent preribosomal particles from budding yeast, thus allowing the determination of the stage-specific order in which 70 ribosome-assembly factors associate with pre-rRNA domains.
