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In addition to the usual dose of compelling science, our March issue features thoughtful reflections on the last 30 years from readers, as well as past and present editors. Perhaps influenced by these pieces or by our stunning cover — or maybe it is just the changing seasons — we are in an introspective mood this month.
Over the past 30 years, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (NSMB) has covered an enormous breadth of subjects in the broad field of molecular and structural biology. Here, some of the journal’s past and present editors recount their editorial experience at NSMB and some of the more memorable papers they worked on.
In this Review, the authors present an overview of our current understanding of the relationship between DNA methylation and three-dimensional chromatin architecture, discussing the extent to which DNA methylation may regulate the folding of the genome.
Examining artificial embryos (gastruloids), Merle et al. uncover precise gene organization and proportional growth, providing insights into fundamental principles of developmental processes in mammalian systems.
The DNA polymerase α–primase complex undergoes dramatic configurational rearrangements to synthesize chimeric RNA-DNA primers across two separate active sites while maintaining simultaneous interactions at opposite ends of the primer–template duplex.
Over the past 30 years, the field of structural biology and its associated biological insights have seen amazing progress. In this Comment, I recount several milestones in the field and how we can apply lessons from the past toward an exciting future, especially as it relates to drug discovery.
The biogenesis and recycling of the ‘heart’ of the human spliceosome, the U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP), requires CD2BP2 and TSSC4. Here the authors present cryo-electron microscopy structures that reveal how these protein chaperones orchestrate the ATP-independent (re)generation of the U5 snRNP.
Here, the authors determine the structure of the human outer kinetochore KMN network complex, showing that it forms an extended and rigid rod-like structure and that it exists in an auto-inhibited state which can be relieved by phosphorylation.
During cell division, kinetochores anchor chromosomes to spindle microtubules. Here, the authors report a comprehensive structure–function analysis of the kinetochore’s main microtubule receptor, the KMN network, shedding new light on its organization.
Here, the authors ask how much regulatory activity DNA is expected to have in the absence of selection. In yeast and humans, they find that gene regulatory activity is common in evolutionarily naive DNA, suggesting that activity is not always indicative of function.
JADE is a subunit of human acetyltransferase complex HBO1 that is essential in transcriptional regulation. Gaurav et al. characterize the molecular mechanism by which JADE mediates genomic association and enzymatic and pathological activities of the HBO1 complex.
A calcium ion binding site, hidden in the highly conserved gate of the synaptic AMPA-type ionotropic glutamate receptor, reveals upon gating and controls ion transport across the membrane, providing new mechanistic insights on ion permeation.
The authors determined a cryo-EM structure of the pioneer factor NR5A2 bound to a nucleosome. NR5A2 releases nucleosomal DNA from histones by DNA minor anchor groove competition, providing a mechanism for pioneer factor activity during reprogramming
Using biochemistry, cell biological, X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM methods, Maisonneuve et al. reveal how the scaffolding proteins CNK and HYP enhance the binding of KSR to MEK, which in turn allosterically controls RAF activation in Drosophila.