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The pathogenesis of the nerve paralysis induced by botulinum neurotoxins begins with their specific and high-affinity binding to peripheral nerve terminals. The new crystal structure of the toxin bound to its glycosylated receptor, presented in this issue, represents a major step forward in the understanding of how botulinum neurotoxin type A1, the toxin used in human therapy and cosmetics, binds its protein receptor.
Contrary to conventional wisdom that molecular chaperones rely on hydrophobic interactions to bind a wide variety of client proteins in danger of misfolding, three recent studies reveal that the ATP-independent chaperone Spy exploits electrostatic interactions to bind its clients quickly, yet loosely enough to enable folding of the client while it is chaperone bound.
Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry reveals that the antiapoptotic protein MCL-1 is inhibited by a covalent modification far from its functional site. This finding opens new avenues for cancer therapy, but it also highlights that much remains to be learned about the fundamental basis of allosteric regulation.
The noncoding RNA LINP1 acts as a scaffold that links Ku and DNA-PKcs and enables efficient DNA double-strand-break repair through nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), thereby enhancing the resistance of triple-negative breast cancer cells to radiation and chemotherapies.
The importance of subtle gene regulation and epigenetics in determining complex human traits is increasingly being recognized. However, bridging the gaps between environmental, epigenetic and genetic influences and unraveling causal relationships remain a big challenge. A study now reports an example of epigenetic changes influenced by genetic factors that are involved in the regulation of lactase gene expression.
The first high-resolution views of group II intron maturases illuminate the architectural and functional roles of these multidomain proteins in splicing and DNA invasion. The maturases show striking structural and functional homology to a central protein involved in spliceosomal pre–messenger RNA splicing, thus reinforcing the idea that group II introns and the spliceosome descended from a common ancestor.
This Perspective provides an overview of the major advances in recent years in the computational design and structure prediction of α-helical membrane proteins.
The use of nanodiscs is substantially fostering structural and functional studies of membrane protein. This Perspective summarizes the recent use of nanodiscs as an invaluable tool for the characterization of membrane proteins.
Numerous recent crystal and cryo-EM structures have greatly advanced understanding of the functional mechanisms of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels. This Review discusses the structural basis of activation and desensitization mechanisms in glutamate and cysteine-loop receptors.
ABC transporters use ATP hydrolysis to translocate substrates across cell membranes. Kaspar Locher reviews the mechanistic diversity of ABC transporters, as has emerged from recent structural studies, and discusses future directions for investigation of ABC-transporter-catalyzed reactions.
This Perspective provides an overview of recent progress, successes, challenges and future opportunities in the application of solution NMR and solid-state NMR methods to study the structure, dynamics and function of membrane proteins.
This Perspective discusses how two complementary approaches, bottom-up in vitro and top-down in situ structural biology, have now converged to generate the first predictive structural models of the nuclear pore scaffold.
The sirtuin family protein SIRT6 is a stress-responsive NAD-dependent histone deacetylase with key roles in glucose homeostasis, DNA repair and cellular lifespan. SIRT6 is now shown to mediate deacetylation of histone H3 Lys18 specifically at pericentric chromatin, thus maintaining transcriptional silencing of satellite repeats in a manner independent of HP1 and trimethylated H3 Lys9, thereby assuring correct segregation of chromosomes.
All current evidence indicates a central role for α-synuclein (α-SYN) amyloid fibrils in Parkinson's disease and other synucleinopathies, but the precise relationship between amyloid aggregates and the resulting phenotype remains poorly understood, partly because of the lack of reliable three-dimensional structures. In this issue, the structure of a toxic α-SYN fibril is now presented at unprecedented resolution.
Translation elongation entails a one-codon movement of the mRNA–tRNA complex along the mRNA and is catalyzed by the forward translocase EF-G. The structurally related back-translocase EF4 catalyzes movement in the opposite direction when the ribosome stalls, but its physiological role in mammals had been unknown. Genetic ablation of EF4 in mice is now found to cause testis-specific mitochondrial deficiency and impaired spermatogenesis.
Brown fat has a tremendous capacity to oxidize fatty acids and generate heat, owing to the presence of an 'uncoupling protein', UCP1. The fatty acids themselves are understood to activate UCP1, but Chouchani et al. now propose that oxidation of a critical cysteine residue on UCP1 is additionally required to sensitize the protein to fatty acids.
The fundamental mechanics of how EF-G catalyzes translocation of the mRNA and tRNA pairs on the ribosome has been intensely studied for over three decades. Two kinetic studies now reveal the sequence of events and the timing of key conformational changes in the ribosome during translocation and identify new intermediates in this complex process.
The synaptonemal complex (SC) connects homologous chromosomes in meiotic prophase, thus promoting genetic exchange and ensuring accurate chromosomal segregation at anaphase. In this Review, the authors discuss the structural organization of the SC and how its assembly, maintenance and disassembly are regulated in yeast and metazoans.
Structures of the human orexin receptor 1 (hOX1R) bound to a selective drug and the dual (hOX1R- and hOX2R-targeting) antagonist suvorexant reveal molecular mechanisms of selectivity in orexin-receptor subtypes.
