Volume 10 Issue 2, February 2003

Real time measurements of conformational switching in single Holliday junctions reinforce the role of the junction in the site selection and branch migration steps of genetic recombination.

Time-resolved X-ray absorption has been used to investigate the structure of the Zn active site in alcohol dehydrogenase during catalysis. The results support a new mechanistic model for catalysis.

Because some translation factors mimic the shape of tRNA, they were thought to bind the ribosome in a similar manner. Recent work suggests that this idea of molecular mimicry needs to be reassessed.

Two recent studies show that some ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes are subject to control by a surprising set of regulators — phosphoinositols. These studies extend earlier observations in mammalian cells and suggest that second messengers are regulators of chromatin remodeling.

In vivo selection improves the folding efficiency of the GroELS chaperone toward a specific substrate. Optimizing efficiency, however, comes at the price of narrowed substrate specificity.

The CASP5 meeting highlights the evolving role of the initiative: learning from past experience and teaching computers to predict protein structures.