Volume 25 Issue 10, October 2018

Nichols and Corces summarize the current knowledge of SMC structure and function and propose a new mechanism for SMC motor activity, which is central to the DNA loop extrusion model of genome organization.

A combination of fluorescence approaches that permit conformational changes of SNARE proteins to be visualized in different lipid environments reveals interactions underlying vesicle–membrane fusion.

Cryo-EM data and functional assays reveal how the actin-cross-linking protein filamin A interacts with F-actin, rationalizing human disease mutations in molecular detail.

Downregulation of the splicing regulator ESRP2 after liver injury activates a neonatal alternative splicing program that attenuates Hippo signaling in regenerating hepatocytes.

Newly developed assays to isolate and sequence direct NMD decay intermediates show that these are ribosome bound and can be subject to the addition of non-templated nucleotides, which affects their decay.

Biochemical and genome-wide analyses reveal that G4 structures sequester and inhibit the activity of DNMT1, thereby protecting CpG islands from methylation in human cells.

Histone variant macroH2A is initially pervasively deposited across the mouse genome and is subsequently selectively evicted from transcriptionally active regions to establish macroH2A chromatin domains.

Crystal structures of the Ku70/80–DNA complex with Ku binding motifs of APLF and XLF reveal distinct interaction sites and an induced conformational change in Ku80 critical for function in NHEJ repair.

Crystal structures of human σ1 receptor bound to the antagonists haloperidol and NE-100, and to agonist (+)-pentazocine, alongside MD simulations, reveal a unique binding pose for, and major conformational rearrangements induced by, the agonist.