Volume 25 Issue 1, January 2018

Chd1 is a highly conserved chromatin remodeler found across all eukaryotic species. A recent study shows the structural changes that take place when yeast Chd1 binds to its nucleosomal substrate and reveals how they relate to remodeler function.

In this Review, the authors discuss recent insights into the mechanism of GPCR signaling provided by structural and biophysical elucidation of receptor interactions with G proteins and arrestins.

Rossmann and colleagues review the rapid progress in our understanding of the structure of Zika virus, building on previous studies of other flaviviruses such as dengue virus.

Ultrastructural analysis of nuclear membrane topology and assembling NPCs reveals how mitotic cells can rapidly establish a closed nuclear compartment while at the same time making it transport competent.

Real-time FRET analyses and biochemical assays reveal that Rad51 recombinase promotes DNA strand exchange via two distinct three-strand intermediate states.

The cryo-EM structure of the human INO80 chromatin-remodeling complex reveals the architecture of the complex centered around a RUVBL1–2 AAA+ heterohexamer.

The APOBEC-AID family of cytidine deaminases target single-stranded nucleic acids for cytidine-to-uridine deamination and can thereby affect DNA repair processes that occur during CRISPR–Cas9-mediated genome editing.

The cryo-EM structure of the full-length TRPV5 channel in complex with inhibitor econazole reveals a domain-swapped architecture and provides insights into mechanisms of inhibition.

Heterozygous cancer-associated SMARCA4 missense mutations disrupt conserved ATPase surfaces of this chromatin remodeler and alter the open chromatin landscape, thus inducing pro-oncogenic gene expression.

During oogenesis, H3K4 trimethylation is targeted to genomic elements through transcription-dependent and transcription-independent mechanisms, the latter relying on MLL2 recruitment to unmethylated CpG-rich regions.

Nucleotide exchange factors (NEFs) trigger substrate release from molecular chaperone Hsp70. The authors found that armadillo-type NEFs (yeast Fes1, human HspBP1) competitively prevent rebinding of released substrate.

The ER-resident Hsp70 BiP is regulated by NEF Bap. The interactions between BiP and Bap are now dissected using biochemistry, molecular modeling and smFRET approaches, revealing that Bap affects both domains of BiP, to coordinate release of substrate and nucleotide.

Cryo-EM structures of nucleosomes in partially unwrapped, transient states reveal intrinsic plasticity that is required for nucleosome stability and can be exploited by chromatin-remodeling factors.

RNA-DamID, a novel approach to detect lncRNA–genome interactions in vivo with high sensitivity and accuracy, demonstrates that the initial targeting of lncRNAs in the Drosophila dosage-compensation complex is cell-type specific.