Molecular biology articles within Nature

  • Article |

    We report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of native pre-60S particles trapped in the channel of the yeast nuclear pore complex, suggesting a translocation model for the export of pre-60S particles through the complex.

    • Zongqiang Li
    • , Shuaijiabin Chen
    •  & Sen-Fang Sui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Suppressor tRNAs adapted to the amino acid that they carry enable readthrough of premature termination codons introduced by nonsense mutations and show potential for the treatment of genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

    • Suki Albers
    • , Elizabeth C. Allen
    •  & Zoya Ignatova

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Binding of the human pioneer transcription factor OCT4 to nucleosomes containing endogenous DNA sequences causes changes to the nucleosome structure and facilitates the cooperative assembly of multiple pioneer transcription factors, a property that can be affected by histone modifications.

    • Kalyan K. Sinha
    • , Silvija Bilokapic
    •  & Mario Halic

  • Article |

    Subunits of SWI/SNF act as mitotic bookmarks to safeguard cell identity during cell division.

    • Zhexin Zhu
    • , Xiaolong Chen
    •  & Charles W. M. Roberts

  • Article |

    The switch from glucose- to fatty acid-dependent metabolism in cardiomyocytes of newborn mice is governed by γ-linolenic acid in maternal milk, which binds to retinoid X receptors, thereby causing a transcription-dependent metabolic transition.

    • Ana Paredes
    • , Raquel Justo-Méndez
    •  & Mercedes Ricote

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study examining bacterial gene expression in human-derived samples identifies a gene encoding a small RNA and describes how it orchestrates the transition between chronic and acute infection in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

    • Pengbo Cao
    • , Derek Fleming
    •  & Marvin Whiteley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The membrane-shaping protein ARL6IP1 is involved in the selective degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum, and this process depends on its ubiquitination and interaction with other membrane-shaping proteins such as FAM134B.

    • Hector Foronda
    • , Yangxue Fu
    •  & Christian A. Hübner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Comparisons within the human pangenome establish that homologous regions on short arms of heterologous human acrocentric chromosomes actively recombine, leading to the high rate of Robertsonian translocation breakpoints in these regions.

    • Andrea Guarracino
    • , Silvia Buonaiuto
    •  & Erik Garrison

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cryogenic electron microscopy images of a spliceosome complex undergoing catalytic activation provide mechanistic insight into how the two ATP-dependent RNA helicases involved in this process, PRP2 and Aquarius, work together.

    • Jana Schmitzová
    • , Constantin Cretu
    •  & Vladimir Pena

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The CIP2A–TOPBP1 complex tethers fragmented chromosomes from micronuclei for asymmetric mitotic inheritance, explaining distinct patterns of chromosome rearrangements in cancers and genomic disorders.

    • Yu-Fen Lin
    • , Qing Hu
    •  & Peter Ly

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using single-molecule imaging, the authors show that Smc5/6 forms DNA loops by extrusion, which establishes DNA loop extrusion as a conserved mechanism among eukaryotic SMC complexes.

    • Biswajit Pradhan
    • , Takaharu Kanno
    •  & Eugene Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Computational and machine-learning approaches that integrate genomic and transcriptomic variation from paired primary and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer samples from the TRACERx cohort reveal the role of transcriptional events in tumour evolution.

    • Carlos Martínez-Ruiz
    • , James R. M. Black
    •  & Nicholas McGranahan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analyses of the proteomes of astrocytes and neurons in a cell-specific and subcompartment-specific manner reveal distinct roles for these cell types that are relevant to obsessive–compulsive disorder and perhaps other brain disorders.

    • Joselyn S. Soto
    • , Yasaman Jami-Alahmadi
    •  & Baljit S. Khakh

  • Article |

    Combining genome-wide CRISPR screens with massively parallel analyses of human and random DNA sequences reveal a unified mechanism for the surveillance and evolution of translation products from annotated noncoding DNA.

    • Jordan S. Kesner
    • , Ziheng Chen
    •  & Xuebing Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The reaction coordinate of aminoacyl-tRNA movement is altered on the human ribosome and the process is an order of magnitude slower compared with bacteria due to eukaryote-specific structural elements in the human ribosome and in the elongation factor eEF1A.

    • Mikael Holm
    • , S. Kundhavai Natchiar
    •  & Scott C. Blanchard

  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy and tomography structures of reconstituted and endogenous human mRNA ribonucleoprotein complexes bound to the transcription–export complex reveal how mRNAs are packaged and recognized for nuclear export.

    • Belén Pacheco-Fiallos
    • , Matthias K. Vorländer
    •  & Clemens Plaschka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cryo-electron microscopy analysis of the Deinococcus radiodurans ISDra2 TnpB in complex with its cognate ωRNA and target DNA provides insights into the mechanism of TnpB function and the evolution of CRISPR–Cas12 effectors.

    • Ryoya Nakagawa
    • , Hisato Hirano
    •  & Osamu Nureki

  • Article |

    A high throughput recruitment assay testing the transcriptional activity of more than 100,000 protein fragments tiling across most human chromatin regulators and transcription factors maps the locations and strengths of activation, repression and bifunctional domains, and identifies the sequences necessary for these functions.

    • Nicole DelRosso
    • , Josh Tycko
    •  & Lacramioara Bintu

  • Article |

    Cryo-EM structures of D. radiodurans TnpB–reRNA complex in DNA-bound and -free forms reveal the basic architecture of TnpB nuclease and the molecular mechanism for DNA target recognition and cleavage supported by biochemical experiments.

    • Giedrius Sasnauskas
    • , Giedre Tamulaitiene
    •  & Virginijus Siksnys

  • Article |

    A study details the creation of an Escherichia coli genetically recoded organism that is resistant to viral infection, and describes a further modification that keeps the organism and its genetic information biocontained.

    • Akos Nyerges
    • , Svenja Vinke
    •  & George M. Church

  • Article |

    A technique to detect the release of N-terminal fragments of Drosophila adhesion G-protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) provides insight into the dissociation of aGPCRs, and shows that receptor autoproteolysis enables non-cell-autonomous activity of aGPCRs in the brain.

    • Nicole Scholz
    • , Anne-Kristin Dahse
    •  & Tobias Langenhan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acute loss of H3K4me3 does not have detectable effects on transcriptional initiation, but leads to a widespread decrease in transcriptional output, an increase in RNA polymerase II pausing and slower elongation

    • Hua Wang
    • , Zheng Fan
    •  & Kristian Helin

  • Article |

    Massively parallel assays reveal a highly conserved sequence motif termed the GYM motif, which potentiates RNA interference by directing Dicer-mediated small RNA processing.

    • Young-Yoon Lee
    • , Haedong Kim
    •  & V. Narry Kim

  • News & Views |

    The enzyme Dicer cleaves a type of RNA called a pre-microRNA to make the mature functional RNA. Structural evidence now sheds light on the catalytic mechanism involved and the role of a newly found RNA sequence termed GYM.

    • Gunter Meister

  • Article |

    The active-state structure of human DICER bound to pre-miRNA reveals the structural basis for the specificity of DICER in how it selects substrates in a sequence dependent manner, and sheds light on DICER-related diseases.

    • Young-Yoon Lee
    • , Hansol Lee
    •  & Soung-Hun Roh

  • News & Views |

    High-resolution structures of the bacterial Rho protein in complex with an RNA polymerase enzyme and partner proteins provide support for the long-held model of how Rho helps to terminate gene transcription.

    • Fahad Rashid
    •  & James Berger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An analysis of MitCOM—a comprehensive resource for the identification, organization and interaction of mitochondrial machineries and pathways in yeast—identifies a constitutive pathway for the removal of preproteins.

    • Uwe Schulte
    • , Fabian den Brave
    •  & Thomas Becker

  • Research Briefing |

    In egg cells, the ribosomes — the machinery responsible for protein synthesis — are stored in a dormant state that is released later in the developing embryo. An evolutionarily conserved set of proteins has been shown to bind to ribosomes in the egg cells of vertebrates, stabilizing the ribosomes and suppressing their activity.

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Molecular biology across other nature.com journals