Protein folding articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Granular matter is rigid when jammed, and flows under external loads. Here temperature- and force-unfolding molecular dynamics stimulations are used to demonstrate that proteins display features of jamming, characterized by a force distribution peak on folding and a slowdown of stress relaxation.

    • Prasanth P Jose
    •  & Ioan Andricioaei
  • Article |

    The amyloid beta peptide can aggregate into insoluble plaques, which may indicate the onset of Alzheimer's disease. In a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, Cao and colleagues report a phenotype of altered connectivity in the olfactory neuronal circuit that precedes amyloid plaque deposition.

    • Luxiang Cao
    • , Benjamin R. Schrank
    •  & Mark W. Albers
  • Article |

    Proteins can undergo folding while being translated by the ribosome, and the extent of this folding is influenced by the rate at which amino acids are added to the nascent chain. This study provides a framework for predicting domain folding probabilities as a function of the kinetics of amino-acid addition.

    • Edward P. O'Brien
    • , Michele Vendruscolo
    •  & Christopher M. Dobson
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The study of prion diseases has been hampered as there is no method to distinguish newly formed abnormal prion protein conformers. Here, the authors describe a method to study newly formed abnormal prion protein and demonstrate that it is produced within 1 minute of cell exposure to prions.

    • R. Goold
    • , S. Rabbanian
    •  & S.J. Tabrizi
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Eukaryotic cell plasma membranes possess a mechanism to repair tears caused by stimuli such as mechanical stress. The authors demonstrate that annexin-A5, when assembled into two-dimensional arrays in the presence of calcium, is required for membrane repair.

    • Anthony Bouter
    • , Céline Gounou
    •  & Alain R. Brisson
  • Article |

    Phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau is associated with disease, but other post-translational modifications of tau are not well studied. Here, Cohenet al. study the acetylation of tau and suggest that this form of the protein may be associated with tauopathies.

    • Todd J. Cohen
    • , Jing L. Guo
    •  & Virginia M. Y. Lee