Structural biology articles within Nature

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  • Research Briefing |

    To cause tuberculosis, the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis must obtain nutrients from host cells. This is facilitated at least in part by protein complexes known as transporters. The structure of one such transporter reveals how its constituent subunits assemble into a large complex that enables lipids to be transported into the bacterium.

  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy structures and biochemical analyses provide insight into how short prokaryotic Argonaute proteins are assembled and activated, and reveal that oligomerization has a key role in driving catalytic activity.

    • Zhangfei Shen
    • , Xiao-Yuan Yang
    •  & Tian-Min Fu

  • News & Views |

    The protein UCP1 helps to release energy as heat in brown fat. Structures of human UCP1 provide crucial information about its mechanism of action, and might aid drug design for obesity and various metabolism-associated complications.

    • Michael J. Gaudry
    •  & Martin Jastroch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural and biochemical studies of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rpd3 small complex in free and H3K36me3 nucleosome-bound states reveal multiple nucleosome-binding modes and provide insights into mechanisms underlying epigenetic regulation by histone modification.

    • Haipeng Guan
    • , Pei Wang
    •  & Haitao Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cryo-EM structures and analysis provide insight into the mechanisms by which basic helix–loop–helix transcription factors access E-box DNA sequences that are embedded within nucleosomes, and cooperate with other transcription factors.

    • Alicia K. Michael
    • , Lisa Stoos
    •  & Nicolas H. Thomä

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fanzor is shown to be an RNA-guided DNA endonuclease, demonstrating that such endonucleases are found in all domains of life and indicating a potential new tool for genome engineering applications.

    • Makoto Saito
    • , Peiyu Xu
    •  & Feng Zhang

  • Article |

    X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy analyses of Lettuce—a DNA mimic of GFP—bound to various fluorophores reveal previously unknown structures of DNA that rival analogous RNAs in complexity.

    • Luiz F. M. Passalacqua
    • , Michael T. Banco
    •  & Adrian R. Ferré-D’Amaré

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A new intracellular agonist-binding pocket is identified that is common to many G protein-coupled receptors, which will have implications for the development of biased compounds that target this large group of receptors.

    • Kazuhiro Kobayashi
    • , Kouki Kawakami
    •  & Osamu Nureki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study reveals how Klotho and heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycan coreceptors enable FGF hormones to induce asymmetric 1:2 FGF–FGFR dimerization mandatory for FGFR kinase activation and hence signalling.

    • Lingfeng Chen
    • , Lili Fu
    •  & Moosa Mohammadi

  • Article |

    The SARS-CoV-2 spike internal fusion peptide forms a hairpin-like wedge that spans almost the entire lipid bilayer and the transmembrane segment wraps around the fusion peptide at the last stage of membrane fusion.

    • Wei Shi
    • , Yongfei Cai
    •  & Bing Chen

  • Article |

    A structural and functional analysis of the systems involved in oligosaccharide uptake in gut Bacteroidetes describes multicomponent complexes termed utilisomes that include pre-processing and transport subunits.

    • Joshua B. R. White
    • , Augustinas Silale
    •  & Neil A. Ranson

  • News & Views |

    A protein has been discovered that binds to the lighter members of the rare-earth family of metals more strongly than to the heavier ones — an amazing feat, given the chemical similarities of these elements.

    • Scott Banta

  • Research Briefing |

    Axonemes are molecular machines that enable the movement of cilia, the hair-like structures found on the surface of some cells. Atomic models of axonemes from the flagella of green algae and from the cilia of human respiratory-tract cells reveal how the axoneme enables the cilia to move, and explain the effects of genetic mutations that cause human ciliary disease.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detailed atomic models of axonemes from algal flagella and human respiratory cilia, which are hair-like protrusions from cells that enable motility and clear mucus from human airways, could provide insights into how they function.

    • Travis Walton
    • , Miao Gui
    •  & Alan Brown

  • 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

    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 |

    A new specific, small-molecule activator of the PI3Kα isoform (UCL-TRO-1938) identified through high-throughput screening can transiently activate PI3K signalling and biological responses in cells and tissues, with potential therapeutic applications in tissue protection and regeneration.

    • Grace Q. Gong
    • , Benoit Bilanges
    •  & Bart Vanhaesebroeck

  • News & Views |

    The protein NINJ1 drives membrane rupture associated with certain types of cell death. Investigation of NINJ1 reveals mechanistic details of how it functions, raising the possibility of developing new therapeutics.

    • James C. Whisstock
    •  & Ruby H. P. Law

  • Article |

    Systematic alteration of HIV-1 TAR RNA and quantitative determination of its propensity to bind to the Tat protein establish a key role role for a rare and short-lived RNA state in Tat-dependent transactivation in cells.

    • Megan L. Ken
    • , Rohit Roy
    •  & Hashim M. Al-Hashimi

  • Article |

    Interactions between the endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein complex (EMC) and the high-voltage-activated calcium channel CaVα2δ are mutually exclusive, and EMC-to-CaVα2δ hand-off involves a divalent ion-dependent step and CaV1.2 element ordering.

    • Zhou Chen
    • , Abhisek Mondal
    •  & Daniel L. Minor Jr

  • News & Views |

    The processing of messenger RNA during splicing requires the activity of a complex of RNAs and proteins termed the spliceosome. Structural data shed light on previously mysterious aspects of splicing in humans.

    • Soo-Chen Cheng

  • Article |

    Integrative structural biology combining quantitative live imaging, cryo-correlative microscopy, subtomogram averaging and molecular modelling enables in situ determination of the structure of the endoplasmic reticulum–mitochondria encounter complex in yeast.

    • Michael R. Wozny
    • , Andrea Di Luca
    •  & Wanda Kukulski

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    The tools of crystallography, spectroscopy and quantum chemistry are pulling back the curtain on photosynthesis, probing previously elusive catalytic intermediates that arise when water splits to form oxygen.

    • Dimitrios A. Pantazis

  • Research Briefing |

    Crassviruses are the most abundant, and among the most genetically diverse, viruses found in the human gut. New structural information about these viruses has shed light on the functions of previously uncharacterized proteins in virus-particle assembly and infection.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction of the virus ΦcrAss001 provides insights into the functions of the viral gene products in capsid assembly and infection.

    • Oliver W. Bayfield
    • , Andrey N. Shkoporov
    •  & Alfred A. Antson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active-state structures of the κ-opioid receptor in complexes with the G-protein heterotrimers Gi1, GoA, Gz and Gg provide insights into the actions of hallucinogenic opioids and G-protein-coupling specificity at the κ-opioid receptor.

    • Jianming Han
    • , Jingying Zhang
    •  & Tao Che

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using serial femtosecond X-ray cystallography, we provide structural insights into the final reaction step of Kok’s photosynthetic water oxidation cycle, specifically the S3→[S4]→S0 transition where O2 is formed.

    • Asmit Bhowmick
    • , Rana Hussein
    •  & Vittal K. Yachandra

  • Research Briefing |

    Gram-negative bacteria that are resistant to multiple drugs cannot survive without the cell-surface machinery that builds a β-barrel pore structure from outer membrane proteins. Snapshots of different stages in the assembly process provide insights into this crucial mechanism, and could lead to the development of new antibiotics.

  • News |

    Ultra-specialized proteins enable octopuses and squids to taste surfaces with their suckers — and these proteins are tailored to each animal’s way of life.

    • Sara Reardon

  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy analyses reveal adaptations that facilitate the octopus chemotactile receptor’s evolutionary transition from an ancestral role in neurotransmission to detecting greasy environmental agonists for ‘taste by touch’ sensory behaviour.

    • Corey A. H. Allard
    • , Guipeun Kang
    •  & Nicholas W. Bellono

  • Article |

    Octopus and squid use cephalopod-specific chemotactile receptors to sense their respective marine environments, but structural adaptations in these receptors support the sensation of specific molecules suited to distinct physiological roles.

    • Guipeun Kang
    • , Corey A. H. Allard
    •  & Ryan E. Hibbs

  • 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

  • Research Briefing |

    Intracellular machines called ribosomes use messenger-RNA sequences to synthesize proteins. Investigations using single-molecule imaging and cryo-electron microscopy techniques reveal structural and kinetic differences in how human ribosomes function compared with those of bacteria. These differences explain why ribosomes in cell-nucleus-bearing species are slower and more accurate than their bacterial counterparts.

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