Search

Defective turnover of faulty ion channels leads to cellular damage. Here, the authors identify the molecular interaction surface between the β-subunit of calcium channels and the cytoskeletal protein actin that preserves the pool of functionally active channels at the plasma membrane.

This protocol describes how to use distance restraints obtained from cross-linking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) experiments to guide the structural prediction of proteins and protein complexes.

Auxin-mediated recruitment of AUX/IAAs by the F-box protein TIR1 prompts rapid AUX/IAA ubiquitylation and degradation. By resolving auxin receptor topology, the authors show that intrinsically disordered regions near the degrons of two Aux/IAA proteins reinforce complex assembly and position Aux/IAAs for ubiquitylation.

Fatty liver disease exacerbates atherosclerosis, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the authors show that D-dopachrome tautomerase (D-DT/MIF-2) acts as an atypical chemokine, promoting both atherosclerosis and hepatic lipid accumulation.

DNAJC12 variants cause parkinsonism. Here, the authors show that DNAJC12 stabilizes tyrosine hydroxylase, a crucial enzyme in dopamine synthesis, and identify key structural motifs for this interaction, explaining the pathogenesis of truncated variants.

Myeloid-derived growth factor (MYDGF) is an endoplasmic reticulum protein of therapeutic interest because it promotes tissue repair in a murine model of myocardial infarction. Here the authors present the NMR structure of human MYDGF and attribute function to a set of residues conserved in MYDGFs but not the vanin base domain, which has a similar fold.

Lipidated Atg8 affects membrane morphology via two aromatic membrane-facing residues that are important for autophagy in budding yeast and mammalian cells.

Developing inhibitors that target specific protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is challenging. Here, the authors show that target selectivity and PPI blocking can be achieved simultaneously with PPI inhibitors that contain two functional modules, and create a paralog-selective PSD-95 inhibitor as proof-of-concept.

The authors report here that talin and kindlin, the two key integrin binders and activators, are bridged by paxillin to induce microclustering of integrins to potently bind to multivalent extracellular ligand and trigger rapid cell attachment.

A highly potent and selective small-molecule catalytic inhibitor of the protein lysine methyltransferase NSD2 shows therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models of KRAS-driven pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.

JMML is an aggressive hematologic malignancy with myeloproliferative characteristics affecting young children. Here the authors report that C-type lectin-like molecule-1 (CLL-1) is upregulated in JMML and they develop CLL-1 CAR T cells showing in vitro and in vivo anti-JMML activity.

Ubiquitination of histone H2A can occur on distinct lysine residues, but how each site is recognised by the specific E3 ligase remains poorly understood. Here the authors demonstrate that the E3 ligase RNF168 binds the acidic patch on the nucleosome surface, directing the E2 to the target lysine K13/K15.

Using a combination of methods, the mechanism of the antibiotic teixobactin is revealed.

Here the authors use NMR, SAXS and MD simulations to characterise the structure of proteusin peptides, which are atypically long RiPP substrates. They show a small, unstructured region in the proteusin leader is sufficient for its interaction with a halogenase that brominates the terminal tryptophan residue.

Cryo-electron microscopy of Azotobacter vinelandii FeSII–nitrogenase reveals a core complex of molybdenum–iron proteins (MoFePs), iron proteins (FePs) and FeSII, in which FeSII mediates interactions with MoFeP and FeP to position their FeS clusters in catalytically inactive but O₂-protected states.

Palmulli, Couty and colleagues show that the tetraspanin CD63 promotes accumulation of cholesterol in intraluminal vesicles (ILVs) at the expense of retrieval from endosomes; cholesterol stored in ILVs and exosomes is recovered in an NPC1-dependent manner.

A nanobody was identified that targets the N-terminal fragment of the adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor ADGRG2, allosterically enhances activation by the natural agonist dehydroepiandrosterone and restores signaling in mutant receptors.

The immunoglobulin domain framework of antibodies has been a long standing design challenge. Here, the authors describe design rules for tailoring these domains and show they can be accurately designed, de novo, with high stability and the ability to scaffold functional loops.

Peptide-protein interactions are crucial for biological processes, yet accurate structural modeling remains challenging. Here, the authors introduce TopoDockQ, a topological deep learning model to enhance model selection, and ResidueX, a workflow for non-canonical amino acids integrating into custom peptide scaffolds, which represent a synergistic advancement in peptide-protein modeling and enhance more precise and versatile peptide design.

Biochemical and structural approaches define how the chaperone TAPBPR interacts with MR1 molecules, including empty and ligand-loaded MR1, and facilitates presentation of metabolite-derived antigen ligands by MR1 complexes.

Transcription factors are crucial in disease but hard to target with traditional drugs. Here, authors present BlockerSELEX, a strategy to develop inhibitory aptamers that block transcription factor interactions, which disrupts interactions between key proteins, showing potential for new nucleic acid therapies.

In this work the authors present DeepSCFold, a pipeline which improves the protein complex structure prediction accuracy by capturing intrinsic and conserved protein-protein interaction patterns through sequence-derived structure-aware information.

Histone chaperones have been shown to control the activity and specificity of histone-modifying enzymes. Here the authors establish a structural model of the acetyltransferase Rtt109 in complex with Asf1 and Vps75 and the histone dimer H3:H4, finding that Vps75 promotes K9-acetylation by engaging the H3 N-terminal tail in fuzzy electrostatic interactions with its disordered C-terminal domain.

In this work, the authors report the use of a computationally and rationally designed self-assembling peptide that has robust antiviral capability with demonstrated specificity in binding to SARS-CoV-2 and inhibition of viral entry into human cells.

Proximity between mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum regulates mitochondria fitness and is adversely affected by tissue ischemia. This work reveals that Diaphanous1-Mitofusin2 interaction regulates this proximity and impairs recovery in ischemia.

Integrated kinetic and structural investigations reveal that the ubiquitous co-chaperonin prefoldin interacts with its coiled-coil helices on the islet amyloid polypeptide fibril surface and fibril ends to inhibit fibril elongation and secondary nucleation.

Polyketide synthases infrequently insert β-branched monomers into their growing polyketide chains, the details of which are not well established. Bioinformatic, structural and mutational analyses now define a core motif and surface residues in acyl carrier proteins that govern insertion of β-branched units.