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Porins, like OmpG, are embedded in the outer membrane of bacteria and facilitate uptake and secretion of nutrients and ions. Here the authors present a protocol for solid state NMR structure determination of proteins larger than 25 kDa and use it to structurally characterize membrane embedded OmpG.

Rhodopsin signalling is triggered by the light-induced isomerization of its 11-cisretinal chromophore. Here, the authors use NMR spectroscopy to define retinal orientation and interactions in the active metarhodopsin II intermediate, proposing a two-stage mechanism for rhodopsin activation.

Endonuclease V can initiate the repair of deaminated purine bases by recognizing them and hydrolyzing the second phosphodiester bond on their 3′ side. Now the crystal structures of endonuclease V in complex with its substrate and its product reveal a wedge motif acting as a minor groove–damage sensor and a pocket to recognize the lesion; the enzyme remains tightly bound to the 5′ phosphate product, perhaps to hand it over to downstream repair factors.

Solid-state NMR reveals that lignin-carbohydrate contact patterns, rather than lignin amount, shape the structure and property of plant cell walls, highlighting distinct roles of lignin and carbohydrate units during wall formation.

α-synuclein amyloid fibrils are associated with Parkinson's disease. SSNMR analyses now reveal the atomic structure of a pathogenic human α-synuclein fibril, providing a framework for understanding fibril nucleation, propagation and interactions with small molecules.

Huntingtin exon-1 (HTTex1) consists of a N-terminal N17 domain, the disease causing polyQ domain and a C-terminal proline-rich domain (PRD). Here, the authors combine electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), solid-state NMR with other biophysical method to characterise the structural differences of various HTTex1 fibril types with different toxicity and find that the dynamics and entanglement of the PRD domain differs among them and that the HTTex1 fibrils can be interconverted.

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of intrinsically disordered proteins plays an important part in the formation of extracellular biological materials. Here, the authors show that repeats of the peptide motif GHGLY are necessary for the LLPS of pH-responsive histidine-rich squid beak proteins.

The accumulation of alpha-synuclein fibrils within neurons is the defining feature of Lewy body dementia (LBD). Here the authors report a method to produce large quantities of alpha-synuclein fibrils that reproduce the complex structure of the fibrils that accumulate in LBD brain tissue.

The prevalent fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, and the emerging multidrug-resistant superfungus, Candida auris, share the same initial cell wall architecture but remodel it differently in response to echinocandin-induced antifungal stress.

Here, the authors reveal the protonation of a single membrane embedded glutamate residue within the homodimer of the efflux transporter EmrE modulates the structure and dynamics in an allosteric manner using NMR spectroscopy.

The interactions of lignin with polysaccharides in plant secondary cell walls are not well understood. Here the authors employ solid-state NMR measurements to analyse intact stems of maize, Arabidopsis, switchgrass and rice and observe that lignin self-aggregates and forms highly hydrophobic microdomains that make extensive surface contacts to xylan.

Aggregation of eye lens proteins leads to cataracts, a major cause of blindness. Here the authors use solid state NMR to probe the structure of γD-crystallin eye lens proteins aggregates, which are found to retain a native-like conformation.

A study reports the development of a structural derivative of amphotericin B with broad antifungal activity in mice but without the renal toxicity associated with amphotericin B.

Prion diseases can be transmitted across species. Here the authors use solid-state NMR to study prion protein (PrP) amyloids from human, mouse and Syrian hamster and show that their structural differences are mainly governed by two residues, which helps to understand interspecies PrP propagation on a molecular level.

A solid-state NMR structure of an amyloid fibril formed by synthetic human glucagon reveals two distinct β-strand conformations that alternate in an antiparallel fashion along the fibril axis.

The self-propagation of misfolded conformations of tau occurs in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The microtubule-binding region, tau_244-372, reproduces much of the aggregation behaviour of tau in cells and animal models. Now, it has been shown that a 31-residue peptide from tau's R3 domain forms a cross-β conformation that efficiently seeds aggregation of tau_244-372 in cells.

Amyloidogenic aggregation of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides disrupts cellular membranes and is a viable cytotoxicity mechanism in Alzheimer’s disease, but studying the underlying molecular behavior is challenging due to peptide heterogeneity and low abundance. Here, the authors use solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to show that, compared to the less pathogenic Aβ_1-40 peptide, Aβ_1-42 forms smaller oligomers prior to fibrillation and exhibits more pronounced residue-specific contacts with phospholipid headgroups.

Despite recent progress, solving protein structures using solid-state NMR spectroscopy is not routine. Now, a method for the rapid determination of global protein fold is reported, based on measurements of ¹⁵N longitudinal paramagnetic relaxation enhancements in several protein variants modified with covalently attached cysteine–EDTA–Cu²⁺ tags.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

The development of spintronics relies on the exploitation of techniques to control different spin species separately. Here the authors make use of spin orbit coupling to spatially separate two spin populations and control the subsequent coherent evolution.

The effect of histone H4 lysine 20 methylation (H4K20me) on chromatin accessibility are not well established. Here the authors show how H4K20 methylation regulates chromatin structure and accessibility to ensure precise transcriptional outputs through the cell cycle using genome-wide approaches, in vitro biophysical assays, and NMR.

NMR structural data and biophysical and biological experiments show that the antifungal compound amphotericin is toxic because it acts as a sterol sponge by interacting with ergosterol on the fungal membrane and extracting it from within the membrane to the surface of the membrane.

A study shows that epididymal spermatozoa are sensitive to preconception diet, identifies mitochondrial tRNAs and their fragments as sperm-borne factors and demonstrates epigenetic inheritance of mitochondrial tRNAs.

At subduction zones, andesite lavas erupt in greater abundance than the individual magmas that mix to produce them. Textural and geochemical analyses of andesites from Mount Hood, Oregon, reveal that injection and mixing of iron- and magnesium-rich magma in the magma chamber can initiate the volcanic eruption.

Cell membrane interfaces, including the glycocalyx, play a crucial role in regulating signaling processes, yet its molecular composition remains poorly understood due to a lack of tools for probing interfacial components in intact cells. Here, the authors present a solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance approach that selectively probes the glycocalyx and its surroundings, providing molecular-level insights into cell interfaces in their native extracellular environment.