Editorial overview: From powerful tools to useful products: protein engineering after 35 years of directed evolution
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Docking approaches for modeling multi-molecular assemblies
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Computational docking approaches aim to overcome the limited availability of experimental structural data on protein–protein interactions, which are key in biology. The field is rapidly moving from the traditional docking methodologies for modeling of binary complexes to more integrative approaches using template-based, data-driven modeling of mult...
Beyond protein structure determination with MicroED
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) was first coined and developed in 2013 at the Janelia Research Campus as a new modality in electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM). Since then, MicroED has not only made important contributions in pushing the resolution limits of cryoEM protein structure characterization but also of peptides, small-organic and i...
Glycan structures and their interactions with proteins. A NMR view.
Published in Current opinion in structural biology
Carbohydrate molecules are essential actors in key biological events, being involved as recognition points for cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions related to health and disease. Despite outstanding advances in cryoEM, X-ray crystallography and NMR still remain the most employed techniques to unravel their conformational features and to describe ...
INO80 and SWR1 complexes: the non-identical twins of chromatin remodelling.
Published in Current opinion in structural biology
The INO80 family of chromatin remodellers are multisubunit complexes that perform a variety of tasks on nucleosomes. Family members are built around a heterohexamer of RuvB-like protein, an ATP-dependent DNA translocase,nuclear actin and actin-related proteins, and a few complex-specific subunits. They modify chromatin in a number of ways including...
Cell guidance ligands, receptors and complexes - orchestrating signalling in time and space.
Published in Current opinion in structural biology
Members of four cell guidance molecule families (the netrins, slits, ephrins and semaphorins) interact with their cognate cell surface receptors to guide cells during development and maintain tissue homeostasis. Integrated structure and cell-based analyses are providing insight into the mechanisms by which these signalling systems can deliver myria...
Using protein engineering to understand and modulate aggregation
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Protein aggregation occurs through a variety of mechanisms, initiated by the unfolded, non-native, or even the native state itself. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation is challenging, given the array of competing interactions that control solubility, stability, cooperativity and aggregation propensity. An array of methods ...
Mechanistic insights into mRNA 3'-end processing.
Published in Current opinion in structural biology
The polyadenosine (poly(A)) tail found on the 3'-end of almost all eukaryotic mRNAs is important for mRNA stability and regulation of translation. mRNA 3'-end processing occurs co-transcriptionally and involves more than 20 proteins to specifically recognize the polyadenylation site, cleave the pre-mRNA, add a poly(A) tail, and trigger transcriptio...
Jump ahead with a twist: DNA acrobatics drive transposition forward
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Transposases move discrete pieces of DNA between genomic locations and had a profound impact on evolution. They drove the emergence of important biological functions and are the most frequent proteins encoded in modern genomes. Yet, the molecular principles of their actions have remained largely unclear. Here we review recent structural studies of ...
Dcp2: an mRNA decapping enzyme that adopts many different shapes and forms
Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Eukaryotic mRNAs contain a 5’ cap structure that protects the transcript against rapid exonucleolytic degradation. The regulation of cellular mRNA levels therefore depends on a precise control of the mRNA decapping pathways. The major mRNA decapping enzyme in eukaryotic cells is Dcp2. It is regulated by interactions with several activators, includi...
