A minimal cell-like system with defined geometry has been used to investigate the establishment and spatial control of a protein gradient that positions the bacterial cell division machinery.
Genome dilution limits cell growth by modulating the activities, rather than the concentrations, of RNA polymerases and ribosomes, and is accompanied by changes in proteome composition.
Brian V Tsu, Christopher Beierschmitt ... Matthew D Daugherty
Proteases from diverse viruses, the first described pathogen-encoded activators of human NLRP1, cleave NLRP1 at a sequence that mimics the viral polyprotein, resulting in inflammasome activation and pro-inflammatory cytokine release.
Codon optimization through biased synonymous substitutions is a characteristic feature of the genomes of generalist fungal parasites and is associated with the colonization of multiple hosts.
Antoine Vigouroux, Baptiste Cordier ... Sven van Teeffelen
Class-A penicillin-binding proteins are dispensable for rod-like cell-shape but essential for mechanical integrity by sensing and repairing cell-wall defects locally, as investigated in the model system Escherichia coli.
Virginia Kroef, Sabine Ruegenberg ... Martin Sebastian Denzel
AMDHD2 restricts the activity of the essential hexosamine pathway in mouse embryonic stem cells where GFPT2/GFAT2 instead of the common paralog GFPT1/GFAT1 controls metabolite entry.
Gemma LM Fisher, César L Pastrana ... Mark S Dillingham
A combination of structural, biochemical, single-molecule and in vivo methods are used to show how ParB locally condenses the bacterial chromosome near the origin and earmarks this region for segregation.
Using bacteriophages as probes, new genes involved in cell surface construction were identified in a class of bacteria that includes important pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
