Nramp-family transporters adapt a common fold to a novel mechanism in which the spatial and temporal separation of like-charge transition metal and proton co-substrates circumvents the expected electrostatic repulsion.

A structural investigation reveals details of the mechanism by which the nuclease RecJ processes DNA ends to repair double strand breaks.

Structures of a transition metal transporter spanning the entire Mn²⁺ transport cycle reveal distinct coordination geometries and dynamic polar networks that enable Mn²⁺ import, and a Cd²⁺-bound structure helps explain how Cd²⁺ behaves differently as a substrate.

RecO efficiently displaces SSB from ssDNA without consuming ATPs using its two DNA-binding sites, even though SSB binds to ssDNA approximately 300 times more strongly than RecO does.

Time-resolved crystallography provides insight into the photochemical reactions in photoreceptor proteins, explaining the earliest steps of how plants, fungi and bacteria sense red light.

Experiments on E. coli show that multiple mechanisms contribute to extreme resistance to ionizing radiation in bacteria, with mutations to three genes for DNA repair having a prominent role in one evolved population.

A new perspective on the 50-year old mystery of why phages encode their own tRNAs.

Kasugamycin potentiates rifampicin killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by targeting adaptive mistranslation.

The role of the bacterial protein RadA in homologous recombination – a DNA repair pathway vital to all cells – is defined.