A combination of advanced optical imaging and cryogenic electron microscopy has been used to explore membrane fusion in a synthetic system and provide new insights into neurotransmitter release.

Novel imaging experiments suggest that fruit flies modify their neural circuitry for walking at slow, medium and fast speeds, and that proprioception is not essential for coordinated walking.

Long-lived intermediate states formed by glycoprotein catalysts are an essential part of the process used by influenza virus particles to infect cells.

Computer simulations reveal that viral nucleic acids have an ideal structure for being packaged into outer protein shells called capsids.

Reduced expression of MYBL2 contributes to malignancies of the blood by permitting uncontrolled expansion of blood cell progenitors, implying a tumor suppressor function for this gene.

Steroid hormone receptors control the expression of their target genes through a digital on-off switch in individual cells, which leads to an analogue dose-response relationship at the level of the whole organism.

Computer simulations show that the firing patterns of branched touch receptors can be set in part by the organization of their sensory endings in the skin.

Sodium ions but not protons induce defined helix movements in a sodium/proton antiporter and suggest a mechanism for Na + binding and transport.

A small molecule, cotransin, blocks transmembrane domains form integrating into cell membranes by allosterically ‘locking’ the lateral gate of the Sec61 translocation channel.

In the Arabidopsis epidermis, the internal mechanical stress of a cell competes with the external stress to control microtubule behavior, providing a framework to understand the mechanical feedbacks that underlie plant morphogenesis.