Browse our latest Biochemistry and Chemical Biology articles

The Ras activator RasGRP1 that impacts Ras signals in immune cells, leukemias, and colorectal cancer, switches to an active conformation aided by a pH-sensitive histidine residue in a central location of the RasGRP1 molecule.

Sec17 is shown to have divergent effects on pre-fusion SNARE complex activity, depending on the state of SNARE zippering and HOPS, an SM-tether complex, controls the outcome of Sec17-SNARE engagement.

The messenger RNA encoding La-related protein-4 (LARP4) contains a short region of instability whose codon clusters are sensitive to low abundance tRNAs that when elevated increase LARP4 activity for poly(A) lengthening of ribosomal protein mRNAs and other mRNAs.

With monoubiquitination sites of Rab5 identified and structural and biochemical studies using chemically synthesized ubiquitinated Rab5, Rab5 monoubiquitination is found to downregulate the function of Rab5 in a site-dependent manner.

Hinokiflavone is identified as a splicing modulator that blocks progression from spliceosome complex A to complex B and inhibits SUMO protease SENP1, causing hyper-SUMOylation affecting 6 U2 snRNP proteins.

Metabolic relationships between cells in the retina and retinal pigment epithelium are fundamental to retinal function, retinal disease and age-related vision loss and they may provide strategies for metabolism-based therapies.

Single molecule fluorescence analysis of spliceosome E complex formation reveals how tuning of U1 binding to the 5' SS facilitates efficient capture of the snRNP by pre-mRNAs.

Host protein homeostasis is a critical force shaping influenza evolution, impacting both the nature of selection on the influenza genome and the accessibility of specific mutational trajectories.

Biochemical and cell biological analyses reveal that the Astrin-SKAP complex acts to stabilize kinetochore-microtubule interactions through its intrinsic microtubule binding activity and its association with the Ndc80 complex, the core component of the kinetochore-microtubule interface.

Lin37 is essential for cell-cycle gene repression by the DREAM complex in cellular quiescence and a combined loss of Lin37 and Rb prevents cell-cycle exit in response to growth-limiting signals.