Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications最新文献

The GTPase FlhF, a signal recognition particle (SRP)-type enzyme, is pivotal for spatial-numerical control and bacterial flagella assembly across diverse species, including pathogens. This study presents the X-ray structure of FlhF in its GDP-bound state at a resolution of 2.28 Å. The structure exhibits the classical N- and G-domain fold, consistent with related SRP GTPases such as Ffh and FtsY. Comparative analysis with GTP-loaded FlhF elucidates the conformational changes associated with GTP hydrolysis. These topological reconfigurations are similarly evident in Ffh and FtsY, and play a pivotal role in regulating the functions of these hydrolases.

Sorghum, a short-day tropical plant, has been adapted for temperate grain production, in particular through the selection of variants at the MATURITY loci (Ma1-Ma6) that reduce photoperiod sensitivity. Ma3 encodes phytochrome B (phyB), a red/far-red photochromic biliprotein photoreceptor. The multi-domain gene product, comprising 1178 amino acids, autocatalytically binds the phytochromobilin chromophore to form the photoactive holophytochrome (Sb.phyB). This study describes the development of an efficient heterologous overproduction system which allows the production of large quantities of various holoprotein constructs, along with purification and crystallization procedures. Crystals of the Pr (red-light-absorbing) forms of NPGP, PGP and PG (residues 1-655, 114-655 and 114-458, respectively), each C-terminally tagged with His₆, were successfully produced. While NPGP crystals did not diffract, those of PGP and PG diffracted to 6 and 2.1 Å resolution, respectively. Moving the tag to the N-terminus and replacing phytochromobilin with phycocyanobilin as the ligand produced PG crystals that diffracted to 1.8 Å resolution. These results demonstrate that the diffraction quality of challenging protein crystals can be improved by removing flexible regions, shifting fusion tags and altering small-molecule ligands.

Acta Cryst. F – Structural Biology Communications plans to introduce more video content to articles and Dialpuri et al. [(2024). Acta Cryst. F80, 30–35] provide an early example.

The methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway is a metabolic pathway that produces the isoprenoids isopentyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate. Notably, the MEP pathway is present in bacteria and not in mammals, which makes the enzymes of the MEP pathway attractive targets for discovering new anti-infective agents due to the reduced chances of off-target interactions leading to side effects. There are seven enzymes in the MEP pathway, the third of which is IspD. Two crystal structures of Burkholderia thailandensis IspD (BtIspD) were determined: an apo structure and that of a complex with cytidine triphosphate (CTP). Comparison of the CTP-bound BtIspD structure with the apo structure revealed that CTP binding stabilizes the loop composed of residues 13–19. The apo structure of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis IspD (MpIspD) is also reported. The melting temperatures of MpIspD and BtIspD were evaluated by circular dichroism. The moderate T_m values suggest that a thermal shift assay may be feasible for future inhibitor screening. Finally, the binding affinity of CTP for BtIspD was evaluated by isothermal titration calorimetry. These structural and biophysical data will aid in the discovery of IspD inhibitors.

Human tRNA (uracil-5-)-methyltransferase 2 homolog A (TRMT2A) is the dedicated enzyme for the methylation of uridine 54 in transfer RNA (tRNA). Human TRMT2A has also been described as a modifier of polyglutamine (polyQ)-derived neuronal toxicity. The corresponding human polyQ pathologies include Huntington's disease and constitute a family of devastating neurodegenerative diseases. A polyQ tract in the corresponding disease-linked protein causes neuronal death and symptoms such as impaired motor function, as well as cognitive impairment. In polyQ disease models, silencing of TRMT2A reduced polyQ-associated cell death and polyQ protein aggregation, suggesting this protein as a valid drug target against this class of disorders. In this paper, the 1.6 Å resolution crystal structure of the RNA-recognition motif (RRM) from Drosophila melanogaster, which is a homolog of human TRMT2A, is described and analysed.

Owing to the difficulties associated with working with carbohydrates, validating glycan 3D structures prior to deposition into the Protein Data Bank has become a staple of the structure-solution pipeline. The Privateer software provides integrative methods for the validation, analysis, refinement and graphical representation of 3D atomic structures of glycans, both as ligands and as protein modifiers. While Privateer is free software, it requires users to install any of the structural biology software suites that support it or to build it from source code. Here, the Privateer web app is presented, which is always up to date and available to be used online (https://privateer.york.ac.uk) without installation. This self-updating tool, which runs locally on the user's machine, will allow structural biologists to simply and quickly analyse carbohydrate ligands and protein glycosylation from a web browser whilst retaining all confidential information on their devices.