Biochemistry

Elucidating ATP’s role as solubilizer of biomolecular aggregate

1. Susmita Sarkar
2. Saurabh Gupta
3. Chiranjit Mahato
4. Dibyendu Das
5. Jagannath Mondal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors combined molecular dynamics simulations and experiments to study the role of ATP as a hydrotrope of protein aggregates. The topic is of major current interest and thus the study potentially makes an important contribution to the community. With the revised version, the level of evidence is considered generally solid, although there remains concern regarding the unusually high ATP concentration used in the simulation.

Reviewed by eLife

Dimer-monomer transition defines a hyper-thermostable peptidoglycan hydrolase mined from bacterial proteome by lysin-derived antimicrobial peptide-primed screening

1. Li Zhang
2. Fen Hu
3. Zirong Zhao
4. Xinfeng Li
5. Mingyue Zhong
6. Jiajun He
7. Fangfang Yao
8. Xiaomei Zhang
9. Yuxuan Mao
10. Hongping Wei
11. Jin He
12. Hang Yang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study explores a new strategy of lysin-derived antimicrobial peptide-primed screening to find peptidoglycan hydrolases from bacterial proteomes. Using this strategy, the authors identified five peptidoglycan hydrolases from Acinetobacter baumannii, which they tested on various Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens for antimicrobial activity. The revised manuscript addressed most of the prior concerns, and the data presented are solid and will be of interest to microbiologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Disordered proteins interact with the chemical environment to tune their protective function during drying

1. Shraddha KC
2. Kenny H Nguyen
3. Vincent Nicholson
4. Annie Walgren
5. Tony Trent
6. Edith Gollub
7. Paulette Sofia Romero-Perez
8. Alex S Holehouse
9. Shahar Sukenik
10. Thomas C Boothby

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study investigates the sensitivity to endogenous cosolvents of three families of intrinsically disordered proteins involved with desiccation. The findings, drawn from well-designed experiments and calculations, suggest a functional synergy between sensitivity to small molecule solutes and convergent desiccation protection strategy. The evidence is found to be convincing, and the authors provide appropriate caveats since the study's conclusions are based on a small number of proteins. This work will be of interest to biochemists and biophysicists interested in the conformation-function relationship of intrinsically disordered proteins.

Reviewed by eLife

Early steps of protein disaggregation by Hsp70 chaperone and class B J-domain proteins are shaped by Hsp110

1. Wiktoria Sztangierska
2. Hubert Wyszkowski
3. Maria Pokornowska
4. Klaudia Kochanowicz
5. Michal Rychłowski
6. Krzysztof Liberek
7. Agnieszka Kłosowska

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides an important insight into the mechanisms of cooperation between Hsp70 and its cochaperones during reactivation of aggregated proteins. Based on convincing evidence, the authors demonstrate that the co-chaperone Hsp110 boosts disaggregation activity by enhancing Hsp70 recruitment to protein aggregates. This work is of broad interest to biochemists and cell biologists working in the protein homeostasis field.

Reviewed by eLife

Cryo-electron tomographic investigation of native hippocampal glutamatergic synapses

1. Aya Matsui
2. Cathy Spangler
3. Johannes Elferich
4. Momoko Shiozaki
5. Nikki Jean
6. Xiaowei Zhao
7. Maozhen Qin
8. Haining Zhong
9. Zhiheng Yu
10. Eric Gouaux

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This fundamental study demonstrates a novel method for imaging glutamate receptors in situ via cryo-ET. The use of cutting-edge methods is well-described and is compelling. This paper is broadly relevant to biophysicists and neuroscientists.

Reviewed by eLife

DTX3L ubiquitin ligase ubiquitinates single-stranded nucleic acids

1. Emily L Dearlove
2. Chatrin Chatrin
3. Lori Buetow
4. Syed F Ahmed
5. Tobias Schmidt
6. Martin Bushell
7. Brian O Smith
8. Danny T Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study reports the discovery of a novel nucleotide ubiquitylation activity by the DTX3L E3 ligase. Solid evidence is presented for ubiquitin attachment to single-stranded oligonucleotides. This very interesting biochemical finding can be used as a starting point for studies to establish relevance in a physiological setting.

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Evolutionarily divergent Mycobacterium tuberculosis CTP synthase filaments are under selective pressure

1. Eric M. Lynch
2. Yao Lu
3. Jin Ho Park
4. Lin Shao
5. Justin Kollman
6. E. Hesper Rego

Reviewed by PREreview

SIRT2-mediated ACSS2 K271 deacetylation suppresses lipogenesis under nutrient stress

1. Rezwana Karim
2. Wendi Teng
3. Cameron D Behram
4. Hening Lin

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study describes a role for acetylation in controlling the stability of acetyl-CoA synthetase 2, which converts acetate to acetyl-CoA for de novo lipid synthesis. While many aspects of the study are solid, some evidence supporting these findings is incomplete. Including direct demonstration of target deacetylation by sirtuin 2, revisiting statistical analyses, and confirming generalizability to adipocyte cell lines would further strengthen the study. This work will be of interest to researchers studying lipid metabolism and related diseases.

Reviewed by eLife

The deubiquitinase Ubp3/Usp10 constrains glucose-mediated mitochondrial repression via phosphate budgeting

1. Vineeth Vengayil
2. Shreyas Niphadkar
3. Swagata Adhikary
4. Sriram Varahan
5. Sunil Laxman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides valuable insights into the regulation of metabolic flux between glycolysis and respiration in yeast, particularly focusing on the role of inorganic phosphate. The authors propose a novel mechanism involving Ubp3/Ubp10 that potentially mitigates the Crabtree effect, offering substantial, solid evidence through a variety of well-designed assays. This study could reshape our understanding of metabolic regulation with broad biological contexts.

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Reassessing the substrate specificities of the major Staphylococcus aureus peptidoglycan hydrolases lysostaphin and LytM

1. Lina Antenucci
2. Salla Virtanen
3. Chandan Thapa
4. Minne Jartti
5. Ilona Pitkänen
6. Helena Tossavainen
7. Perttu Permi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript describes a valuable study aimed at identifying the substrate specificity of two cell wall hydrolases LSS and LytM in S. aureus. The authors show that LytM has a novel function of cleaving D-Ala-Gly instead of only Gly-Gly by using synthetic substrates and compelling NMR-based real-time kinetics measurements.

Reviewed by eLife