Biochemistry

Variety in the USP deubiquitinase catalytic mechanism

1. Niels Keijzer
2. Anu Priyanka
3. Yvette Stijf-Bultsma
4. Alexander Fish
5. Malte Gersch
6. Titia K Sixma

Reviewed by Review Commons

Mapping the architecture of the initiating phosphoglycosyl transferase from S. enterica O-antigen biosynthesis in a liponanoparticle

1. Greg J Dodge
2. Alyssa J Anderson
3. Yi He
4. Weijing Liu
5. Rosa Viner
6. Barbara Imperiali

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  This valuable manuscript provides solid methodologies for utilizing SMALP nanodisks for oligomer characterization. The authors present a platform for capturing and studying native membrane protein oligomerization and subsequent cryoEM analysis. The specific application of the method to WbaP, a membrane-bound phosphoglycosyl transferase, adds to our understanding of glycoconjugate production in bacteria. This manuscript would be of interest to those focusing on native membrane protein studies and antimicrobial resistance.

Reviewed by eLife

Unveiling the domain-specific and RAS isoform-specific details of BRAF kinase regulation

1. Tarah Elizabeth Trebino
2. Borna Markusic
3. Haihan Nan
4. Shrhea Banerjee
5. Zhihong Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript describes useful information on the interactions of the BRAF N-terminal regulatory regions (CRD, RBD and BSR) with the C-terminal kinase domain and with the upstream regulators HRAS and KRAS. The authors provide solid evidence that the BRAF BSR domain may negatively regulate RAS binding and propose that the presence of the BSR domain in BRAF provides an additional layer of autoinhibitory constraints. The data will be of interest for researchers in the RAS/RAF and general kinase regulation fields.

Reviewed by eLife

Differing structures of galactoglucomannan in eudicots and non-eudicot angiosperms

1. Konan Ishida
2. Yusuke Ohba
3. Yoshihisa Yoshimi
4. Louis F. L. Wilson
5. Alberto Echevarría-Poza
6. Li Yu
7. Hiroaki Iwai
8. Paul Dupree

Reviewed by PREreview

Evolution towards simplicity in bacterial small heat shock protein system

1. Piotr Karaś
2. Klaudia Kochanowicz
3. Marcin Pitek
4. Przemyslaw Domanski
5. Igor Obuchowski
6. Barlomiej Tomiczek
7. Krzysztof Liberek

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study advances our understanding of the evolution of protein complexes and their functions. Through convincing experimental and computational methodologies, the authors show that the specialization of protein function following gene duplication can be reversible. The work will be of interest to investigators working in biochemical evolution and those working on heat shock proteins.

Reviewed by eLife

Optimization of extraction, Structural characterization of immunomodulatory acidic polysaccharide from Euphorbia caducifolia

1. Kusuma Venumadhav
2. Kottapalli Seshagirirao

Reviewed by PREreview

Venom diversity in Naja mossambica : Insights from proteomic and immunochemical analyses reveal intraspecific differences

1. Konrad K. Hus
2. Justyna Buczkowicz
3. Monika Pietrowska
4. Vladimír Petrilla
5. Monika Petrillová
6. Jaroslav Legáth
7. Thea Litschka-Koen
8. Aleksandra Bocian

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The mRNACalc web server accounts for the hypochromicity of modified nucleosides and enables the accurate quantification of nucleoside-modified mRNA

1. Esteban Finol
2. Sarah E. Krul
3. Sean J. Hoehn
4. Carlos E. Crespo-Hernández

Reviewed by Review Commons

Ice nucleation proteins self-assemble into large fibres to trigger freezing at near 0 °C

1. Thomas Hansen
2. Jocelyn Lee
3. Naama Reicher
4. Gil Ovadia
5. Shuaiqi Guo
6. Wangbiao Guo
7. Jun Liu
8. Ido Braslavsky
9. Yinon Rudich
10. Peter L Davies

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study provides molecular-level insights into the functional mechanism of bacterial ice-nucleating proteins, detailing electrostatic interactions in the domain architecture of multimeric assemblies. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, with results from protein engineering experiments, functional assays, and cryo-electron tomography, while the proposed structural model of protein self-assembly remains hypothetical. The work is of broad interest to researchers in the fields of protein structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, with implications in microbial ecology and atmospheric glaciation.

Reviewed by eLife

High-throughput Automated Muropeptide Analysis (HAMA) Reveals Peptidoglycan Composition of Gut Microbial Cell Walls

1. Ya-Chen Hsu
2. Pin-Rui Su
3. Lin-Jie Huang
4. Kum-Yi Cheng
5. Chun-hsien Chen
6. Cheng-Chih Hsu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study reports a new approach to determine the architecture of peptidoglycan (PG), the primary component of the bacterial cell wall, validating the pipeline through an architectural analysis of several members of the human gut microbiota. The technique is potentially valuable for this sub-field as it would enable researchers interested in peptidoglycan in a range of organisms to easily assess muropeptide composition in an easy, automated manner. However, there is some uncertainty about whether the pipeline was fully automated and it was noted that the pipeline requires prior knowledge of the peptidoglycan composition of an organism. Additionally, the use of the technique to investigate whether PG cross-bridge length is a determinant of cell wall stiffness produced evidence that would need more direct support and is therefore so far incomplete.

Reviewed by eLife