Biophysics

Caveolin-1 protects endothelial cells from extensive expansion of transcellular tunnel by stiffening the plasma membrane

1. Camille Morel
2. Eline Lemerle
3. Feng-Ching Tsai
4. Thomas Obadia
5. Nishit Srivastava
6. Maud Marechal
7. Audrey Salles
8. Marvin Albert
9. Caroline Stefani
10. Yvonne Benito
11. François Vandenesch
12. Christophe Lamaze
13. Stéphane Vassilopoulos
14. Matthieu Piel
15. Patricia Bassereau
16. David Gonzalez-Rodriguez
17. Cecile Leduc
18. Emmanuel Lemichez

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study identifies the role of Caveolin1 and Cavin1 as regulators of TransEndothelial Macroaperture (TEM). The methodology used is rigorous and compelling, and further research can point to more mechanistic understanding of the process.

Reviewed by eLife

Substrate evaporation drives collective construction in termites

1. Giulio Facchini
2. Alann Rathery
3. Stéphane Douady
4. David Sillam-Dussès
5. Andrea Perna

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study investigates the environmental drivers behind termite construction, focusing, in particular, on pellet deposition behavior, with the conclusion that termites likely sense curvature indirectly through substrate evaporation. The findings reconcile discrepancies between previous studies through experimental and computational approaches. While the strength of the evidence supporting these claims is compelling, the authors do not discuss how their results affect our understanding of insect nest construction or animal-built structures more broadly.

Reviewed by eLife

Interplay between charge distribution and DNA in shaping HP1 paralog phase separation and localization

1. Tien M Phan
2. Young C Kim
3. Galia T Debelouchina
4. Jeetain Mittal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study substantially advances our understanding of molecular mechanisms driving the phase separation behavior of HP1 paralogs. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, with rigorous and well-designed computational simulations. The work will be of broad interest to biophysicists and biochemists.

Reviewed by eLife

Reliable protein-protein docking with AlphaFold, Rosetta, and replica-exchange

1. Ameya Harmalkar
2. Sergey Lyskov
3. Jeffrey J. Gray

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors report a previously published method ReplicaDock to improve predictions from AlphaFold-multimer (AFm) for protein docking studies. The level of improvement is modest for cases where AFm is successful; for cases where AFm is not as successful, the improvement is more significant, although the accuracy of prediction is also notably lower. Therefore, the evidence for the ReplicaDock approach being more predictive than AFm is solid for some cases (e.g., the antibody-antigen test case) but incomplete for the more extensive test sets (e.g., those presented in Figure 6). Overall, the study makes a valuable contribution by combining data- and physics-driven approaches.

Reviewed by eLife

Structural basis for the preservation of a subset of topologically associating domains in interphase chromosomes upon cohesin depletion

1. Davin Jeong
2. Guang Shi
3. Xin Li
4. D Thirumalai

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study, of interest for students of the biology of genomes, uses simulations in combination with published data to examine how many TADs remain after cohesin depletion. The authors suggest that a significant subset of chromosome conformations do not require cohesin, and that knowledge of specific epigenetic states can be used to identify regions of the genome that still interact in the absence of cohesin. The theoretical approaches and quantitative analysis are state-of-the-art, and the data quality and strength of the conclusions are convincing, but it is unfortunately still unclear whether physical boundaries (of domains?) in the model appear to be a consequence of preserved TADs, or whether preserved TADs are caused by the physical boundaries.

Reviewed by eLife

Raman microscopy of cryofixed biological specimens for high-resolution and high-sensitivity chemical imaging

1. Kenta Mizushima
2. Yasuaki Kumamoto
3. Shoko Tamura
4. Masahito Yamanaka
5. Kentaro Mochizuki
6. Menglu Li
7. Syusuke Egoshi
8. Kosuke Dodo
9. Yoshinori Harada
10. Nicholas I. Smith
11. Mikiko Sodeoka
12. Hideo Tanaka
13. Katsumasa Fujita

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

The molecular basis of Abelson kinase regulation by its αI-helix

1. Johannes Paladini
2. Annalena Maier
3. Judith Maria Habazettl
4. Ines Hertel
5. Rajesh Sonti
6. Stephan Grzesiek

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript describes an important NMR investigation of allosteric interactions within Abl kinase. The authors identify helix I as a major element that couples the Abl active site with the myristate-binding pocket. The convincing findings have implications for understanding Abl kinase activation and how to target Abl kinase in diseases.

Reviewed by eLife

The positioning mechanics of microtubule asters in Drosophila embryo explants

1. Jorge de-Carvalho
2. Sham Tlili
3. Timothy E Saunders
4. Ivo A Telley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript utilizes a Drosophila explant system and modeling to provide important insights into the mechanism of microtubule aster positioning. Although the intellectual framework of aster positioning has been worked out by the same authors in their previous work, this study provides additional solid evidence to solidify their model.

Reviewed by eLife

Biophysical mechanism of ultrafast helical twisting contraction in the giant unicellular ciliate Spirostomum ambiguum

1. L. X. Xu
2. M. S. Bhamla

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Explicit ion modeling predicts physicochemical interactions for chromatin organization

1. Xingcheng Lin
2. Bin Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors have developed a compelling coarse-grained simulation approach for nucleosome-nucleosome interactions within a chromatin array. The data presented are solid and provide new insights that allow for predictions of how chromatin interactions might occur in vivo. The tools presented herein will be valuable for the chromosome biology field.

Reviewed by eLife