Biophysics

Aquavert – Imaging and Microfluidics for Vertical Swimming of Microorganisms

1. Haley B. Obenshain
2. Isaias Zarate
3. Olivia Hedman-Manzano
4. Jared Goderich
5. Sungho Lee
6. Bryant A. Lopez
7. Emma Varela
8. Ga-Young Kelly Suh
9. Douglas A. Pace
10. Siavash Ahrar

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Heterogeneity in ligand-bound TRPV1: A comparison of methods in cryo-EM and molecular dynamics simulation

1. Miro A. Astore
2. Robert Blackwell
3. David Silva-Sánchez
4. Pilar Cossio
5. Sonya M. Hanson

Reviewed by PREreview

Atomic-Level Free Energy Landscape Reveals Cooperative Symport Mechanism of Melibiose Transporter

1. Ruibin Liang
2. Lan Guan

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this potentially important study, the authors employed advanced computational techniques to explore a detailed atomistic description of the mechanism and energetics of substrate translocation in the MelB transporter. The overall approach is solid and reveals the coupling between sodium binding and melibiose transport through a series of conformational transitions, and the results for a mutant are also in qualitative agreement with the experiment, providing further support to the computational analyses. Nevertheless, the level of evidence is considered incomplete since there are concerns regarding the convergence and initial guess of the string calculations, leaving doubts that the computed pathway does not reflect the most energetically favorable mechanism.

Reviewed by eLife

A direct computational assessment of vinculin-actin unbinding kinetics reveals catch bonding behavior

1. Willmor J Peña Ccoa
2. Fatemah Mukadum
3. Aubin Ramon
4. Guillaume Stirnemann
5. Glen M Hocky

Reviewed by PREreview

Interplay of condensate material properties and chromatin heterogeneity governs nuclear condensate ripening

1. Deb Sankar Banerjee
2. Tafadzwa Chigumira
3. Rachel M Lackner
4. Josiah C Kratz
5. David M Chenoweth
6. Shiladitya Banerjee
7. Huaiying Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this potentially valuable study, the authors employed in vivo experiments and theoretical modeling to study the growth dynamics of nuclear condensates. They observed that condensates can exhibit distinct growth modes, as dictated by the competition between condensate surface tension and local elasticity of chromatin. While the theoretical model appears to capture the experimental observations, the level of evidence supporting the proposed growth mechanism is incomplete due to, among other limitations, the multiple fitting parameters and poorly justified Neo-Hookean elasticity.

Reviewed by eLife