Biophysics

Water and chloride as allosteric inhibitors in WNK kinase osmosensing

1. Liliana R Teixeira
2. Radha Akella
3. John M Humphreys
4. Haixia He
5. Elizabeth J Goldsmith

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important investigation of water coordination in a specific kinase family with a focus on the regulation of osmosensing protein kinases. X-ray crystallographic approaches combined with functional assays are used to address the hypothesis that bound water participates in the osmosensing mechanism as an allosteric kinase inhibitor. The evidence for changes in kinase conformation and space group of the crystal as a function of added low molecular weight polyethylene glycol is solid. The work will be of considerable interest to the kinase field as well as colleagues studying allosteric regulation of protein function.

Reviewed by eLife

Feeding Rates in Sessile versus Motile Ciliates are Hydrodynamically Equivalent

1. Jingyi Liu
2. Yi Man
3. John H Costello
4. Eva Kanso

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important paper addresses the role of fluid flows in nutrient uptake by microorganisms propelled by the action of cilia or flagella. Using a range of mathematical models for the flows created by such appendages, the authors provide convincing evidence that the two strategies of swimming and sessile motion can be competitive. These results will have significant implications for our understanding of the evolution of multicellularity in its various forms.

Reviewed by eLife

Prebiotic gas flow environment enables isothermal nucleic acid replication

1. Philipp Schwintek
2. Emre Eren
3. Christof Mast
4. Dieter Braun

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work shows how a simple geophysical setting of gas flow over a narrow channel of water can create a physical environment that leads to the isothermal replication of nucleic acids. The work presents convincing evidence for an isothermal polymerase chain reaction in careful experiments involving evaporation and convective flows, complimented with fluid dynamics simulations. This work will be of interest to scientists working on the origin of life and more broadly, on nucleic acids and diagnostic applications.

Reviewed by eLife

Cellular coordination underpins rapid reversals in gliding filamentous cyanobacteria and its loss results in plectonemes

1. Jerko Rosko
2. Kelsey Cremin
3. Emanuele Locatelli
4. Mary Coates
5. Sarah JN Duxbury
6. Kieran Randall
7. Katie Croft
8. Chantal Valeriani
9. Marco Polin
10. Orkun S Soyer

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Using microscopy experiments and theoretical modelling, the authors present convincing evidence of cellular coordination in the gliding filamentous cyanobacterium Fluctiforma draycotensis. The results are important for the understanding of cyanobacterial motility and the underlying molecular and mechanical pathways of cellular coordination.

Reviewed by eLife

Targeted anticancer pre-vinylsulfone covalent inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase IX

1. Aivaras Vaškevičius
2. Denis Baronas
3. Janis Leitans
4. Agnė Kvietkauskaitė
5. Audronė Rukšėnaitė
6. Elena Manakova
7. Zigmantas Toleikis
8. Algirdas Kaupinis
9. Andris Kazaks
10. Marius Gedgaudas
11. Aurelija Mickevičiūtė
12. Vaida Juozapaitienė
13. Helgi B Schiöth
14. Kristaps Jaudzems
15. Mindaugas Valius
16. Kaspars Tars
17. Saulius Gražulis
18. Franz-Josef Meyer-Almes
19. Jurgita Matulienė
20. Asta Zubrienė
21. Virginija Dudutienė
22. Daumantas Matulis

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper reports the synthesis of covalent inhibitors bearing a unique fragment as a protected covalent warhead for irreversible binding to histidine in carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes. These findings are important due to the broad utility of the approach for covalent drug discovery applications and could have long-term impacts on related covalent targeting approaches. The data convincingly support the main conclusions of the paper.

Reviewed by eLife

Electrostatic interactions in nucleosome and higher-order structures are regulated by protonation state of histone ionizable residue

1. Houfang Zhang
2. Wenhan Guo
3. Wang Xu
4. Anbang Li
5. Lijun Jiang
6. Lin Li
7. Yunhui Peng

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study explores the impact of pH changes and cancer mutations on nucleosome interactions and higher-order chromatin structures. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid, based on rigorous computational methods, including pKa prediction, electrostatic force calculation, and molecular dynamics simulations. The findings provide insights into how protonation states and cancer-associated mutations affect nucleosome electrostatics and chromatin organization, making this work of broad interest to chromatin biologists, cancer researchers, and computational biophysicists.

Reviewed by eLife

Probing the modulation of enzyme kinetics by multi-temperature, time-resolved serial crystallography

1. Eike C. Schulz
2. Andreas Prester
3. David von Stetten
4. Gargi Gore
5. Caitlin E. Hatton
6. Kim Bartels
7. Jan-Philipp Leimkohl
8. Hendrik Schikora
9. Helen M. Ginn
10. Friedjof Tellkamp
11. Pedram Mehrabi

Reviewed by PREreview

Energetic portrait of the amyloid beta nucleation transition state

1. Anna Arutyunyan
2. Mireia Seuma
3. Andre J. Faure
4. Benedetta Bolognesi
5. Ben Lehner

Reviewed by PREreview

Connecting Chromatin Structures to Gene Regulation Using Dynamic Polymer Simulations

1. Yi Fu
2. Tianxiao Zhao
3. Finnegan Clark
4. Sofia Nomikou
5. Aristotelis Tsirigos
6. Timothée Lionnet

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a valuable optimization algorithm to identify polymer models that best fit population-averaged chromosome contact data that will be of interest to physicists and biologists working on chromatin organization. The conclusions are supported by solid evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

Molecular Insights into Single Chain Lipid Modulation of Acid-Sensing Ion Channel 3

1. Ramya Bandarupalli
2. Rebecca Roth
3. Robert C Klipp
4. John R Bankston
5. Jing Li

Reviewed by Arcadia Science