Biophysics

The geometric basis of epithelial convergent extension

1. Fridtjof Brauns
2. Nikolas H Claussen
3. Matthew F Lefebvre
4. Eric F Wieschaus
5. Boris I Shraiman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study analyzes in an original way how tension pattern dynamics can reveal the contribution of active versus passive intercalation during tissue elongation. The authors develop a compelling, elegant analytical framework (isogonal tension decomposition) to disentangle the passive (adjacent tissues pulling) and active (local tension anisotropy) contributions to intercalation events. This allows the generation of global maps of tissue mechanics that will be extremely helpful in the field of biomechanics.

Reviewed by eLife

Structure of the human heparan-α-glucosaminide N-acetyltransferase (HGSNAT)

1. Vikas Navratna
2. Arvind Kumar
3. Jaimin K Rana
4. Shyamal Mosalaganti

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study presents the structure of human heparan-alpha-glucosaminide N-acetyltransferase (HGSNAT) in the acetyl-CoA bound state, providing the first description of the architecture of this family of integral membrane enzymes, and revealing the mode of acetyl-CoA binding. The structural work is convincing, with a high resolution and isotropic single-particle cryoEM map and an atomic model that is well-justified by the density map, with strong density for the acetyl-CoA ligand. However, experimental support for the molecular mechanism of the HS acetylation reaction and the impact of disease-causing mutations is incomplete. This work will be of interest to biochemists and structural biologists studying the structure and function of integral membrane enzymes, as well as those interested in genetic diseases resulting from mutations in this family of enzymes, such as mucopolysaccharidosis IIIC (MPS III-C).

Reviewed by eLife

Long-distance electron transport in multicellular freshwater cable bacteria

1. Tingting Yang
2. Marko S Chavez
3. Christina M Niman
4. Shuai Xu
5. Mohamed Y El-Naggar

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This work presents fundamental new insights into the conductivity of freshwater cable bacteria. The evidence supporting the conclusions, which was collected using appropriate techniques, is compelling. The work will be of interest to environmental microbiologists and the microbial electrochemistry community.

Reviewed by eLife

Membrane curvature sensing and symmetry breaking of the M2 proton channel from Influenza A

1. James Lincoff
2. Cole VM Helsell
3. Frank V Marcoline
4. Andrew M Natale
5. Michael Grabe

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors combined atomistic simulations and continuum mechanics models to probe how structural features of the M2 channel impact the local membrane properties and stability of the channel in membranes of different curvatures. The insights gained in this work can potentially lead to novel strategies that screen for drug molecules that stabilize fission-incompetent conformations of the M2 channel. The multi-scale computational approach will find utility to many problems in membrane reshaping.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Modulation of α-synuclein aggregation amid diverse environmental perturbation

1. Abdul Wasim
2. Sneha Menon
3. Jagannath Mondal

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides important biophysical insights into the molecular mechanism underlying the association of alpha-synuclein chains, which is essential for understanding the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. The data analysis is solid, and the methodology can help investigate other molecular processes involving intrinsically disordered proteins.

Reviewed by eLife

Differential conformational dynamics in two type-A RNA-binding domains drive the double-stranded RNA recognition and binding

1. Firdousi Parvez
2. Devika Sangpal
3. Harshad Paithankar
4. Zainab Amin
5. Jeetender Chugh

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents a useful comparison of the dynamic properties of two RNA-binding domains. The data collection and analysis are solid, making excellent use of a suite of NMR experiments and ITC data. Nonetheless, reported evidence was found to only partially support the proposed connection between the backbone dynamics of the tandem domains and their RNA binding activity. This work will be of interest to biophysicists working on RNA-binding proteins.

Reviewed by eLife

OpenNucleome for high-resolution nuclear structural and dynamical modeling

1. Zhuohan Lao
2. Kartik D Kamat
3. Zhongling Jiang
4. Bin Zhang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work significantly advances the field of computational modelling of genome organisation through the development of OpenNucleome. The evidence supporting the tool's effectiveness is compelling, as the authors compare their predictions with experimental data. It is anticipated that OpenNucleome will attract significant interest from the biophysics and genomics communities.

Reviewed by eLife

Structure and dynamics of cholesterol-mediated aquaporin-0 arrays and implications for lipid rafts

1. Po-Lin Chiu
2. Juan D Orjuela
3. Bert L de Groot
4. Camilo Aponte Santamaría
5. Thomas Walz

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This manuscript aims to unravel the contribution of cholesterol to aquaporin-0 (AQP0) tetramer array formation within lens membranes. Compelling electron crystallography data are combined with solid molecular dynamics experiments to identify a specific cholesterol binding site of significance to protein clustering within lipid rafts. The important work advances our understanding of membrane biology and will be of broad interest to membrane transport biologists, biochemists, and structural biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

A complete map of specificity encoding enables reprogramming of a dynamic protein interaction

1. Taraneh Zarin
2. Cristina Hidalgo-Carcedo
3. Ben Lehner

Reviewed by PREreview

Cryo-EM structure and biochemical analysis of human chemokine receptor CCR8

1. Qi Peng
2. Haihai Jiang
3. Xinyu Cheng
4. Na Wang
5. Sili Zhou
6. Yuting Zhang
7. Tingting Yang
8. Yixiang Chen
9. Wei Zhang
10. Sijia Lv
11. Weiwei Nan
12. JianFei Wang
13. Guo-Huang Fan
14. Jian Li
15. Jin Zhang

Reviewed by PREreview