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In this Review, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of recent structural studies of the cGAS–STING complex, discussing pertinent functional and mechanistic implications.
Recent studies offer new insight on the mechanisms of IP6-mediated HIV-1 capsid assembly. The immature Gag lattice enables enrichment of IP6 into virions, aiding capsid maturation. Structures of capsid protein (CA) assemblies reveal motifs serving as switches modulating the conformations of CA pentamers/hexamers and affect co-factor accessibility.
Sperm flagella of highly divergent eukaryotic species share an architectural plan. Despite their ostensible ultrastructural similarities, mammalian sperm flagella beat with an asymmetric waveform, in contrast to the symmetrical beats of other eukaryotic flagella. Structural findings elucidate the molecular basis for this evolutionary divergence.
AlphaFold2 has already changed structural biology, but its true power may lie in how it changes the way we think about cells and organisms. Two studies broadly assess its utility and limitations in providing structural models to shed light in areas such as mutations, protein–protein interactions, and phosphorylation.
Gene transcription initiation is a highly regulated process in which Pol II and general transcription factors assemble into a pre-initiation complex. Structural studies of yeast and human initiation complexes shed light on the role of the first nucleosome flanking gene promoters in controlling the transcription machinery.
Craspase is newly identified type III CRISPR–Cas system with two major components: the nuclease Cas7-11, and the protease TPR-CHAT. Craspases perform a delicate balancing act between nuclease and protease activity to achieve immune tolerance and defense in bacteria, and show promise as highly regulatable genome-editing tools.
New work on DNA polymerase λ highlights its remarkable flexibility. This fits with the generally adaptable nature of the DNA-repair process in which this enzyme is involved—nonhomologous end-joining—which allows this mechanism to handle diverse types of broken DNA ends in order to restore the duplex structure, albeit with a loss of information at the join.
Nuclear actin polymerization helps facilitate chromosome compartment switches that can shift damaged DNA toward a nuclear environment that is favorable for DNA repair. Yet shifting multiple broken DNA strands together can also increase the likelihood of misjoining of the DNA ends and subsequent formation of translocations.
In this Perspective the authors discuss the major challenges when studying the role of enhancers in disease etiology, highlighting a path forward for future studies aiming to understand the molecular basis of enhanceropathies.
New research shows that the CoREST complex controls the acquisition of endocrine therapy resistance in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. Profiling data show that this resistance transition is accompanied by a functional retargeting of CoREST on chromatin in coordination with cJUN and SWI/SNF (cBAF).
Recent structures of the three-way complex formed by the scaffold protein SHOC2, the small G protein M-RAS and protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) provide a tantalizing insight into the activation of RAF, the oncogenic kinase and downstream effector of RAS that drives cell proliferation and survival.
The mechanisms by which translesion DNA polymerases mediate DNA repair are incompletely understood. A new study shows that Escherichia coli DNA polymerase IV is concentrated at the sites of arrested DNA synthesis by an interaction with SSB, the major single-stranded DNA-binding protein, specifically at stalled but not ongoing replication forks.
New cryo-EM structures of the FANCD2–FANCI complex provide insights into how phosphorylation of FANCI facilitates DNA clamping to prime the complex for monoubiquitination and recruitment of downstream factors in the Fanconi anemia pathway of DNA damage repair.
A study published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology now unveils, at the atomic level, the initial mechanisms of prion toxicity, providing insights into the pathogenic mechanisms of a protein neurodegenerative disease caused by protein misfolding.
CST is both an ssDNA-binding complex and a DNA Pol-α/primase cofactor that coordinates the switch from G-strand elongation to C-strand fill-in during telomere maintenance. Four papers in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and Nature provide transformative insights into CST activity, providing a platform to understand lagging-strand synthesis genome wide.
Amplification of oncogene expression through extrachromosomal DNA is a common feature of many cancers and is associated with poor outcomes. Hung et al. review how regulation of extrachromosomal DNA gene expression is linked to alterations in chromatin structure and changes in contacts with DNA regulatory elements.
