Supramolecular assembly

A method that uses a combination of optical trapping, fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics to analyse the internal structure of chromosomes shows that there is a distinct nonlinear stiffening of the chromosome in response to tension.

Glutamate receptors comprise two obligate subunits and two subunits that confer distinct properties and functions to the specific tetramers, which also localize to distinct synaptic spines. Here, the authors use STimulated Emission Depletion nanoscopy (STED) to provide detailed insights into the spatial organization of glutamate receptor types.

NHA2 exchanges sodium ions for protons across cell membranes, and its activity is linked to the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and essential hypertension in humans. Drew et al. report the cryo-EM structure of NHA2 in detergent and nanodiscs.

A DNA-binding protein condenses on DNA via a switch-like transition. Surface condensation occurs at preferential DNA locations suggesting collective sequence readout and enabling sequence-specificity robustness with respect to protein concentration.

The complex link between protein sequence and phase behaviour for a family of prion-like low-complexity domains (PLCDs) has now been revealed. The results have uncovered a set of rules—which are interpreted using a stickers-and-spacers model—that govern the sequence-encoded phase behaviour of such PLCDs and enable physicochemical rationalizations that are connected to the underlying sequence composition.

The structure of the human NALCN channelosome and a model of the gating mechanism are determined.