Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to solve structures of the IR8a-IR75k receptor complex from the malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi, capturing it in ligand-free, ligand-bound, and open-channel states. The structures show how nonanoic and octanoic acid binding reshapes a pocket in IR75k, triggering domain closure that is mechanically transmitted to open the channel's pore, a mechanism confirmed through molecular dynamics simulations and electrophysiology experiments.
nature.com
· 2026-10-14
Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to resolve the structure of a supercomplex formed between nitrogenase and a PII signal transduction protein in a methanogen archaeon. The structure captures how PII, a widely conserved regulator of nitrogen metabolism, physically associates with the nitrogen-fixing enzyme, offering a molecular view of this interaction not previously visualized at this resolution.
nature.com
· 2026-10-07
Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy and biochemical assays, including ATP binding and hydrolysis measurements, to characterize the LPS transport (Lpt) machinery in bacteria, focusing on proteins LptC and LptA. The team engineered bacterial strains lacking these genes and complemented them with a fusion protein to verify how the transport complex assembles and functions across the cell envelope.
nature.com
· 2026-10-07
Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to directly visualize how magnesium ions move within flexible RNA structures at near-atomic resolution, something previous structural methods could not capture. The work shows that RNA catalytic activity arises from shifting ensembles of structures rather than a single fixed conformation, with Mg2+ ions playing a dynamic role throughout.
nature.com
· 2026-10-07
Researchers extracted insoluble tau aggregates from postmortem brains of five Alzheimer's disease patients and six corticobasal degeneration patients, then injected these seeds into the striatum of wild-type mice. Nine to twelve months later, the mice's brains were analyzed using immunohistochemistry and cryo-electron microscopy to assess how the human tau propagated.
nature.com
· 2026-09-30
Scientists purified and structurally analyzed SC003-mi3, an engineered virus-like particle derived from i3-01 with cysteine mutations and a SpyCatcher domain for attaching other proteins. Using E. coli expression, ammonium sulfate precipitation and dialysis, they produced pure particles suitable for detailed molecular observation of how the nanoparticle assembles itself.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
Researchers solved eight cryo-EM structures of human UGCG, the enzyme that gatekeeps glycosphingolipid synthesis, capturing it alone and bound to substrates, products and the drugs miglustat, ibiglustat and eliglustat. The team also ran molecular dynamics simulations and a cross-species sequence comparison spanning platypus, marsupials, elephants and other mammals to trace how UGCG regulation evolved, finding features unique to primates. All structural data, simulation files and sequences have been deposited in public repositories.
nature.com
· 2026-08-26
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