Copper is a proposed component of the host immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis; thus, an understanding of how this pathogen mitigates copper stress may yield new targets for therapeutic...

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 31 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01852-1TOM and TIM22 complexes facilitate the transport of carrier protein substrates into mitochondria. New work shows that, in human mitochondria, these two protein complexes form transient supercomplexes to facilitate protein biogenesis.

Heme biosynthesis is tightly coordinated to support essential functions without accumulating toxic porphyrins and depleting cellular iron. Heme induces degradation of the heme biosynthetic enzyme, 5-a...

How do cells ensure that complex, multidomain proteins fold correctly? Luo et al. reveal a self-contained solution. The 3′UTR of an mRNA co-translationally chaperones the protein it encodes, preventin...

Targeted protein degradation eliminates disease-driving proteins by co-opting the ubiquitin–proteasome system. Now, a single degradation tail enables a molecular glue to hijack two E3 ubiquitin ligase...

Despite the identification of over 600 E3 ligases, current proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) predominantly rely on CRBN and VHL. Recently, GID4, a substrate receptor of the CTLH E3 ligase compl...

Human ATP synthase is a molecular rotary machine bound in inner mitochondrial membranes, built from twenty-eight subunits of seventeen kinds, two encoded in mitochondrial DNA, the remainder in nuclear...

Transcriptional regulation is a central mechanism underlying bacterial adaptation to stress. Here, the authors used a genetic fitness screen to show that the Y-complex in Bacillus subtilis contributes...

Weinhäupl et al. determine the cryo-EM structure of the ClpC1P1P2 complex from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, revealing an asymmetric architecture and selective activator binding. They show that molecula...

Central to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the failure in insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells associated with insulin resistance. The nuclear receptor RXRA/RXRα (retinoid X recep...

AAA+ unfoldases are essential molecular motors that power protein degradation and disaggregation. This review integrates recent cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures and single-molecule bioph...

More than 15 years ago, during my PhD, we stumbled upon something unexpected. In a yeast two-hybrid screen, bacterial effector proteins from Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas interacted with a subunit of…

Human TOM complex was revealed as a dynamic hub, with FKBP8 as a human-specific interactor shaping biogenesis.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

The Arg/N-degron pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is mediated by two interacting E3 ubiquitin ligases, Ubr1 and Ufd4. We show here that the mito...

Proteasomes typically degrades ubiquitin-tagged proteins, but midnolin enables a distinct ubiquitin-independent pathway. Here, the authors present cryo-EM structures of the midnolin-proteasome complex...

AAA+ -ATPases drive diverse molecular remodeling processes in cells. Here, the authors characterize the interaction between the NorQ ATPase and its VWA domain partner NorD, and propose a twisting mech...

How ribosome-bound NAC distinguishes mitochondrial precursors from ER clients has remained unclear. Here, authors reveal a molecular switch in NAC that limits SRP access to nascent mitochondrial precu...

General and regulatory proteolysis in bacteria is executed by a set of ATP-dependent proteases composed of hexameric ring-forming AAA+ proteins and associated peptidase barrels (e.g. ClpP). These AAA+...

Location: Cambridge. Vacancy: Research Group Leader Tenure Track - Structural Studies - LMB 2775. Closing Date: 16/03/2026, 23:55

Most mitochondrial proteins are produced in the cytosol and imported through the translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM) to reach their final destination. Although this protein entry gat...

Large oligomeric proteins constitute a major fraction of proteomes, but are difficult to refold in vitro, raising the question of how cells direct their biogenesis. Roeselová and Shivakumaraswamy et a...

Single-particle tracking experiments in intact cells reveal dynamic co- and post-translational interactions of the TRiC–PFD chaperonin complex with client proteins during in vivo protein folding.

Mitochondrial AAA+ proteases, LONP1, ClpXP, YME1L (i-AAA), and the m-AAA complex, maintain protein quality and shape organelle function. Growing interest in these enzymes stems from their association ...

Yme1 is a conserved ATP-dependent protease that maintains mitochondrial function by degrading proteins in the intermembrane space. However, how Yme1 selects substrates within the crowded mitochondria...

Natural proteins often form intricate multidomain, oligomeric architectures. This presents a prima facie challenge to cellular homeostasis, as topolog…

Cells rely on AAA+ machines to move and remodel proteins. Here, authors show that ClpB threads proteins rapidly using ATP to bias diffusive motion, revealing a fast, stochastic Brownian-motor mechanis...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

The United States is leaving some of the world’s oldest and most influential scientific networks involved in biodiversity research, climate science and conservation. Affected organizations tell Nature that their work continues.

A library of 400 phage protein-coding genes is used to find a trove of antiphage systems, revealing systems that target tail fibre and major capsid proteins.

Protein degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy are essential mechanisms that are involved in virtually all cellular activities, and their inadequate function was shown to underli...

Conventional PROTACs have limited capacity for misfolded proteins. Here, authors develop a BioPROTAC containing an scFv specifically targeting misfolded SOD1, fused to an E3 ligase, and demonstrate a ...