Abstract. Proteostasis relies on the coordinated control of protein synthesis, folding, modification and degradation, and an increasingly clear picture is

Abstract. Target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling plays a pivotal role in regulating various cellular processes, including energy metabolism and growth. In thi

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) encode multi-subunit RNA polymerases (msRNAPs) that challenge conventional views of viral evolution. Phylogenetic and structural studies reveal that NCLDV RNAP catalytic cores share deep evolutionary roots with eukaryotic counterparts, implicating ancient gene transfers that shaped the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), underscoring NCLDVs’ pivotal role in eukaryotic origins. NCLDV RNAP retains the fundamental architecture of cellular RNAPs while evolving and adapting for viral gene regulation. This review summarizes structural and functional divergences between viral and cellular RNAPs, synthesizes evidence for virus-driven RNAP evolution, and evaluates emerging hypotheses of viral eukaryogenesis. Viewing viruses as evolutionary collaborators offers new insights into RNAP adaptability and bridges virology, evolutionary biology, and synthetic biology across diverse biological contexts.

By studying dynamic folding intermediates on the human ribosome, Pellowe et al. show that newly made domains help each other to fold but do not stably interact until synthesis is complete, avoiding in...

Amid Trump research cuts, visa restrictions, and international conflicts, some winners sit out the celebration of whimsical science

A full-time tenure-track assistant professor position at the IRBV, Université de Montréal.

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Plasmids are autonomously replicating DNA molecules that stably coexist with chromosomes in bacterial cells. These genetic elements drive horizontal gene transfer and play a fundamental role in bacter...

Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs, or tDRs) perform a range of cellular functions. Here, we showed that a hypoxia-induced tDR, derived from the 3′ end of tRNA-Asp-GTC (tRNA-Asp-GTC-3′tDR), activ...

In structure-function studies, Gamerdinger and Echeverria et al. uncover the cotranslational mechanism of N-myristoyltransferases (NMTs), essential enzymes that attach a lipid anchor to newborn proteins. They show that NMT activity is orchestrated by a key regulator at the ribosomal tunnel exit, the nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC).

Plant viruses are obligate intracellular pathogens that hijack host cellular machinery to support their replication and spread. Viral infection induces a variety of structural and physiological change...

Efficient delivery systems are urgently needed for genome editing in monocot plants. Here, this study develops a system of virus-induced genome editing in tillers (ViGET) to achieve heritable editing ...

Genetic variance is vital for breeding programs and mutant screening, yet traditional mutagenesis methods wrestle with genetic redundancy and a lack of specificity in gene targeting. Here the authors ...

The current “consensus” order in which amino acids were added to the genetic code is based on potentially biased criteria, such as the absence of s...

Abstract. Assessing the dynamics of chromatin features and transcription factor (TF) binding at scale remains a significant challenge in plants. Here, we p

The bacterial anti-phage toxin–antitoxin–chaperone defence system CmdTAC senses capsid proteins via CmdC, enabling dissociation from the CmdTAC complex of the RNA ADP-ribosyltransferase CmdT, which ta...