Fidelity of prespacer capture and processing is governed by the PAM-mediated interactions of Cas1-2 adaptation complex in CRISPR-Cas type I-E system.

Prokaryotes deploy CRISPR-Cas-based RNA-guided adaptive immunity to fend off mobile genetic elements such as phages and plasmids. During CRISPR adaptation, which is the first stage of CRISPR immunity, the Cas1-2 integrase complex captures invader-derived prespacer DNA and specifically integrates it at the leader-repeat junction as spacers. For this integration, several variants of CRISPR-Cas systems use Cas4 as an indispensable nuclease for selectively processing the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) containing prespacers to a defined length.

Fluorescence bimolecular complementation enables facile detection of ribosome assembly defects in Escherichia coli.

Assembly factors promote the otherwise non-spontaneous maturation of ribosome under physiological conditions inside the cell. Systematic identification and characterization of candidate assembly factors are fraught with bottlenecks due to lack of facile assay system to capture assembly defects. Here, we show that bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) allows detection of assembly defects that are induced by the loss of assembly factors.

Active site plasticity enables metal-dependent tuning of Cas5d nuclease activity in CRISPR-Cas type I-C system.

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) in association with CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins constitutes a formidable defense system against mobile genetic elements in prokaryotes. In type I-C, the ribonucleoprotein surveillance complex comprises only three Cas proteins, namely, Cas5d, Csd1 and Csd2. Unlike type I-E that uses Cse3/CasE for metal-independent CRISPR RNA maturation, type I-C that lacks this deputes Cas5d to process the pre-crRNA.

Mutational analysis of the ribosome assembly GTPase RbgA provides insight into ribosome interaction and ribosome-stimulated GTPase activation.

Ribosome biogenesis GTPase A protein (RbgA) is an essential GTPase required for the biogenesis of the 50S subunit in Bacillus subtilis. Homologs of RbgA are widely distributed in bacteria and eukaryotes and are implicated in ribosome assembly in the mitochondria, chloroplast and cytoplasm. Cells depleted of RbgA accumulate an immature large subunit that is missing key ribosomal proteins.

Structural basis unifying diverse GTP hydrolysis mechanisms.

Central to biological processes is the regulation rendered by GTPases. Until recently, the GTP hydrolysis mechanism, exemplified by Ras-family (and G-α) GTPases, was thought to be universal. This mechanism utilizes a conserved catalytic Gln supplied "in cis" from the GTPase and an arginine finger "in trans" from a GAP (GTPase activating protein) to stabilize the transition state.

Deciphering the catalytic machinery in 30S ribosome assembly GTPase YqeH.

Background: YqeH, a circularly permuted GTPase (cpGTPase), which is conserved across bacteria and eukaryotes including humans is important for the maturation of small (30S) ribosomal subunit in Bacillus subtilis. Recently, we have shown that it binds 30S in a GTP/GDP dependent fashion. However, the catalytic machinery employed to hydrolyze GTP is not recognized for any of the cpGTPases, including YqeH.

Circularly permuted GTPase YqeH binds 30S ribosomal subunit: Implications for its role in ribosome assembly.

YqeH, a circularly permuted GTPase, is conserved among bacteria and eukaryotes including humans. It was shown to be essential for the assembly of small ribosomal (30S) subunit in bacteria. However, whether YqeH interacts with 30S ribosome and how it may participate in 30S assembly are not known.

Structural stabilization of GTP-binding domains in circularly permuted GTPases: implications for RNA binding.

GTP hydrolysis by GTPases requires crucial residues embedded in a conserved G-domain as sequence motifs G1-G5. However, in some of the recently identified GTPases, the motif order is circularly permuted. All possible circular permutations were identified after artificially permuting the classical GTPases and subjecting them to profile Hidden Markov Model searches.