Stepwise order in protein complex assembly: approaches and emerging themes.

Protein-based nanomachines drive every cellular process. An explosion of high-resolution structures of multiprotein complexes has improved our understanding of what these machines look like and how they work, but we still know relatively little about how they assemble in living cells. For example, it has only recently been appreciated that many complexes assemble co-translationally, with at least one subunit still undergoing active translation while already interacting with other subunits.

Roles for the canonical polarity machinery in the establishment of polarity in budding yeast spores.

Unlabelled: The yeast buds at sites pre-determined by cortical landmarks deposited during prior budding. During mating between haploid cells in the lab, external pheromone cues override the cortical landmarks to drive polarization and cell fusion. By contrast, in haploid gametes (called spores) produced by meiosis, a pre-determined polarity site drives initial polarized morphogenesis independent of mating partner location.

Wild yeast isolation by middle school students reveals features of North American oak populations of and .

Features of the natural life cycle of the budding yeast were crucial to its domestication as a laboratory experimental model, especially the ability to maintain stable haploid clones and cross them at will to combine alleles via meiosis. Stable haploidy results from mutations in , which encodes an endonuclease required for haploid-specific mating-type switching. Previous studies found an unexpected diversity of alleles among natural isolates within a small geographic area.

Effect of oral tryptamines on the gut microbiome of rats-a preliminary study.

Background: Psilocybin and related tryptamines have come into the spotlight in recent years as potential therapeutics for depression. Research on the mechanisms of these effects has historically focused on the direct effects of these drugs on neural processes. However, in addition to such neural effects, alterations in peripheral physiology may also contribute to their therapeutic effects.