Structure of blood cell-specific tubulin and demonstration of dimer spacing compaction in a single protofilament.

Microtubule (MT) function plasticity originates from its composition of α- and β-tubulin isotypes and the post-translational modifications of both subunits. Aspects such as MT assembly dynamics, structure, and anticancer drug binding can be modulated by αβ-tubulin heterogeneity. However, the exact molecular mechanism regulating these aspects is only partially understood.

Determining structures of RNA conformers using AFM and deep neural networks.

Much of the human genome is transcribed into RNAs, many of which contain structural elements that are important for their function. Such RNA molecules-including those that are structured and well-folded-are conformationally heterogeneous and flexible, which is a prerequisite for function, but this limits the applicability of methods such as NMR, crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy for structure elucidation. Moreover, owing to the lack of a large RNA structure database, and no clear correlation between sequence and structure, approaches such as AlphaFold for protein structure prediction do not apply to RNA.