Publications by authors named "Yanwu Huo"

The Gabija system is a newly discovered bacterial immune system that consists of GajA and GajB. Here we report the cryo-EM structure of the Gabija complex from Bacillus cereus VD045 at 3.6 Å, which provides the direct evidence of interactions between GajA and GajB.

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Phosphatidic acid (PA), the simplest phospholipid, acts as a key metabolic intermediate and second messenger that impacts diverse cellular and physiological processes across species ranging from microbes to plants and mammals. The cellular levels of PA dynamically change in response to stimuli, and multiple enzymatic reactions can mediate its production and degradation. PA acts as a signalling molecule and regulates various cellular processes via its effects on membrane tethering, enzymatic activities of target proteins, and vesicular trafficking.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cancer cells change the way they use energy and nutrients to grow quickly, especially in tough environments with less oxygen and food.
  • A protein called mitochondrial elongation factor 4 (mtEF4) is found in higher amounts in breast cancer compared to healthy tissue, and this is linked to how aggressive the cancer is.
  • When mtEF4 is reduced, breast cancer cells struggle to make energy and move, but when mtEF4 levels are high, the cells can move better and spread more easily throughout the body.
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Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection found in women in the world. Due to increasing drug-resistance of virulent pathogen such as Gardnerella vaginalis (G. vaginalis), more than half of BV patients suffer recurrence after antibotics treatment.

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Overuse of β2-adrenoceptor agonist bronchodilators evokes receptor desensitization, decreased efficacy, and an increased risk of death in asthma patients. Bronchodilators that do not target β2-adrenoceptors represent a critical unmet need for asthma management. Here, we characterize the utility of osthole, a coumarin derived from a traditional Chinese medicine, in preclinical models of asthma.

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CRISPR drives prokaryotic adaptation to invasive nucleic acids such as phages and plasmids, using an RNA-mediated interference mechanism. Interference in type I CRISPR-Cas systems requires a targeting Cascade complex and a degradation machine, Cas3, which contains both nuclease and helicase activities. Here we report the crystal structures of Thermobifida fusca Cas3 bound to single-stranded (ss) DNA substrate and show that it is an obligate 3'-to-5' ssDNase that preferentially accepts substrate directly from the helicase moiety.

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Whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious acute respiratory illness of humans caused by the Gram-negative bacterial pathogen Bordetella pertussis. The AT (autotransporter) BrkA (Bordetella serum-resistance killing protein A) is an important B. pertussis virulence factor that confers serum resistance and mediates adherence.

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Thermosomes are group II chaperonins responsible for protein refolding in an ATP-dependent manner. Little is known regarding the conformational changes of thermosomes during their functional cycle due to a lack of high-resolution structure in the open state. Here, we report the first complete crystal structure of thermosome (rATcpnβ) in the open state from Acidianus tengchongensis.

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Recombinant thermosomes from the Acidianus tengchongensis strain S5(T) were purified to homogeneity and assembled in vitro into homo-oligomers (rATcpnalpha or rATcpnbeta) and hetero-oligomers (rATcpnalphabeta). The symmetries of these complexes were determined by electron microscopy and image analysis. The rATcpnalpha homo-oligomer was shown to possess 8-fold symmetry while both rATcpnbeta and rATcpnalphabeta oligomers adopted 9-fold symmetry.

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