Large-scale chemoproteomics expedites ligand discovery and predicts ligand behavior in cells.

Chemical modulation of proteins enables a mechanistic understanding of biology and represents the foundation of most therapeutics. However, despite decades of research, 80% of the human proteome lacks functional ligands. Chemical proteomics has advanced fragment-based ligand discovery toward cellular systems, but throughput limitations have stymied the scalable identification of fragment-protein interactions.

Plus and minus ends of microtubules respond asymmetrically to kinesin binding by a long-range directionally driven allosteric mechanism.

Although it is known that majority of kinesin motors walk predominantly toward the plus end of microtubules (MTs) in a hand-over-hand manner, the structural origin of the stepping directionality is not understood. To resolve this issue, we modeled the structures of kinesin-1 (Kin1), MT, and the Kin1-MT complex using the elastic network model and calculated the residue-dependent responses to a local perturbation in the constructs. Kin1 binding elicits an asymmetric response that is pronounced in α/β-tubulin dimers in the plus end of the MT.

Mouse embryo geometry drives formation of robust signaling gradients through receptor localization.

Morphogen signals are essential for cell fate specification during embryogenesis. Some receptors that sense these morphogens are known to localize to only the apical or basolateral membrane of polarized cell lines in vitro. How such localization affects morphogen sensing and patterning in the developing embryo remains unknown.

Parsing the roles of neck-linker docking and tethered head diffusion in the stepping dynamics of kinesin.

Kinesin walks processively on microtubules (MTs) in an asymmetric hand-over-hand manner consuming one ATP molecule per 16-nm step. The individual contributions due to docking of the approximately 13-residue neck linker to the leading head (deemed to be the power stroke) and diffusion of the trailing head (TH) that contributes in propelling the motor by 16 nm have not been quantified. We use molecular simulations by creating a coarse-grained model of the MT-kinesin complex, which reproduces the measured stall force as well as the force required to dislodge the motor head from the MT, to show that nearly three-quarters of the step occurs by bidirectional stochastic motion of the TH.

Phylogenetic position of the white-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys), a newly described primate from southeastern Tibet.

The white-cheeked macaque Macaca leucogenys is a recently described species that was only diagnosed based on photos, without any specimen measurements or molecular genetic diagnosis. Using DNA extracted from four newly collected skin specimens, we studied the genetic diversity and phylogenetic position of M. leucogenys using multilocus sequence data, including mitochondrial and Y chromosomal genes.

Importance of Hydrodynamic Interactions in the Stepping Kinetics of Kinesin.

Conventional kinesin walks by a hand-over-hand mechanism on the microtubule (MT) by taking ∼8 nm discrete steps and consumes one ATP molecule per step. The time needed to complete a single step is on the order of 20 μs. We show, using simulations of a coarse-grained model of the complex containing the two motor heads, the MT and the coiled coil, that to obtain quantitative agreement with experiments for the stepping kinetics hydrodynamic interactions (HIs) have to be included.

Dissecting the kinematics of the kinesin step.

Kinesin walks processively on microtubules in an asymmetric hand-over-hand manner with each step spanning 16 nm. We used molecular simulations to determine the fraction of a single step due to conformational changes in the neck linker, and that due to diffusion of the tethered head. Stepping is determined largely by two energy scales, one favoring neck-linker docking and the other, ε(h)(MT-TH), between the trailing head (TH) and the microtubule.

Myosin VI: how do charged tails exert control?

Molecular dynamics simulations and single molecule experiments are used to suggest that charged helices in the medial tail domain participate in myosin VI dimerization (Kim et al., 2010), which reinforces the mechanism that unfolding of the three helix bundle in the proximal tail serves as a lever arm extension.