Repeated duplications and losses shaped SMC complex evolution from archaeal ancestors to modern eukaryotes: Cell Reports https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00626-6?rss=yes

Repeated duplications and losses shaped SMC complex evolution from archaeal ancestors to modern eukaryotes

Van Hooff et al. reconstruct the evolutionary histories of eukaryotic SMC complexes, molecular machineries that organize chromosomes. SMC complexes were fully present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) but have been frequently lost during evolution. Remarkably, these complexes originated from an ancient duplication in archaeal ancestors, suggesting that sophisticated chromosome organization predated eukaryotes.

cell.com

Happy to share Asha Joseph and Inchara Adhikashreni's latest work from the lab, describing replisome speed variation in Caulobacter! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Live tracking of replisomes reveals nutrient-dependent regulation of replication elongation rates in Caulobacter crescentus

Adhikashreni et al. use quantitative live-cell imaging to track cell-cycle dynamics in hundreds of individual bacteria. They observe nutrient-dependent regulation of replication elongation rates that ...

cell.com

The biology and ecological impact of #phages in the mammalian gut are poorly understood. This Primer explores a @plosbiology.org study that provides a glimpse into the disruptive biology of the #Hankyphages, parasites of the ubiquitous Bacteroidaceae. 🧪 Primer: plos.io/3RukgtJ Paper: plos.io/41Rr22S

Glad to share the work of @yli18smc.bsky.social and co on Lamassu, a bacterial defense system related to Rad50/Mre11 (RM). While RM carefully trims DNA ends for repair, Lamassu chops up the host chromosome. Our study reveals how it is regulated to minimize damage, activating only during infection.

Happy to share the beautiful structure of a Wadjet SMC complex by @roisnehamelinf.bsky.social, with support from the DCI and @drhonsworth.bsky.social ! This is a type II Wadjet with unique characteristics including a tandem KITE subunit, distinct coiled coil architecture and a deviant hinge.

In @molecularmicro.bsky.social: two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization. Many excellent contributions, including a vision article: 'Future directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field', outcome of BioPhyChrom 2023 @biophychrom.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Future Directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field

In September 2023, the Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes meeting ran at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. As part of the workshop, those in attendance developed a series of ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Cellular responses to RNA damage: Cell Such a great and timely review for a topic that remained under-explored for such a long time but has attracted a lot of attention in the last few years. The field is now moving in leaps and bounds. #RNAsky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Cellular responses to RNA damage

RNA plays a central role in protein biosynthesis and performs diverse regulatory and catalytic functions, making it essential for all processes of life. Like DNA, RNA is constantly subjected to damage...

cell.com

OUT NOW: KorB is a DNA clamp which slides along DNA to mediate long-range gene silencing upon interaction with the clamp-locking KorA protein by Tung Le & co @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

KorB switching from DNA-sliding clamp to repressor mediates long-range gene silencing in a multi-drug resistance plasmid - Nature Microbiology

Structural and single-molecule analyses show the CTPase, KorB, is a sliding DNA clamp that interacts with a clamp-locking protein KorA to inhibit gene expression over distances of more than 1 kb in th...

nature.com

Important paper from the Weber-Ban lab about the mechanism of activation of PafBC in the mycobacterial DNA damage response. Single-stranded DNA binding to the transcription factor PafBC triggers the mycobacterial DNA damage response | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Single-stranded DNA binding to the transcription factor PafBC triggers the mycobacterial DNA damage response

The structure of PafBC in its active conformation reveals the binding mode of the activating ligand at the PafBC WYL domains.

science.org

What happens to bacterial genomes when they're cloned into yeast? Do they transcribe, do they get silenced, do they get packaged away from the rest of the DNA? This cool study congrats to the Koszul lab team at Pasteur for this great work. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sequence-dependent activity and compartmentalization of foreign DNA in a eukaryotic nucleus

In eukaryotes, DNA-associated protein complexes coevolve with genomic sequences to orchestrate chromatin folding. We investigate the relationship between DNA sequence and the spontaneous loading and a...

science.org

When does a DNA polymerase degrade DNA? Read Akshaya’s work from the lab to find out more!

EMBO Reports@emboreports.org · 2y ago

Akshaya Seshadri and Anjana Badrinarayanan @anjbadri.bsky.social @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social @tifrscience.bsky.social show that exonuclease action of replicative #polymerase gamma drives damage-induced #mitochondria #DNA clearance. New mechanism of mtDNA clearance. www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Fun work on the regulation of the bacterial SOS response to DNA damage. Led by the fantastic @adityakamat.bsky.social!

Aditya Kamat@adityakamat.bsky.social · 2y ago

There's more to SOS response timing than the LexA repressor. In our preprint from the Anjana Badrinarayanan @anjbadri.bsky.social Lab, we uncover a new regulatory layer that imparts temporal structure to the bacterial SOS response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#MicroSky CTPases, the new kids on the block

Nature Microbiology@natmicrobiol.nature.com · 2y ago

OUT NOW: KorB is a DNA clamp which slides along DNA to mediate long-range gene silencing upon interaction with the clamp-locking KorA protein by Tung Le & co @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New discovery from our #CDlab reported in Cell @cp-cell.bsky.social today: SMC motor proteins have a left-right ‘gearbox’ and can switch direction in DNA loop extrusion! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/

STC is back schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2... #MicroSky

Is there a future for STC?

by Roberto – The short answer to that question is an enthusiastic YES! Of course, there is a future for STC, and I think it is bright. The long answer, well... that's what this post is all about It r...

schaechter.asmblog.org

This was an amazing collaboration, we had the luxury of years of great conversations with @wallaceucsf.bsky.social and his team, as well as our other @HFSP partners @anjbadri.bsky.social and Johan Paulsson. Thanks for telling the story here, Wallace!

Wallace Marshall@wallaceucsf.bsky.social · 2y ago

Mitochondria consist of networks of cylindrical tubes, right? Not necessarily! - in our new preprint, @gavsturm.bsky.social investigates how mitochondria transiently adopt a beads-on-a-string morphology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...