Pyrodictium abyssi AbpX reveals a calcium-responsive family of microbial biomatrix proteins that form thermostable hydrogels pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42308048/ #cryoEM

Meet AbpX, a biomatrix protein from the hyperthermophile Pyrodictium abyssi. It forms Ca²⁺-triggered fibrils via donor strand complementation. Using cryo-EM + X-ray, we built a full lattice model and place AbpX in a new TasA superfamily clade. A very nice collaborative project! tinyurl.com/mryzcz4n

De novo design of protein nanoparticles with integrated functional motifs pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41509406/ #cryoEM

Another fruitful collaboration with the Otzen group 🦠🧫🧬 We looked for curli and Fap operons across the bacterial tree of life (GTDB v226), and found that while Fap operon synteny and FapC repeat numbers are remarkably conserved, the opposite is true for curli operons and csgA!

Morten Kam Dahl Dueholm@mkddueholm.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New review on the structure and function of bacterial amyloids. My PhD student @andersohd.bsky.social did a great job with the bioinformatic analysis of both curli and Fap amyloids. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

New manuscript alert. Turns out that calcium ion coordination may be a more common mechanism than we initially expected to trigger polymerization of extracellular filaments. @mikesleutel.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From fibril to framework: P. abyssi AbpX illuminates a calcium-responsive family of microbial biomatrix proteins that form thermostable hydrogels

Evolutionary pressure on microbial communities propagating under extreme environmental conditions often results in unique structural adaptations to promote cell survival. Here, we report an investigat...

biorxiv.org

Distinct flagellins differentially fine tune biofilm initiation via flagellar stator-associated proteins www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.30.697036v1 #cryoEM

Alpha-synuclein fibril structures cluster into distinct classes pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41404791/ #cryoEM

Capsid flexibility during Ty1 virus-like particle assembly www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.694965v1 #cryoEM

Happy to share that our work on HLp, a bacterial histone from Leptospira perolatii, is now published in Nature Communications 🎉 In this study, we show that HLp forms stable tetramers that wrap ~60 bp of DNA, revealing a distinct histone–DNA organization in bacteria. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Type III secretion system effector evolved to be mechanically labile and initiate unfolding from the N-terminus. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.691928v1

Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widespread and intron-rich mirusviruses are predicted to reproduce in nuclei of unicellular eukaryotes - Nature Microbiology

Environmental metagenomic explorations show that Mirusviricota lineages lack essential replication and transcription genes and contain spliceosomal introns, suggesting nuclear reproduction.

nature.com

A Bundled Antiparallel Cytochrome Nanowire Structure Suggests Roles in Cell-Cell Electron Transfer and Biofilm Formation pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41279714/ #cryoEM

The Inaugural Flatiron Institute Cryo-EM Conformational Heterogeneity Challenge pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41280101/ #cryoEM

Latest work from the group looking at using our functionalised dipeptides for energy storage via a micellar analogue to MOST... www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Functionalized azobenzenes for micellar solar thermal energy storage as a next-generation MOST system - Communications Chemistry

Molecular solar thermal energy storage (MOST) systems employ photoswitchable molecules that absorb sunlight and store energy through reversible isomerization, cyclization or other intramolecular rearr...

nature.com

How Sup35 monomer conformation and amyloid fibril polymorphism determine yeast strain phenotypes pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41282265/ #cryoEM

Tanmay Bharat@tbharat-lab.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers Review article published in @natrevmicro.nature.com with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen and @vikramalva.bsky.social. S-layers are everywhere! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structural insights into the atypical filament assembly of pyrin domain-containing IFI16 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41193640/ #cryoEM

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Structures of the sheathed flagellum reveal mechanisms of assembly and rotation in Vibrio cholerae pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41174224/ #cryoEM

We are looking for a computational postdoc to work with us on new optimisation algorithms to make #RELION even better. Join our bubbly team at the @mrclmb.bsky.social in Cambridge, UK. 🤗 RTs appreciated. mrc.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

Separation of halide oxidation and substrate halogenation chemistries rationalizes site-selective vanadium dependent haloperoxidase catalysis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684477v1 #cryoEM

Impurities in amyloid studies: The power of automated model building within a cautionary tale for structural biologists pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41123416/ #cryoEM

This looks pretty cool and unexpected.... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A hierarchical nickel organic framework confers high conductivity over long distances in cable bacteria

Multi-cellular cable bacteria have evolved a unique machinery that efficiently transports electrons across centimetre-scale distances. Currents flow through a parallel network of periplasmic fibres, w...

biorxiv.org

A nice N&V article by Mike Dyall-Smith on our recent paper ( www.nature.com/articles/s41... ): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Archaeal symbioses all the way down - Nature Microbiology

Ethiopian salt lakes feature unique microbial communities with nesting layers of symbioses, where haloarchaea and their ultra-small archaeal symbionts are prey to viruses, which are in turn hijacked b...

nature.com

Seed structure and phosphorylation in the fuzzy coat impact tau seeding competency pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41107248/ #cryoEM

Donor strand complementation and calcium ion coordination drive the chaperone-free polymerization of archaeal cannulae pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41083437/ #cryoEM

Cannulae paper published in final form. Thanks to the many collaborators and to the reviewers. @jerryknowsnothing.bsky.social @mikesleutel.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social rdcu.be/eKVlI

Molecular Microbiology | Microbiology Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Type IV Pili‐Associated Secretion of a Biofilm Matrix Protein From Clostridium perfringens That Forms Intermolecular Isopeptide Bonds

Clostridium perfringens produces and secretes a biofilm matrix protein, BsaA, which is in the same family as the Bacillus subtilis TasA matrix protein. In this report, we show that BsaA monomers, unl....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

CryoSeek identification of glycofibrils with diverse compositions and structural assemblies www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679562v1 #cryoEM

Absolute hand determination of glycofibrils from natural sources in cryo-EM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679555v1 #cryoEM