Highlight: integrative structural biology of dynamic macromolecular assemblies
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Ralf Ficner
During the last decade, tremendous progress has been made in the understanding of large macromolecular complexes. A fundamental property of such large macromolecular assemblies is their dynamics, which has great impact on their molecular and cellular function. Hence, it is important to study and to understand their dynamics with respect to their structures, their changes in conformation and composition, their interactions with other biological macromolecules, and with respect to their temporal and spatial location in the cell.
This has been the major goal of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 860, which was funded for 12 years by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The main focus concerned the determination of three-dimensional structures, the deduction of the structure’s implication for the molecular and cellular function, the dynamic processes during assembly, remodelling and disassembly, the role of natively unfolded domains, the impact of posttranslational modifications on structure, function and dynamics, the conformational dynamics of functional complexes and their subunits, as well as kinetics and thermodynamics of macromolecular interactions. Studying the three-dimensional structure and the dynamics of single, average-sized proteins has been mostly routine. However, due to the stunning complexity and flexibility of large multi-protein- and ribonucleoprotein complexes, classical biochemical, biophysical and structure determination methods – when used exclusively – do not meet the requirements to comprehend such systems in detail. Importantly, due to the fantastic improvement of single particle cryo-electron microscopy, structural models of many large complexes could be obtained in recent years.
In this Highlight Issue of Biological Chemistry 12 review articles and one research article summarize the results obtained by the integrative analysis of a defined set of large macromolecular complexes, like the spliceosome, the ribosome, the RNA polymerase II and its Mediator complex, the mitochondrial translocase complex, nucleocytoplasmic transport complexes, the nuclear pore complex, the autophagosome, and intermediate filaments.
I thank all authors for contributing to this exciting collection of articles and De Gruyter for making it possible to publish a Highlight Issue devoted to structural biology, and I appreciate the great support by the Managing Editor Torsten Krüger.
Funding source: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Award Identifier / Grant number: SFB860
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Highlight: Integrative Structural Biology of Dynamic Macromolecular Assemblies
- Highlight: integrative structural biology of dynamic macromolecular assemblies
- Bayesian methods in integrative structure modeling
- The many faces of ribosome translocation along the mRNA: reading frame maintenance, ribosome frameshifting and translational bypassing
- Translation termination in human mitochondria – substrate specificity of mitochondrial release factors
- Molecular functions of RNA helicases during ribosomal subunit assembly
- Interaction of nucleoporins with nuclear transport receptors: a structural perspective
- Protein transport along the presequence pathway
- Autophagic and non-autophagic functions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae PROPPINs Atg18, Atg21 and Hsv2
- Influence of phosphorylation on intermediate filaments
- Mediator structure and function in transcription initiation
- Structure and phase separation of the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II
- The DEAD-box RNA helicase Dbp5 is a key protein that couples multiple steps in gene expression
- Structure and function of spliceosomal DEAH-box ATPases
- Molecular simulations of DEAH-box helicases reveal control of domain flexibility by ligands: RNA, ATP, ADP, and G-patch proteins
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Highlight: Integrative Structural Biology of Dynamic Macromolecular Assemblies
- Highlight: integrative structural biology of dynamic macromolecular assemblies
- Bayesian methods in integrative structure modeling
- The many faces of ribosome translocation along the mRNA: reading frame maintenance, ribosome frameshifting and translational bypassing
- Translation termination in human mitochondria – substrate specificity of mitochondrial release factors
- Molecular functions of RNA helicases during ribosomal subunit assembly
- Interaction of nucleoporins with nuclear transport receptors: a structural perspective
- Protein transport along the presequence pathway
- Autophagic and non-autophagic functions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae PROPPINs Atg18, Atg21 and Hsv2
- Influence of phosphorylation on intermediate filaments
- Mediator structure and function in transcription initiation
- Structure and phase separation of the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II
- The DEAD-box RNA helicase Dbp5 is a key protein that couples multiple steps in gene expression
- Structure and function of spliceosomal DEAH-box ATPases
- Molecular simulations of DEAH-box helicases reveal control of domain flexibility by ligands: RNA, ATP, ADP, and G-patch proteins
