The structure of a thermostable mutant of pro-papain reveals its activation mechanism

Structure of the zymogen of a thermostable mutant of papain has been solved at 2.6 Å. Structural results together with biochemical studies explain the pro-peptide mediated regulation of zymogen activation.

Structure–activity correlations of variant forms of the B pentamer of Escherichia coli type II heat-labile enterotoxin LT-IIb with Toll-like receptor 2 binding

Structural data for the S74D variant of the pentameric B subunit of type II heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli reveal a smaller pore opening that may explain its reduced Toll-like receptor binding affinity compared to that of the wild type enterotoxin. The explanation for the enhanced Toll-like receptor binding affinity of the S74A variant is more complex than simply being attributed to the pore opening.

Structure of the catalytic domain of the Salmonella virulence factor SseI

The C-terminal domain of the Salmonella virulence factor SseI is structurally similar to the cysteine protease superfamily and contains the conserved catalytic triad characteristic of members of this family.

AMPLE: a cluster-and-truncate approach to solve the crystal structures of small proteins using rapidly computed ab initio models

AMPLE derives successful molecular replacement search models from rapidly generated ab initio protein structure predictions.

Structural studies of human insulin cocrystallized with phenol or resorcinol via powder diffraction

The effects of the ligands phenol and resorcinol on the crystallization of human insulin have been investigated as a function of pH.

Substrate channels revealed in the trimeric Lactobacillus reuteri bacterial microcompartment shell protein PduB

The crystal structure of the trimeric shell protein PduB from L. reuteri suggests that the subunit pores act as channels for the substrate glycerol.

Structural basis for the influence of a single mutation K145N on the oligomerization and photoswitching rate of Dronpa

The structure of the on-state of PDM1-4, a single mutant of Dronpa, is reported, demonstrating the importance of β-barrel flexibility on the photoswitching kinetics by means of oligomerization.

X-ray study of the conformational changes in the molecule of phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis during the catalyzed reaction

Based on the X-ray structures of apo PPATMt and its complexes with functionally important ligands (ATP and dPCoA) determined in the current work and in previous work, the conformational changes which accompany the reaction catalyzed by the enzyme have been studied.

Structural insights into the specific anti-HIV property of actinohivin: structure of its complex with the α(1–2)mannobiose moiety of gp120

X-ray analysis of anti-HIV actinohivin in complex with the target α(1-2)mannobiose moiety of high-mannose type glycans attached to HIV-1 gp120 reveals that the three rotamers generated with 120 rotations around the molecular pseudo-rotation axis are packed randomly in the unit cell according to the P2₁2₁2₁ symmetry to exhibit an apparent space group P2₁3 as the statistical structure. However, the high-resolution X-ray structure shows the detailed interaction geometry for specific binding.

Dimeric structure of the N-terminal domain of PriB protein from Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis solved ab initio

The N-terminal domain of the PriB protein from the thermophilic bacterium T. tengcongensis (TtePriB) was expressed and its crystal structure has been solved at the atomic resolution of 1.09 Å by direct methods.

ScrewFit: combining localization and description of protein secondary structure

An extension of the ScrewFit method is presented which combines the geometrical description of protein secondary structure in terms of local screw motions relating consecutive peptide planes with the detection of secondary-structure elements.

Measurement of detergent concentration using 2,6-di­methylphenol in membrane-protein crystallization

Membrane proteins require detergents for their stabilization in vitro, but detergents can interfere with downstream experiments such as crystallography. This work provides an efficient way to measure the concentrations of the glycosidic detergents most commonly used in crystallography.

Nearest-cell: a fast and easy tool for locating crystal matches in the PDB

A fast and easy tool to locate unit-cell matches in the PDB is described.