Structure of BrxA from Staphylococcus aureus, a bacilliredoxin involved in redox homeostasis in Firmicutes

The X-ray crystallographic structure of the bacilliredoxin BrxA that contains a mixed bacillithiol disulfide is described, along with experiments that explore the oligomeric state of BrxA.

Structure and activity of a thermally stable mutant of Acanthamoeba actophorin

Site-directed mutants of the actin filament-severing protein actophorin were produced to improve the crystal size and diffraction limit. When 19 single mutants and a C-terminal three-residue deletion were combined into one variant, the resulting protein was significantly more thermostable and slightly more active than the wild-type protein. Larger crystals were obtained that diffracted to 1.7 Å resolution and belonged to a different space group to previous actophorin crystals.

Expression, purification and crystallization of a novel metagenome-derived salicylaldehyde de­hydrogenase from Alpine soil

Gene-targeted assembly was used to mine a novel salicylaldehyde dehydrogenase from an Alpine soil metagenome. The enzyme was cloned, expressed, purified and crystallized: it is the first metagenome-derived aldehyde dehydrogenase to be crystallized. Analysis of the crystal structure shows that it adopts the standard conformation of the aldehyde dehydrogenase superfamily and a carboxylic acid was found to be a putative ligand of this enzyme.

Crystal structure of the ternary complex of Leishmania major pteridine reductase 1 with the cofactor NADP⁺/NADPH and the substrate folic acid

The high-resolution structure of Leishmania major pteridine reductase 1 in complex with its cofactor NADP⁺/NADPH and its substrate folic acid is reported. It provides insight into the active-site rearrangements that occur during the catalytic process.

The structure of Synechococcus elongatus enolase reveals key aspects of phosphoenolpyruvate binding

The first structural report of a cyanobacterial enolase is presented, disclosing an octameric arrangement and key substrate and metal-binding features.