Show me how it's done: introducing Protocols

This editorial introduces Protocols, a new article category in Acta Crystallographica Section F designed to provide detailed, reproducible workflows for structural biology methods. The new format promotes transparency, reproducibility and the dissemination of practical expertise across the community.

Crystal structure of Legionella pneumophila glycosidase effector LegY

We report the 1.46 Å resolution crystal structure of the L. pneumophila GH15 glycosidase effector LegY, a single-domain protein with a canonical (α/α)₆-barrel catalytic domain that is structurally and phylogenetically highly similar to fungal glucoamylases, and identify its conserved catalytic residues Glu206 and Glu405 that support a GH15-characteristic single-displacement catalytic mechanism; these findings provide pioneering structural and evolutionary insights into LegY, laying a foundation for understanding its role in L. pneumophila infection and the evolutionary dynamics of GH15 family enzymes.

Structure of human aldehyde oxidase under tris­(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine reducing conditions

We report and characterize a new crystallization condition in which human aldehyde oxidase 1 is pre-incubated with tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine, a sulfur-free reducing agent that does not inactivate the enzyme.

WebCalEM: a browser-based tool for routine and accurate pixel-size calibration in cryo-EM

WebCalEM is a browser-based, install-free application that performs routine cryo-EM pixel-size calibration directly from gold or graphene oxide reflections in standard sample-support grids using subpixel Fourier-space peak localization; it reproduces the precision of established command-line calibration tools while removing the installation barrier and supporting retrospective per-region calibration on archived datasets.