Getting protein factories to run – How deubiquitinating enzymes moonlight as Fubi proteases

Max Planck researchers identify mechanisms of key players in the maturation process of ribosomes with chemical biology tool kit

16-Aug-2023 - The small protein ubiquitin is particularly famous for marking proteins for degradation but it has also been shown to regulate virtually all cellular processes. In parallel to the ubiquitin system various other ubiquitin-like modifiers have evolved, of which Fubi is particularly poorly studied ...

Soft matter on new ways to self-organization

The groove of the self-organized active nematic ribbon

29-Sep-2020 - Nematic materials, such as the liquid crystals in our displays, contain molecules that align themselves in parallel. When they are constructed from microtubules and kinesins, materials found in our cells, they become active and move and deform without the supply of energy from the outside. In a ...

Light drives injection

By coupling a bacterial injection system with a light-controlled molecular switch, scientists are able to inject proteins into eukaryontic cells

15-May-2020 - When bacteria such as Salmonella or Yersinia cause fever, diarrhoea or abdominal pain, tiny "injection needles" are at work: their type 3 secretion system, or T3SS for short, shoots bacterial virulence proteins directly into the eukaryotic host cells. Researchers have thought of using bacterial ...

Making and breaking heterochromatin

Scientists discover 2 further mechanisms necessary for the formation of heterochromatin

28-Sep-2012 - To fit the two-meter long DNA molecule into a cell nucleus that is only a few thousandths of a millimetre in size, long sections of the DNA must be strongly compacted. Epigenetic marks maintain these sections, known as heterochromatin. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and ...

The dance of the chaperones

Max Planck scientists identify key player of protein folding

12-Mar-2012 - Proteins are the molecular building blocks and machinery of cells and involved in practically all biological processes. To fulfil their tasks, they need to be folded into a complicated three-dimensional structure. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried near ...

Mildew-resistant and infertile

29-Nov-2010 - Mildew infections not only cause unsightly vegetable patches, they can also result in extensive crop failure. Interestingly, the processes involved in infections with this garden pest are similar to those involved in fertilisation. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding ...

On the trail of the epigenetic code

Test system on Drosophila should provide the key to histone function

15-Oct-2010 - The genetic inherited material DNA was long viewed as the sole bearer of hereditary information. The function of its packaging proteins, the histones, was believed to be exclusively structural. Additional genetic information can be stored, however, and passed on to subsequent generations through ...

Blinking neurons give thoughts away

07-May-2010 - Electrical currents are invisible to the naked eye – at least they are when they flow through metal cables. In nerve cells, however, scientists are able to make electrical signals visible. Working with fellow experts from Switzerland and Japan, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Medical ...

Mussels - Material artists with grip

Iron atoms convey mussel fibres with a robust but stretchy covering

09-Mar-2010 - Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and collaborators at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Chicago believe they have uncovered the basis how marine mussels use the byssus, a bundle of tough and extensible fibres, to fasten securely ...

Cell growth regulates genetic circuits

Max Planck researchers discover an explanation for different growth rates of genetically identically cells

04-Feb-2010 - Genetic circuits control the activity of genes and thereby the function of cells and organisms. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the University of California at San Diego have shown how various genetic circuits in bacterial cells are influenced by ...