Publications

The eukaryotic RNA polymerases Pol I, Pol II, and Pol III are the central multiprotein machines that synthesize ribosomal, messenger, and transfer RNA, respectively. Here we provide a catalog of available structural information for these three enzymes. Most structural data have been accumulated for Pol II and its functional complexes. These studies have provided insights […]

RNA polymerases (Pol) II and III synthesize eukaryotic mRNAs and tRNAs, respectively. The crystal structure of the 12 subunit Pol II is known, but only limited structural information is available for the 17 subunit Pol III. Using mass spectrometry (MS), we correlated masses of Pol II complexes with the Pol II structure. Analysis of Pol […]

Histone deacetylases (HDACs)-an enzyme family that deacetylates histones and non-histone proteins-are implicated in human diseases such as cancer, and the first-generation of HDAC inhibitors are now in clinical trials. Here, we report the 2.0 A resolution crystal structure of a catalytically inactive HDAC8 active-site mutant, Tyr306Phe, bound to an acetylated peptidic substrate. The structure clarifies […]

We are presenting a program for interactive segmentation of tomographic maps, based on objective criteria so as to yield reproducible results. The strategy starts with the automatic segmentation of the entire volume with the watershed algorithm in 3D. The watershed regions are clustered successively by supervised classification, allowing the segmentation of known organelles, such as membranes, […]

Recent data on oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) indicates that Mediterranean soil communities tend to show uneven patterns of species abundance distribution (SAD) that are well fitted by a simple model such as the geometric series. In the case of linear distributions, the fraction of total sampled individuals that is contributed by the most abundant species, […]