09/2012 - A structural perspective on RNA polymerase I and RNA polymerase III transcription machineries
RNA polymerase I and III are responsible for the bulk of nuclear transcription in actively growing cells and their activity impacts the cellular biosynthetic capacity. As a consequence, RNA polymerase I and III deregulation has been directly linked to cancer development. The complexity of RNA polymerase I and III transcription apparatuses has hampered their structural […]
05/2012 - Rab5 is necessary for the biogenesis of the endolysosomal system in vivo
An outstanding question is how cells control the number and size of membrane organelles. The small GTPase Rab5 has been proposed to be a master regulator of endosome biogenesis. Here, to test this hypothesis, we developed a mathematical model of endosome dependency on Rab5 and validated it by titrating down all three Rab5 isoforms in […]
05/2012 - Comparative structural analysis of eukaryotic flagella and cilia from Chlamydomonas, Tetrahymena, and sea urchins
Although eukaryotic flagella and cilia all share the basic 9 + 2 microtubule-organization of their internal axonemes, and are capable of generating bending-motion, the waveforms, amplitudes, and velocities of the bending-motions are quite diverse. To explore the structural basis of this functional diversity of flagella and cilia, we here compare the axonemal structure of three different organisms with […]
03/2012 - Axonemal radial spokes: 3D structure, function and assembly
The radial spoke (RS) is a complex of at least 23 proteins that works as a mechanochemical transducer between the central‐pair apparatus and the peripheral microtubule doublets in eukaryotic flagella and motile cilia. The RS contributes to the regulation of the activity of dynein motors, and thus to flagellar motility. Despite numerous biochemical, physiological and […]