Highlights

Photoconvertible fluorescent proteins (PCFPs) like mEos4b shift their fluorescence emission from green to red upon 405 nm illumination, making them essential markers for super-resolution techniques such as Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM). However, their photophysical properties continue to reveal surprises. Besides photoconversion, PCFPs can reversibly switch between fluorescent and nonfluorescent states. In its red form, mEos4b undergoes “negative switching”: it turns off (…)

EL222 is a light-sensitive protein from the marine bacterium Erythrobacter litoralis that regulates gene expression in response to blue light. This regulation occurs through structural changes triggered by the activation of a small molecule inside the protein, called flavin mononucleotide (FMN). To better understand how EL222 functions, the NMR group of the IBS, and researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, investigated chemical and structural (…)

Bacteriophages, viruses infecting bacteria, are the most abundant living entities on Earth. They are present in all ecosystems where bacteria develop and are instrumental in the regulation, diversity, evolution, and pathogeny of microbial populations. Moreover, with the increasing number of pathogenic strains resistant to antibiotics, virulent phages are considered a serious alternative or complement to classical treatments. 96% of all phages present a tail that allows host recognition and (…)

Every year, fungal infections caused by Candida yeast claim hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. As antifungal resistance continues to rise, current treatments are becoming less effective, making the search for new therapeutic strategies increasingly urgent. One promising approach targets Bdf1, a fungal protein that plays a key role in gene regulation and is essential for Candida viability. However, developing a Bdf1 inhibitor that selectively targets the fungal protein without (…)

As pathogenic microorganisms have a strong capacity to develop resistance, particularly against new compounds belonging to existing antibiotic families, new anti-infectives with unprecedented mechanisms of action are urgently needed. The biosynthesis of terpenoids represents an attractive source of drug. Terpenoids are essential metabolites produced by the assembly of two precursors. These precursors are produced by two different metabolic pathways: the mevalonate (MVA) pathway and the (…)

A first article published in 2023 proposed an initial model for the encapsidation of Influenza virus genome. In a new publication published in the Nucleic Acids Research journal, the same scientists have now obtained a high-resolution structure of the Influenza nucleoprotein in an antiparallel helix that now details precisely all the protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions within the nucleocapsid. Every year, Influenza virus causes major epidemics affecting between 2 to 6 million (…)

The sexual forms of Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), the causative agent of malaria, are transmitted from humans to mosquitoes, enabling the parasite to spread. It is well established that antibodies (Ac) can efficiently block parasite transmission. To identify the targets of these antibodies, the Complement, antibodies and infectious disease Group developed a high-throughput screening method: after non-specific activation of memory B cells from blood samples, the antibodies produced were (…)