New paper! Specific PilA and PilY1 sequences make PilU dispensable for T4P-dependent twitching motility in P. aeruginosa. However, most suppressors still had high cAMP levels from loss of PilU, showing that motility and surface sensing responses can be uncoupled.🧐 ⏩ journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Breathing polluted air increases the risk of #osteoporosis, growing evidence shows.

Learn more: scim.ag/4lUQBrf #ScienceMagArchives

When particles have orientation bias, the resulting maps are often streaked along the missing directions. In this case study, we cover why orientation bias produces anisotropic #cryoEM maps and how you may be able to recover from it!

guide.cryosparc.com/processing-d...

New paper alert! PhD candidate Nathan Roberge is studying regulation of the #T4P assembly ATPase PilB and identified suppressors of FimX with enhanced motility. Where did they map? Find out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fantastic collaboration with @ckellison.bsky.social where we demonstrate functional divergence of FimX to regulate type IV pilus positioning along the long axis of Acinetobacter baylyi

ChimeraX daily builds can predict small complexes of proteins, nucleic acids and small molecules using Boltz on your Mac, Windows or Linux computer without Nvidia graphics. www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/dat...

We encourage you to also check out an alternative model of how CpaF assembles the Tad pilus proposed by @lowlab.bsky.social published a few months ago in the same journal.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Many thanks to everyone involved for their contribution, mentorship, and support - Greg Whitfield, @johnrubinstein.bsky.social, @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social, @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social, and my PI Lynne Howell! We're grateful to the reviewers for enabling a smooth review process.

Thrilled to announce my first PhD publication in Nature Comms! We determined structures of the Tad pilus ATPase CpaF from Caulobacter. We use these structures to propose how CpaF employs a rotary mechanism of catalysis to drive Tad pilus assembly.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Learn principles of image processing to determine macromolecular structures by #cryoEM: Sign up for EMBO Practical Course on Image processing for cryo-electron microscopy in London, UK, 9–16 September

Deadline: 25 April

meetings.embo.org/event/25-cry...
#EMBOcryoEM #EMBOevents 🧪

1/10 🧵 Injecting some science in your feed: Happy to share another chapter in our investigation of bacterial surface sensing. We describe the role of CpaL, a minor pilin-like protein, a key player in surface sensing and adhesion in Caulobacter crescentus. #microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...