Conti

The oldest continuously existing learned society in the world honors Walter Neupert posthumously with the Cothenius Medal and Elena Conti with the Schleiden Medal. more

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry reveal the structure of a ribonucleotide-trimming machinery with a central role in cell biology. more

Scientists at the MPI of Biochemistry have for the first time succeeded in determining the structure of the interaction of two large molecular machines. In cooperation with researchers from the Heidelberg University, they investigated the interaction between the ribosome and the exosome. Ribosomes use ribonucleic acid (RNA) as blueprint for the production of proteins. The exosome in turn is responsible for the degradation of RNA. The study of the interaction of two molecular machines using cryo-electron microscopy provides a better insight into the physiological function of such machines. The study was published in Science. more

Although the terms “cryo-EM” and “SKI complex” evoke images of ice and snow, they actually relate to structural biology. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and the Gene Center of the University of Munich (LMU) have now shown that the cellular protein factory and the SKI protein complex are in direct contact. The SKI complex is part of a molecular shredder that breaks down mRNA, the construction manual for proteins, into its individual components. To conduct their analysis, the researchers used cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that involves flash-freezing protein complexes to allow even the tiniest details of their structure to be studied in their natural state. more

Much in the same way as we use shredders to destroy documents that are no longer useful or that contain potentially damaging information, cells use molecular machines to degrade unwanted or defective macromolecules. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have now shown how the nuclear compartment of the cell uses a specific version of the RNA exosome, a macromolecular machine responsible for the degradation as well as the biogenesis of ribonucleic acids (RNAs). RNAs are ubiquitous and abundant molecules with multiple functions in the cell. One of their functions is, for example, to permit translation of the genomic information into proteins. The study has now been published in the journal Nature. more