Schmitt-Mechulam Lab

Our work on ribosome hibernation in archaea is out!
We identified Hib, a new hibernation factor broadly distributed across archaea.
Check out the preprint 👉 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.11.676729v1
(1/🧵)

A broad-spectrum lasso peptide antibiotic targeting the bacterial ribosome - Nature A new lasso peptide antibiotic exhibits broad-spectrum activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by interfering with bacterial protein synthesis, is unaffected by common resistanc...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structurally heterogeneous ribosomes cooperate in protein synthesis in bacterial cells - Nature Communications Cells can simultaneously produce structurally dissimilar ribosomes, suggesting functional specialization of distinct ribosome populations. Here, the authors show that distinct ribosomes cooperate rath...

Here we unexpectedly find that the ribosomal protein S20/L26—identified at the dawn of ribosome research but later deemed a biochemical artifact—is indeed a genuine component of the large ribosomal subunit. More on this ribosome content variation is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great news! Congratulations.

Unique opportunity to join the CytoMorpho Lab (in Paris ❤️) as a postdoc to work on the self-organization and polarization of reconstituted networks made of microtubules, motors and actin filaments in vitro. Experience required.
Please Repost 🙏 thanks !

This image shows the new Cryo-electron microscope JEOL ARM 200 installed on the TEM2C platform in Rennes, France, together with Reynald Gillet (Left, Director of the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes), and Denis Chrétien (right, in charge of the project).

Scrat (JEOL ARM 200) is now installed in Rennes with a Direct Electron Apollo camera. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need nice SPA or cryo-electron tomography (single and dual axis) data 😍
biosit.univ-rennes.fr/en/tem2c
#CryoEM

I think it's important to reach out to your own community and explain what the funding cuts mean in practice.

Cytoplasmic mRNA decay and quality control machineries in eukaryotes Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 27 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-024-00810-1In this Review, Dowdle and Lykke-Andersen discuss advances in our understanding of the machinery and mechanisms involved in the control of cytoplasmic mRNA decay and…

FYI: New online! Cytoplasmic mRNA decay and quality control machineries in eukaryotes

Mark your calendars! Archaea power hour is back!

Regulation of DNA Topology in Archaea: State of the Art and Perspectives DNA topoisomerases are ubiquitous enzymes that play a crucial role in regulating DNA supercoiling which affects fundamental biological processes involving DNA. In this review, we summarize the curren...

New Review: DNA topoisomerase in Archaea; from Paul Villain and Tamara Basta...featured in a forthcoming special issue on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization!
#MicroSky

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

First ribosome purification using poly-lysine beads (RAPPL, developed by @djuranoviclab.bsky.social & collaborators: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...). Full process—from lysis to grid prep—in just 3 hours. Look how pretty it is (even if a bit too diluted)! This is a game-changer🚀.

NSUN6 inhibitor discovery guided by its mRNA substrate bound crystal structure In their structural analysis of the NSUN6-SFG-mRNA ternary complex, Zhong et al. identified a compound known as thiamine disulfide through NMR and virtual screening. This compound has subsequently bee...

NSUN6 inhibitor discovery guided by its mRNA substrate bound crystal structure
doi.org/10.1016/j.st...

#RNA #RNAsky #RNAbiology

Voici un exemple concret des conséquences du manque de crédit dans la recherche française.
Nous avons deux microscopes électroniques de pointe à Bordeaux pour la biologie structurale et cellulaire.

Faute de moyens suffisants, nous devrons très probablement arrêter l'un des deux instruments…

The Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC) is recruiting group leaders in cell biology.

Don't miss the opportunity to start your team in the vibrant environment of Paris-Saclay University.

Application deadline: Feb 28, 2025

www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social

The Asgard archaeal origins of Arf family GTPases involved in eukaryotic organelle dynamics - Nature Microbiology Eukaryotic Arf family proteins involved in endomembrane organelle dynamics arose from the Asgard archaeal ArfR GTPases, indicating this capability likely originated in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryo...

The Asgard archaeal origins of Arf family GTPases involved in eukaryotic organelle dynamics www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Structure-guided discovery of viral proteins that inhibit host immunity Large-scale, structure-guided computational pipeline sifts through millions of phage proteins to identify those that bind and antagonize host immune proteins. Detected proteins are shown to inhibit no...

Our paper out @CellCellPress: Structure guided discovery of viral proteins that inhibit host immunity

Congrats Erez Yirmiya, Azita Leavitt, Gil Amitai, our collaborators at the Kranzusch lab, and coauthors

A 🧵 1/10

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Bonjour, nous avons un poste d´IE en biochimie et biologie moléculaire ouvert en mobilité interne (FSEP) au laboratoire de biologie structurale de la cellule (BIOC) située au sein de l´École polytechnique (Palaiseau) .

emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/MOBIN...

Communication between DNA polymerases and Replication Protein A within the archaeal replisome Nature Communications - The single stranded DNA binding protein RPA plays a pivotal role in DNA replication. The archaeal RPA hosts a WH domain that interacts with the DNA primase and the...

A new year, a new social network and a new article in @naturecomms.bsky.social ! It unveils how archaeal RPA orchestrates the recruitment of key players in 🧬 replication primase and polD through its WH domain, with structures of both complexes!!
rdcu.be/d6GAY

'Ubiquitin Lysine-Linkages' from the review 'Ubiquitin: a structural perspective' in Molecular Cell

New to #ubiquitin? Been with it for a while? Either way this review may be for you 🤩

Excited to share our review article in @molcell.bsky.social, diving deep into everything #ubiquitin
Read here 👉: kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

@cellpress.bsky.social
@wehi-research.bsky.social

More ribosome structures solved by RAPPL (collaboration with Pavlovic Djuranovic and Hashem Labs). This one is bacterial from 2ml culture and using method described in our preprint.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our recent work on CDS #m6A mediated RNA decay (CMD)! Decay relies on ribosome pausing at m6A containing codons. Great collab with the Zarnack lab & colleagues. Thank you @uniwuerzburg.bsky.social , @imbmainz.bsky.social and RMap🥳

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Gabriel Demo and colleagues found how a small archaeal protein (aRDF) dimerizes 30S subunits to prevent ribosome formation:

Regulation of DNA Topology in Archaea: State of the Art and Perspectives DNA topoisomerases are ubiquitous enzymes that play a crucial role in regulating DNA supercoiling which affects fundamental biological processes involving DNA. In this review, we summarize the curren....

I am happy to share that the review my former PhD student Paul Villain and I wrote was published: doi.org/10.1111/mmi....
#Archaea
#I2BC

FTLD-MAPT mutations and short 5′UTR Tau mRNAs increase Tau translation Abstract. Tau protein plays a central role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other tauopathies. Tau proteins aggregate in degenerating neurons and their expr

Mapt mutations are found in brain disorders. Most of them are located in sequences encoding microtubule-binding domains. However, some are in the 5'UTR tau mRNAs. Understanding the effect of mutations in the amino-terminal part of tau and the role of N-truncated tau academic.oup.com/narmolmed/ar...

We are pleased to share our work on the evolution of translation initiation now published in Nature Communications. Take a look at leaderless mRNAs and eS26 in the small ribosomal subunit of Saccharolobus solfataricus. rdcu.be/d5pgg