Structural insights into the activation initiation of full-length mGlu1

Heterotrimeric G proteins are guanine nucleotide-binding proteins. As the name suggests, heterotrimeric G proteins are composed of three subunits: alpha, beta, and gamma. They remain GDP-bound or GTP-bound inside the cells and switch between inactive/active states. The Gα subunit possesses the nucleotide-binding pocket that binds guanine nucleotides and switches between GDP or GTP-bound states. In contrast, the Gꞵ and Gγ subunits are always bound together with high...

During most eukaryotic translation processes, the small 40S ribosome subunit scans an mRNA from its 5' end until it encounters the first start AUG codon. The large 60S ribosomal subunit then joins the smaller one to initiate protein synthesis. The location of the translation initiation is largely determined by the nucleotides near the start codon as there may be multiple translation initiation sites present on the mRNA.  Marilyn Kozak discovered that the sequence RCCAUGG (where R...

Integrins bind ligands and transmit information from outside the cell to inside or vice-versa through an "outside-in signaling" or "inside-out signaling."
In "outside-in signaling," external factors in the extracellular space bind to exposed ligand binding sites on integrins. This causes the inactive protein to undergo a conformational change to become active. Integrins are often clustered on the cell membrane. Repetitive and regularly spaced ligand binding...

Mitochondrial precursors are translocated to the internal subcompartments via independent mechanisms involving distinct protein machineries called translocases.
Sorting of outer membrane proteins:
Mitochondrial outer membrane proteins are of two types: the transmembrane, beta-barrel porins, and the membrane-anchored, alpha-helical proteins. Beta-barrel porin precursors are translocated by the TOM complex and inserted into the outer mitochondrial membrane by the SAM complex. In contrast,...

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are present in both eukaryotes and bacteria. Though eukaryotes have 20 different aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases to couple to 20 amino acids, many bacteria do not have genes for all of these aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Despite this, they still use all 20 amino acids to synthesize their proteins. For instance, some bacteria do not have the gene encoding the enzyme that couples glutamine with its partner tRNA. In these organisms, one enzyme adds glutamic acid to all of the...

Initiating translation is complex because it involves multiple molecules. Initiator tRNA, ribosomal subunits, and eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) are all required to assemble on the initiation codon of mRNA. This process consists of several steps that are mediated by different eIFs.
First, the initiator tRNA must be selected from the pool of elongator tRNAs by eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2). The initiator tRNA (Met-tRNAi) has conserved sequence elements including modified bases at...