Entries by Fengoula Avgeri

GOOSE: A new tool to decipher the biological functions of intrinsically disordered regions

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Protein domains lacking a rigid structure, known as Intrinsically Disordered Regions (IDRs), play important roles in many cellular processes, including protein quality control, protein-protein interactions, and subcellular localization. However, we know little about how the properties of IDRs are linked to protein functions. Hunter et al. developed a holistic approach to study these relationships. They […]

Coordinating plant growth and stress resistance via N-terminal protein acetylation

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The mechanisms by which plants switch between growth and stress survival remain somewhat enigmatic. Following on from previous studies, Gong et al. revealed that the conserved N-terminal acetyltransferase B (NatB) helps regulate this balance. Arabidopsis mutants lacking the catalytic subunit of NatB, NAA20, show disrupted N-terminal acetylation of NatB substrates, and these plants exhibited slower […]

Toward improved CO₂ fixation: A hornwort-derived RbcS motif enables formation of Rubisco condensates

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Enhancing photosynthetic CO₂ fixation to increase crop yields is a major focus in plant biotechnology. Notably, several algal species form pyrenoids, phase-separated organelles that boost the activity of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco by supplying it with concentrated CO₂, thereby making carboxylation more efficient. Among land plants, hornworts are the only lineage with species known to […]

One ARGONAUTE protein governs sexual reproduction in brown algae

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Across multicellular eukaryotes, ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins are the core of RNA silencing, steering development, defense, and stress responses by biding small RNA guides to seek out genes for repression. In plants and animals, these functions are distributed across multiple AGO homologs that support a wide range of regulatory processes. A notable exception to this pattern […]