233 papers
Molecular biology explores the tiny machinery inside living cells, revealing how genetic instructions are read, copied, and turned into the proteins that keep us alive. This field acts as a bridge between the static code of DNA and the dynamic processes that drive growth, disease, and life itself, offering insights into everything from cellular repair to the development of new medicines.
On Gist.Science, we track every new preprint uploaded to bioRxiv in this category to make these complex discoveries accessible to everyone. Our team processes each submission to provide both clear, plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries, ensuring you can grasp the core findings without getting lost in dense academic jargon.
Below are the latest molecular biology papers freshly processed from bioRxiv, ready for you to explore and understand.
This study identifies the E3 ubiquitin ligase ITCH as a critical host factor that promotes SARS-CoV-2 replication and virion release by enhancing viral protein ubiquitination and assembly, facilitating autophagosome-dependent secretion, and suppressing protease-mediated spike protein destabilization, thereby highlighting ITCH as a promising therapeutic target.
This study reveals that ATP-competitive kinase inhibitors frequently trigger paradoxical, non-catalytic effects by inducing structural rearrangements in autoinhibitory domains that alter protein-protein interactions and subcellular localization, a phenomenon identified through a multimodal proteomics approach.
This study integrates cryo-EM, NMR, and MD simulations to elucidate the high-affinity binding mechanism of scorpion toxin CTX to the MthK channel, revealing how an anchoring lysine residue stabilizes the complex while dynamic interactions allow for broad subtype specificity.
The paper introduces PICO, a reference-free, single-vesicle profiling assay that utilizes DNA-barcoded antibodies and digital PCR to achieve high-specificity, multiplex quantification of small extracellular vesicles in liquid biopsies with minimal sample input and standard instrumentation.
This study reveals that RNA G-quadruplexes facilitate cooperative binding of the splicing regulator HNRNPH by unfolding to expose multiple binding sites, thereby enabling switch-like regulation of hundreds of exons that is clinically relevant to breast cancer subtypes.
This study employs structure-based drug design to develop high-affinity ligands that induce distinct conformational states of the E3 ligase GID4, providing a foundation for future optimization of PROTACs and molecular glues to expand targeted protein degradation beyond current CRBN and VHL limitations.
This study reveals that the HMD domain of the PAF1C subunit Prf1 activates the S. pombe HULC complex for H2B ubiquitination by binding to a specific region on Shf1 to reposition the RING domains into a catalytically competent configuration, thereby elucidating the molecular mechanism by which PAF1C primes the Rad6-Bre1 E3 ligase for transcription-coupled histone modification.
This study reveals a novel RNA-guided transcription mechanism in which exapted CRISPR-Cas12f homologs recruit sigma E factors to programmatically activate gene expression without canonical promoter motifs, effectively mimicking human-engineered CRISPR activation systems.
This study reveals that whiteflies and planthoppers have independently evolved distinct salivary effectors (BtRDP and NlSP104) to suppress plant immunity by targeting and promoting the degradation of the conserved receptor-like protein RLP4, thereby illustrating a convergent evolutionary strategy for herbivorous insects to counteract host defenses.
This study introduces an automated, force-adjustable *Drosophila* model of repetitive traumatic brain injury that reveals sex-specific differences in locomotor vulnerability and survival, alongside shared cognitive deficits, progressive neurodegeneration, and distinct proteomic disruptions involving mitochondrial and oxidative stress pathways.