View Alexandrescu Structure Gallery

Link to Alexandrescu Lab Structures in the PDB

We're going to start using this space to post our latest BioRxiv preprints (marked in purple). It takes so long to go through the journal system. Might as well post them here in the meantime.

88) Woodbury, B.M., Newcomer, R.L., Alexandrescu, A.T. & Teschke C.M. (2024) “Templated trimerization of phage L decoration protein on capsids.", BioRxiv preprint ->

https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.08.611893

As an on-again, off-again protein folder, I have to say this has been one of the weirdest proteins in terms of folding I've ever worked with in collaboration with the Teschke lab. It just kept puzzling us for over 4 years!

87) Rua A.J, Mitchell, W., Claypool, S.M., Alder, N.N.  & Alexandrescu, A.T. (2024) “Perturbations in mitochondrial metabolism associated with defective cardiolipin biosynthesis: An in-organello real-time NMR study”, J Biol Chem, in press.

10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107746

A collaboration with the Alder lab where we use NMR to follow metabolism ... inside viable mitochondria, with or without mutations corresponding to a mitochondrial genetic disease.

86) Rua, A.J., & Alexandrescu, A.T (2024) “ Formerly degenerate seventh zinc finger domain from transcription factor ZNF711 rehabilitated by experimental NMR structure", Protein Science, e5419

doi: 10.1002/pro.5149

During Covid lockdown one of us (Andrei) spent a lot of time staring at sequences of "degenerate" zinc fingers, that are supposed to be non-functional. We started wondering "what if"? This is the second of seven zinc fingers we're working on, that are either annotated as degenerate or not even recognized as a zinc finger. I guess even in the age of AI, you can't believe everything you read on the internet! All seven are functional and we're studying their structures and biophysics. Yes, we know with NMR and cryo-EM pushing for ever larger complexes, zinc fingers are probably seen by the community as low-hanging fruit. It turns out you can eat quite well on low-hanging fruit (within our research budget), especially if authoritative databases designate the low-hanging fruit as inedible. We think they are fascinating, which is why we keep doing new ones. Read the manuscript and see if you agree.