Bou-Nader lab

Wonderful! Congrats Ahmad and team 🎉

Check out our new preprint on the discovery of a molecular switch in NAC that mediates nascent chain sorting on the ribosome and prevents mitochondrial protein mistargeting by SRP. A great collaboration with the Shan Lab @Caltech and the Qi Lab @UVA: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab!
We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness.
Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77

Finally out!
I’m thrilled to share our new paper (Wolin et al., Cell 2025).

This paper describes SPIDR, a high-throughput method for mapping RBP binding sites.

By combining #SPIDR with #cryoEM, we identified the exact binding site of LARP1 within the #mRNA channel of the 40S ribosomal subunit.

Universal rules govern plasmid copy number - Nature Communications Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...

🚨🚨New paper out in @natcomms.nature.com!!

Come for the first large-scale analysis of plasmid copy number across species,
stay for one of the most intriguing results of my lab: universal scaling laws in plasmid biology! 📈🧬

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mechanism of Rad51 filament formation by Rad52 and Rad55-Rad57 in homologous recombination Nature Communications - The mediator protein Rad52 promotes Rad51 binding onto RPA-coated DNA to initiate homologous recombination. Here, the authors show that Rad52 sorts Rad51 into monomers and...

How are Rad51 filaments formed during Homologous Recombination?

Jaigeeth Deveryshetty and Ayush Mistry describe the mechanism through the lens of Rad52, the yeast homolog of human BRCA2.

urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Competition for Hfq drives kinetic selection of mRNA targets by Escherichia coli small noncoding RNAs | PNAS Small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) regulate gene expression in Escherichia coli bacteria in response to diverse stimuli in the environment and the host. ...

Our new paper is out in PNAS! We show that competition for binding to the Hfq matchmaker disfavors mismatched sRNA-mRNA combinations while allowing matched sRNA-mRNAs to form stable pairs. Kudos to Jorjethe Roca and Yi-Lan Chen for their fantastic work on this problem! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

A new protein-dependent riboswitch activates ribosomal frameshifting Programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) is a ubiquitous translational control mechanism in RNA viruses, allowing them to change the relative abundance of proteins encoded in different reading fram...

New preprint alert! 🚨👇 I'm delighted to share the latest research from @jemmabetts.bsky.social
in our group: ‘A new protein-dependent riboswitch activates ribosomal frameshifting’. Huge congratulations to Jemma for the first manuscript of her PhD! ✨

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

New paper out in Mol Cell, where we show how N-myristolytransferases lipidate proteins on the translating ribosome!
Continuing our successful collaboration with DeuerlingLab @uni-konstanz.de & Shu-ou Chan @caltech.edu
@snsf.ch @ethz.ch
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Intracellular pathogen effector reprograms host gene expression by inhibiting mRNA decay - Nature Communications Intracellular pathogens hijack host gene expression to subvert cellular processes. Here, the authors show that Legionella pneumophila’s PieF effector inhibits the human CCR4-NOT deadenylation machiner...

Happy to share the latest work on a bacterial protein that inhibits human mRNA decay machinery, in collaboration with @smlea.bsky.social #RNAsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Intracellular pathogen effector reprograms host gene expression by inhibiting mRNA decay | Nature Communications

Excited to share our latest work! We found transcription factor SPT6 and phosphorylated Pol II CTD help recruit U1 snRNP to elongating Pol II, allowing efficient co-transcriptional splicing.

Glad to be featured in the Editors’ Highlights!

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

#splicing #cryoEM

Cryo-EM structure of human telomerase dimer reveals H/ACA RNP-mediated dimerization Telomerase ribonucleoprotein (RNP) synthesizes telomeric repeats at chromosome ends using a telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and a telomerase RNA (hTR in humans). Previous structural work showe...

Proud to share our work where we resolved a longstanding question regarding the existence of a human telomerase dimer and provided insights into its function. Led by 3 amazing lab members in collaboration with @yiliangding.bsky.social and @rdaslab.bsky.social.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Structural insights into transcriptional regulation by the helicase RECQL5 - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Florez Ariza and Lue et al. use cryo-electron microscopy to investigate how the RECQL5 helicase regulates transcription. Their structural findings suggest that RECQL5 can modulate RNA polymerase II’s ...

Our work, co-led by @alfredo0712.bsky.social and @nlue8.bsky.social is out in @natsmb.nature.com Shout out to coauthors P.Grob, B. Kaeser, J.Fang, and S. Kassube for their contributions and thanks to the reviewers for the suggestions that led to the final work.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper:
More than 2700 human 3′UTRs are highly conserved. These 3′UTRs are essential components in mRNA templates, as their deletion decreases protein activity without changing protein abundance. Highly conserved 3′UTRs help the folding of proteins with long IDRs.

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

I am checking in to share this review in case you missed it. This is the first manuscript out of the lab, written together with postdoc @joshdcryoem.bsky.social, and I think it is an important starting point for designing in situ structural biology experiments

Happy anniversary and congrats 🎉

Check out our new study on how bacteria defend themselves against a peculiar clade of organisms – predatory bacteria! This work was a monumental effort led by @hannahledvina.bsky.social (see her excellent summary👇). The bacterial immune system continues to amaze me...

Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit!

tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac

Congrats Roger 🎉 well deserved!

new preprint alert from the lab: bringing some order into the wide and wild diversity of archaeal histones. Who has acidic histones? who has multiple histones? what histone combinations do archaea employ and why? find all of this and more here
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Take #3...
Happy to share our latest work from Ye Liu.

Control of 3' Splice Site Selection in S. cerevisiae by a Highly Conserved Amino Acid within the Prp8 α-finger Domain
Ye Liu, Joshua C Paulson, Aaron A Hoskins

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

Excited to share this preprint from my lab. We report a potent and site-specific inhibition of translation initiation by 2’O methylation.

It’s been a though year, but these discoveries keep us excited and motivated! #RNAsky #RNAbiology

Latest preprint from the lab, many years in the making!

By combining #cryoEM with #AlphaFold3 modelling, we propose that norovirus NS3 forms a transmembrane RNA translocase.

This could have big implications for our understanding of viral replication & assembly (🧵)

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

❄️🔬🧬🦠🧫 Disassembly activates Retron-Septu for antiphage defense | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @rti-umasschan.bsky.social #RNA #DNA #retrons #microbiology #phage #immunity #phagesky #MicroSky

RNA transcripts regulate G-quadruplex landscapes through G-loop formation G-quadruplexes (G4s) are prevalent DNA structures that regulate transcription but also threaten genome stability. How G4 dynamics are controlled remains poorly understood. Here, we report that RNA tra...

🧬🧪 @science.org RNA transcripts regulate G-quadruplex landscapes through G-loop formation | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @puckknipscheer.bsky.social @simonelsasser.bsky.social + al. @hubrechtinstitute.bsky.social @oncodeinstitute.bsky.social #DNA #RNA #genome #G-quadruplex #G-loop

At left, a reconstruction of the vault cap with C39 symmetry imposed; at right, the reconstruction after identifying the correct symmetry, with the three non-equivalent protomers highlighted.

1/x New story - the structure of the Vault cap, at 2.3Å! Matching a beautiful preprint from @sjorsscheres.bsky.social, we show that the cap of the vault particle has C13 symmetry, in contrast to the 39-fold symmetry of the body. Study lead by talented postdoc @huanli00.bsky.social from my group! ⬇️

thx Ahmad. Hope we can catch up soon 🍀

1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs.
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thx George! Gd luck with the starting the lab 💪

Thx Sarah, hope all is well