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Group I and II introns self-splice in vitro, but require proteins for efficient splicing in vivo, to stabilize the catalytically active RNA structure. Recent studies showed that the splicing of some Neurospora crassa mitochondrial group I introns additionally requires a DEAD-box protein, CYT-19, which acts as an RNA chaperone to resolve nonnative structures formed during RNA folding. Here we show that, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondria, a related DEAD-box protein, Mss116p, is required for the efficient splicing of all group I and II introns, some RNA end-processing reactions, and translation of a subset of mRNAs, and that all these defects can be partially or completely suppressed by the expression of CYT-19. Results for the aI2 group II intron indicate that Mss116p is needed after binding the intron-encoded maturase, likely for the disruption of stable but inactive RNA structures. Our results suggest that both group I and II introns are prone to kinetic traps in RNA folding in vivo and that the splicing of both types of introns may require DEAD-box proteins that function as RNA chaperones.bakers' yeast ͉ mitochondria ͉ splicing factor D ExH͞D-box proteins are a large, ubiquitous protein family, whose members use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to mediate RNA structural rearrangements in a variety of cellular processes (1, 2). These proteins have a core region containing nine conserved motifs flanked by unique N-and͞or C-terminal extensions, which in some cases target the proteins to their sites of action by specific RNA or protein interactions. The proteins are named for the amino acid sequence of motif II, which in different subfamilies is DEAD, DEAH, or some variant thereof. Experiments with model substrates show that DExH͞D-box proteins can act as RNA helicases (3) or can disrupt ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes independently of their helicase activity (4). However, how these proteins function on their natural substrates has remained largely unknown.Group I and II introns self-splice in vitro but require proteins for efficient splicing in vivo to help fold the intron RNA into the catalytically active structure (5). In the fungus Neurospora crassa, the splicing of a subset of mitochondrial (mt) group I introns depends on two proteins encoded by nuclear genes, the mt tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (CYT-18 protein), which stabilizes the catalytically active RNA structure, and the DEAD-box protein 7). Recently, CYT-19 was shown to function as an ATP-dependent RNA chaperone to destabilize nonnative structures that constitute kinetic traps in the CYT-18-assisted RNA folding pathway (7). A mutation in the cyt-19 gene did not affect the splicing of non-CYT-18-dependent group I introns or a group II intron, but did inhibit some 5Ј and 3Ј end processing reactions and, possibly, mt translation (7,8).The Saccharomyces cerevisiae nuclear genome encodes three DExH͞D-box proteins (Suv3p, Mrh4p, and Mss116p) that function in mitochondria (9-11). Of these, Mss116p is the most closely related to CYT-19. The two proteins have 32...

Bacterial cell envelope protein (CEP) complexes mediate a range of processes, including membrane assembly, antibiotic resistance and metabolic coordination. However, only limited characterization of relevant macromolecules has been reported to date. Here we present a proteomic survey of 1,347 CEPs encompassing 90% inner- and outer-membrane and periplasmic proteins of Escherichia coli. After extraction with non-denaturing detergents, we affinity-purified 785 endogenously tagged CEPs and identified stably associated polypeptides by precision mass spectrometry. The resulting high-quality physical interaction network, comprising 77% of targeted CEPs, revealed many previously uncharacterized heteromeric complexes. We found that the secretion of autotransporters requires translocation and the assembly module TamB to nucleate proper folding from periplasm to cell surface through a cooperative mechanism involving the β-barrel assembly machinery. We also establish that an ABC transporter of unknown function, YadH, together with the Mla system preserves outer membrane lipid asymmetry. This E. coli CEP ‘interactome’ provides insights into the functional landscape governing CE systems essential to bacterial growth, metabolism and drug resistance.

Astaxanthin (3,3′-dihydroxy-β,β-carotene-4,4′-dione), a high-value ketocarotenoid with a broad range of applications in food, feed, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries, has been gaining great attention from science and the public in recent years. The green microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella zofingiensis represent the most promising producers of natural astaxanthin. Although H. pluvialis possesses the highest intracellular astaxanthin content and is now believed to be a good producer of astaxanthin, it has intrinsic shortcomings such as slow growth rate, low biomass yield, and a high light requirement. In contrast, C. zofingiensis grows fast phototrophically, heterotrophically and mixtrophically, is easy to be cultured and scaled up both indoors and outdoors, and can achieve ultrahigh cell densities. These robust biotechnological traits provide C. zofingiensis with high potential to be a better organism than H. pluvialis for mass astaxanthin production. This review aims to provide an overview of the biology and industrial potential of C. zofingiensis as an alternative astaxanthin producer. The path forward for further expansion of the astaxanthin production from C. zofingiensis with respect to both challenges and opportunities is also discussed.

Long-read sequencing is promising for the comprehensive discovery of structural variations (SVs). However, it is still non-trivial to achieve high yields and performance simultaneously due to the complex SV signatures implied by noisy long reads. We propose cuteSV, a sensitive, fast, and scalable long-read-based SV detection approach. cuteSV uses tailored methods to collect the signatures of various types of SVs and employs a clustering-and-refinement method to implement sensitive SV detection. Benchmarks on simulated and real long-read sequencing datasets demonstrate that cuteSV has higher yields and scaling performance than state-ofthe-art tools. cuteSV is available at https://github.com/tjiangHIT/cuteSV.

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The DEAD-box proteins CYT-19 in Neurospora crassa and Mss116p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are broadly acting RNA chaperones that function in mitochondria to stimulate group I and group II intron splicing and activate mRNA translation. Previous studies showed that the S. cerevisiae cytosolic/nuclear DEAD-box protein Ded1p could stimulate group II intron splicing in vitro. Here, we show that Ded1p complements the mitochondrial translation and group I and II intron splicing defects in mss116Δ strains, stimulates the in vitro splicing of group I as well as group II introns, and functions indistinguishably from CYT-19 to resolve different non-native secondary and/or tertiary structures in the Tetrahymena thermophila LSU-ΔP5abc group I intron. The Escherichia coli DEAD-box protein SrmB also stimulates group I and II intron splicing in vitro, while the E. coli DEAD-box protein DbpA and vaccinia virus DExH-box protein NPH-II gave little if any group I or II intron splicing stimulation in vitro or in vivo. The four DEAD-box proteins that stimulate group I and II intron splicing unwind RNA duplexes by local strand separation and have little or no specificity, as judged by RNA-binding assays and stimulation of their ATPase activity by diverse RNAs. By contrast, DbpA binds group I and II intron RNAs non-specifically, but its ATPase activity is activated specifically by a helical segment of E. coli 23S rRNA, and NPH-II unwinds RNAs by directional translocation. The ability of DEAD-box proteins to stimulate group I and II intron splicing correlates primarily with their RNA-unwinding activity, which for the protein preparations used here was greatest for Mss116p, followed by Ded1p, CYT-19, and SrmB. Further, this correlation holds for all group I and II intron RNAs tested, implying a fundamentally similar mechanism for both types of introns. Our results support the hypothesis that DEAD-box proteins have an inherent ability to function as RNA chaperones by virtue of their distinctive RNA-unwinding mechanism, which enables refolding of localized RNA regions or structures without globally disrupting RNA structure.