With a motivating push from @christlet.bsky.social I made a new Fiji plugin, CurveMorph. The idea was to create a tool for kymograph generation along the dynamic (bending/shaking) filament shapes (microtubules, cilia, neurites, etc).
The logo was made using the plugin.
github.com/UU-cellbiolo...
Video
Eugene Katrukha ๐บ๐ฆ
New preprint! In collaboration with @xujwet.bsky.social, @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social, and Akhmanova and Beekman groups, we determined the structure of the transition zone microtubule doublet in mammalian motile cilia, providing potential insights into the regulation of IFT: tinyurl.com/fssnevuc
How did animal senses evolve? Max Coyle et al. used choanoflagellates to uncover TRPW, ancient ion channels predating animal somatosensory receptors. TRPW links microbial prey ecology to evolution of receptor structure, sensory organelles, & multicellular processing.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Our lab website is finally online! pacesalab.com
You can find information about our research, publications, and on-going developments in the lab.
The ciliary transition zone gates bidirectional protein trafficking to maintain the specialized ciliary proteome using microtubule doublets as a scaffold. While ciliary axonemal doublets are well-char...
If you haven't already, please also check out a related preprint from @cellarchlab.com : pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41993500/
MiCSPARC leverages automated particle picking and fast 3D refinement times in CryoSPARC to determine the structures of both decorated and undecorated microtubules#CryoEM #Microtubules #HelicalReconstructions doi.org/10.1107/S205...
There are lots of exciting opportunities to join the in situ structural biology community at Leeds this Autumn - 2 studentships in the Cheney PhD program (astbury.leeds.ac.uk/cheney-phd/) and I am recruiting a PhD student and research assistant. Please share and send any future tomographers our way!
Multiciliated epithelial cells (MCCs) generate tens to hundreds of motile cilia to drive fluid flow in diverse physiological contexts. While the axonemal structure of motile cilia has been described e...
Applications are open for 2 PhD student places.ย Closing date for applications is Thursday 26 June, 5pm. Interviews will be held on 9th July 2026. The Cheney Scholarship is a prestigious 4-year PhD pr...
Kudos to @ciarawallis.bsky.social & @yiechanglin.bsky.social for their elegant publication testing #AlphaFold for predicting protein oligomeric states including advice on when it is likely to do well and when it can fail. ๐๐๐๐#StructuralBiology #AI #Biophysics tiny.cc/oligos
Cryo-ET gives unparalleled views of cellular structures, but targeted sample preparation by cryo-FIB milling has been a constraint. No longer! A new workflow yields close to 100% targeting success for centrioles & other small structures.
Read the preprint โคต๏ธ
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Glad to see the work of my PhD on the manchette microtubule now out in @embojournal.org: doi.org/10.1038/s443...
The manchette is a transient microtubule (MT)-based structure that is vital for the correct shaping of sperm during spermiogenesis. Throughout spermiogenesis, the manchette retains structural integrity for several days, raising the question of how its MTs are regulated. Here, using cryo-electron tomography of manchettes isolated from rat testes, we find that manchette MT ends are structurally diverse. We show that the MT-binding protein CLASP2 is present throughout the manchette and likely regulates both MT ends. Using cryo-electron microscopy single particle analysis and super-resolution microscopy, we reveal that SPACA9 and MNMIP1 (SH3D21) bind to the seam of manchette MTs from the luminal side. SPACA9 binds to both ฮฑ- and ฮฒ-tubulin of protofilament 1 but does not interact directly with protofilament 13, while MNMIP1 binds directly to protofilament 13. MNMIP1 further extends and threads through the MT lattice at the seam. Our study reveals a novel seam MT inner protein complex with a unique binding mode, providing a plausible explanation for MT regulation that maintains manchette integrity over an extended period.
