Carter Lab

@kashishsingh.bsky.social

Excited to share our work on the structure and function of cytoplasmic lattices within mouse embryos. A collaborative effort with @niakanlab.bsky.social and work led by @kashishsingh.bsky.social and @inaharasimov.bsky.social . It is now out on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab reposted

Kashish Singh

13 Aug

Very happy to see the final version of our work on the structure and composition of cytoplasmic lattices in mouse embryos, previously shared on bioRxiv, now published in The EMBO Journal! Many thanks to our editor, Ieva Gailite, and the reviewers for their constructive input.

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org

What’s the function of embryonic ‘cytoplasmic lattices’? Using cryo-ET, @kashishsingh.bsky.social @carter-lab.bsky.social and coworkers reveal them as megadalton-size hubs of ubiquitination proteins/ubiquitin transfer link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comIn-situ cryo-ET of mouse embryos reveals cytoplasmic lattices contain ubiquitin-charged E2-E3 ligase assemblies - The EMBO JournalCytoplasmic lattices (CPLs) are filamentous assemblies essential for mammalian embryonic development. They are known to regulate organelle organization, spindle assembly, and protein homeostasis, but ...

Carter Lab reposted

Svetlana Dodonova

@dodonova-sveta.bsky.social

19 June

Excited to share our new preprint! 🧬❄️ by brilliant @mdreimann.bsky.social and great collaborators! Using cryo-ET&EM, we reveal archaeal chromatin in a near-native state: variable-beads-on-a-string fibers shaped by growth phase and histone composition #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab reposted

Danielle Grotjahn

@nanigrotjahn.bsky.social

16 June

Cryo-ET is often framed as a tool for in situ protein structure. But what if the real revolution is contextualization? I explore how #teamtomo is redefining what "local" means in organelle biology, revealing membrane states rather than just protein structures. tinyurl.com/localmembrane

sciencedirect.comThink globally, act locally: Redefining organellar membrane environments through cryo-electron tomographyEarly enthusiasm for the “cellular revolution” in cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) was largely driven by the promise of resolving protein structures…

Carter Lab reposted

Helen Foster

@helenfoster.bsky.social

11 June

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!

astbury.leeds.ac.ukCheney Scholarship PhD Programme : The Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology - "Understanding Life in Molecular Detail"Applications are open for 2 PhD student places. 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...

science.orgProtein-templated synthesis of dinucleotide repeat DNA by an antiphage reverse transcriptaseDefense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) are widespread bacterial anti-phage systems that use unconventional mechanisms of polynucleotide synthesis. We show that DRT3, which comprises two dist...

18 May

In our #journalclub, we looked at the cool new findings from Deng and colleagues, which show that the bacterial reverse transcriptase Drt3 chain B can synthesise poly(AC) DNA strands in the absence of a nucleic acid template, encoded by conserved surface amino acids. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

nature.comStructural basis for recognition of diverse localizing mRNAs by Egl–BicD - Nature Structural & Molecular BiologySingh et al. combine cryo-electron microscopy and functional studies to reveal how a single protein complex selects diverse mRNAs for subcellular localization using a combination of shape, positional ...

5 May

Our story on RNA recognition by Egl-BicD is now published! Also delighted to share the accompanying News & Views article by Florence Besse and Andres Ramos, which beautifully highlights the work. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... News & Views: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology@mrclmb.ac.uk

The hidden rules behind mRNA transport. A collaborative study between @simonbullock11.bsky.social & @carter-lab.bsky.social’s groups has found a structural code that explains how cells selectively transport mRNAs. Read more: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBNews @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social 🧪

Carter Lab reposted

Simon Bullock

@simonbullock11.bsky.social

5 May

Thrilled to see this work published. Thanks to helpful reviewer suggestions, there are some exciting new insights that were not in the preprint (particularly in Figure 4). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology@mrclmb.ac.uk

Carter Lab reposted

Sjors Scheres

@sjorsscheres.bsky.social

1 May

Come and work with us on #cryoEM of alpha-synuclein amyloid filaments from #Parkinsons disease! 🥳 fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

29 Apr

New preprint from the lab, looking at how multiple different adaptors interact with dynein! Work led by @amicoennio.bsky.social. Available now on BioRxiv: doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.orgdoi.org

Ennio@amicoennio.bsky.social

New preprint! We asked a simple question: How do very different activating adaptors all activate dynein? Turns out: same architecture, wildly different implementations 🧵👇 doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.orgdoi.org

27 Apr

Always looking for ways to improve cryo-ET lamella quality. In last week’s #journalclub, we discussed what seems to be a promising and practical in-chamber sublimation approach for mitigating ice contamination and curtaining during lamella prep. Preprint-- www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

15 Apr

Really proud to see this. Huge congratulations to @helenfoster.bsky.social on the Biochemical Society Early Career Award, well deserved!!

Helen Foster@helenfoster.bsky.social

I am delighted to be among this years winners awards from the Biochemical Society! The Early Career Award recognises the work I did during my PhD and postdoc, and hopefully signals a bright start for my new lab within the @astbury-bsl.bsky.social at the University of Leeds 💫

@sjorsscheres.bsky.social

8 Apr

Beautiful new study from @dyneinassembly.bsky.social lab on cilia recycling.

(GIRISH)MALI LAB@dyneinassembly.bsky.social

Happy to share our latest work spearheaded by super talented PhD student Muyang Ren now out as a bioRxiv preprint. 'Motile ciliophagy promotes ciliary recycling under stress' www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Carter Lab reposted

Ben Engel

@cellarchlab.com

8 Apr

It’s done!! Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells! A study 13 years in the making 👴, thanks to collab with @stearnslab.bsky.social + @centriolelab.bsky.social & visionary work by @computingcaitie.bsky.social, who integrated native #cryoET with #XLMS & #UExM 🧪🧶🧬🔬

Caitie McCafferty@computingcaitie.bsky.social

I am excited to share our most recent work collaborating with @centriolelab.bsky.social and @stearnslab.bsky.social to look at the ciliary base of mammalian multiciliated cells w/ cryo-ET, XL/MS, and U-ExM www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab reposted

Sjors Scheres

2 Apr

Our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: "Prion-like transmission of human tau strains in the mouse brain" 🥳 With Michel Goedert and Masato Hasegawa. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgbiorxiv.org

Carter Lab reposted

Ana Tufegdzic Vidakovic

@anatv.bsky.social

2 Apr

We are looking for a postdoc to join us on the quest for understanding RNA Pol II destruction machines! If you are curious why more than 80% of Pol II are removed from genes, check out the post below: www.nature.com/naturecareer...

nature.comPostdoctoral Scientist | PNAC | Dr Ana Tufegdzic Vidakovic | LMB 2142 - Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (GB) job with MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) | 12857096Postdoctoral Scientist Salary £42,694 per annum pro rata Fixed term for 3 years MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Applications are...

Carter Lab reposted

Joe Greener

@jgreener64.bsky.social

1 Apr

On this 1st April I'm happy to release a technical report from our startup MirageBio, describing a new protein structure model with state-of-the-art performance. jgreener64.github.io/posts/techni...

jgreener64.github.ioMirageBio technical report

30 Mar

Check out this new work from @ckylau.bsky.social and @ritatewari.bsky.social labs on proteins that bridge Plasmodium cytoskeleton and it's motility apparatus. Congrats to all authors!!

Clinton Lau@ckylau.bsky.social

Check out our first lab preprint: A real team effort to understand the Plasmodium GAPM proteins, which form part of a essential bridge between the parasite's cytoskeleton and motility apparatus. Below is a sneak peek of some beautiful microscopy - light and electron! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social

30 Mar

Huge congratulations to @vcmentowski.bsky.social on winning the Bayer Pharmaceuticals PhD Award at this year’s Mosbach Symposium!! Really great to see her work being recognised.

Verena Cmentowski@vcmentowski.bsky.social

Honored to receive the Bayer Pharmaceuticals PhD Award of the @gbmev.bsky.social at this year’s Mosbach Symposium an inspiring meeting with great science and discussions. Very grateful to my PhD supervisor @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social for his excellent mentorship and support throughout the journey.

Carter Lab reposted

Basil Greber

@bjgreber.bsky.social

27 Mar

Have a look at our latest results on #CDK regulation, just posted as a pre-print! This study was spearheaded by PhD student Amy McGeoch. Amy has determined the #cryoEM structure of the CDK11-cyclin L-SAP30B complex, an important regulator of #spliceosome activation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab reposted

Kelly Nguyen

26 Mar

Proud to share the yeast telomerase structure, led by the talented @hongmiaohu.bsky.social in collaboration with the Wellinger and Chartrand labs. Discovered 37 years ago and took us nearly 7 years but totally worth the wait 😍. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFE4...

youtube.comCryo-EM structure of yeast telomeraseYouTube video by MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology@mrclmb.ac.uk

Led by Investigator Scientist @hongmiaohu.bsky.social, @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division have produced the first ever structure of telomerase from yeast. Read more here: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBResearch #cryoEM 🧪

Overall, these structural insights reveal how cytoplasmic lattices are assembled and suggest hypotheses for their function. Much remains to be explored.

Also do check out a related manuscript that came out last week. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our structure raises another possibility that these structures are directly involved with ubiquitination as they have the components one would need for ubiquitin transfer. Eg: The proteins within the repeat unit core are arranged to form a cavity that contains E2-E3 ligases charged with ubiquitin. 🤯

We also find an equally abundant state where the cavity contains a central FBXW-SKP1 complex but no ubiqutin density. This is explained by the ubiqutin binding pockets on the protein PADI6 opening up which would make the ubiquitin binding unfavourable and make it available for ubiqutin transfer.

So what’s in this core? Proteins involved in ubiquitination and tubulin. We find multiple F-box protein–SKP1 complexes and an interesting assembly made of the E2-ubiqutin-conjugating enzyme UBE2D, E3 ligase UHRF1, NLRP14 and, guess what, an alpha-beta tubulin.

What are these proteins doing here? One possibility is that CPLs could be storing them for use during development consistent with previous proposals that CPLs act as protein storage sites. If true, when would they be released and used is not clear.

Our structure reveals the architecture of cytoplasmic lattices and shows how the different proteins are arranged into a huge ~4.5MDa repeat unit, how they form filaments and how these filaments connect to each other to form lattices.

A striking finding is that proteins shown by prior genetic studies to be non-essential are involved in filament formation. This suggests that the functionally important part of cytoplasmic lattices is not the filament itself, but the core of each repeat unit.

Cytoplasmic lattices are enigmatic structures required for mammalian development that occupy large portions of the cytoplasm in oocyte and early embryos. We took an in situ cryo-ET approach to understand what they are made of and what their function might be.

26 Feb

#journalclub! We had a look at axonal lysosomes in a preprint from Walker et al. (2026). The authors show that as v-ATPase-positive lysosomes mature, the mRAVE-dependent recruitment of V1 onto V0 is associated with a change in motile behaviour, from bidirectional to retrograde-only. Very cool!

nature.comTANGO: Analysis and curation of particles in cryo-electron tomography - Nature CommunicationsCryo-electron tomography visualizes molecules inside cells, but it lacks flexible tools to study their spatial organization. The authors present TANGO, a framework that utilizes neighborhoods of parti...

13 Feb

Today in #journalclub we learned that it takes two to TANGO: particle lists and spatial analysis! 💃🕺 Check out this new open-source Python package that lets you get more information from your cryo-ET data. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

20 Jan

In our last week's #journalclub, we looked at how the dynein light chain LC8 stablises the disordered domain of KANK1, transforming it into a rigid, hinged rod that can span the cortex–microtubule gap and recruit kinesin-4 to cortical microtubule plus ends. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgIsoNet2 determines cellular structures at submolecular resolution without averagingWe introduce IsoNet2 , an end-to-end self-supervised deep-learning method that directly reconstructs high-quality 3D densities from cryogenic electron tomography. A unified network simultaneously performs denoising, contrast transfer function correction, and missing-wedge restoration, achieving ∼20 Å resolution without averaging. A feature-rich GUI enables rapid, dataset-specific fine-tuning for end-users. IsoNet2 resolves domain organization in HIV capsid proteins, tRNA occupancy in individual ribosomes, and in situ architectures of mitochondrial respiration-related complexes, enabling atomic-level interpretation of cellular environments. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

The new isoNet2 looks amazing! We are excited to try it out! #journalclub www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.comadvanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Ennio@amicoennio.bsky.social

Today in #journalclub - An isoform of my favourite mitotic adaptor Spindly is repurposed to regulate lipid droplet localisation in interphase. Worth a look 👇 advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Today in #JournalClub we discussed a new preprint that uses in situ cryo-ET and molecular dynamics simulations to study biomolecular condensate formation. Very beautiful data and interesting insights. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Beautiful images from @christlet.bsky.social labelling tubulin in neurons #journalclub www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.orgActivated kinesin-1 assembles into a dimer-of-dimersKinesin-1 mediates intracellular cargo transport along microtubules. The conventional kinesin-1 complex is composed of two KIF5 motor subunits (also known as kinesin heavy chain; KHCs) and two cargo-b...

12 Jan

Interesting new result from Kyoko Chiba showing KIF5C forming a dimer-of-dimers #journalclub www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Carter Lab reposted

Simon Bullock

@simonbullock11.bsky.social

5 Aug 2025

Our latest work, in collaboration with the terrific @kashishsingh.bsky.social in the Carter lab @mrclmb.bsky.social is out. So proud of this study and everyone involved...

bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social

Cryo-EM structures of Egl-BicD-RNA complexes reveal how diverse mRNAs are selected for subcellular localization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.02.668268v1

5 Aug 2025

Excited to share our latest work with @simonbullock11.bsky.social! We looked at how diverse mRNAs get selected for subcellular localization and it turns out that a single protein can recognize different RNA elements using shared features that weren’t apparent before. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.orgCryo-EM structures of Egl-BicD-RNA complexes reveal how diverse mRNAs are selected for subcellular localizationLocalization of mRNAs is a widespread mechanism for controlling where proteins operate in cells and underpins many fundamental processes, from embryonic patterning to synaptic plasticity. This spatial...

5 Aug 2025

Here is the correct link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

11 July 2025

Check out this exciting new study from the @rgassmann.bsky.social lab that we are thrilled to be part of — revealing that CDR2 is a dynein adaptor that regulates ER sheet organization!!

Journal of Cell Biology@jcb.org

Teixeira et al. @i3suporto.bsky.social identify the onconeural antigen CDR2 as an ER-localized adaptor for the microtubule-based motor cytoplasmic dynein-1 & show that CDR2 contributes to ER organization thru. its interaction w/ the integral ER membrane protein kinectin. rupress.org/jcb/article/...

biorxiv.orgTinA enables kinesin-14/KlpA to exhibit processive minus-end-directed motilityKinesin-14 motors contribute to spindle assembly by localizing to spindle poles and anchoring the minus ends of spindle microtubules. Unlike other kinesin-14 motors, KlpA uniquely exhibits plus-end-di...

28 Feb 2025

In Today's #journalclub, we had a look at how TinA can make the kinesin-14 KlpA to switch to minus-end processivity on microtubules in vitro: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

21 Feb 2025

Today in #journalclub, we looked at this fantastic new method from the @doudna-lab.bsky.social in Nature Biotechnology! They show how CRISPR–Csm enables single-molecule live-cell imaging of endogenous RNAs. Super cool! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

molbiolcell.orgMolecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC)

7 Feb 2025

A new study reveals how alternative splicing fine-tunes dynein cargo specificity! ZYG-12/Hook uses different isoforms to recruit dynein to either early endosomes or the nuclear envelope, showcasing a clever mechanism for organelle-specific transport. #journalclub www.molbiolcell.org/doi/abs/10.1...

biorxiv.orgCryo-EM captures early intermediate steps in dynein activation by LIS1Cytoplasmic dynein-1 (dynein) is an essential molecular motor in eukaryotic cells. Dynein primarily exists in an autoinhibited “Phi” state and requires conformational changes to assemble with its cofa...

7 Feb 2025

Today in #journalclub, we looked at the new study from Nguyen et al. showing how Cryo-EM captures early steps in dynein activation by LIS1. They identified a novel ‘Pre-Chi’ intermediate, shedding light on how LIS1 relieves dynein autoinhibition! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Carter Lab reposted

Ennio

@amicoennio.bsky.social

15 Nov 2024

First #JournalClub on the blue side: an exciting story about dynein at the kinetochore and its role in biorientation! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comKinetochore dynein is sufficient to biorient chromosomes and remodel the outer kinetochore - Nature CommunicationsMitotic chromosomes recruit multiple microtubule-directed activities to ensure their faithful segregation. Using an approach where only one major activity is present, the authors reveal sufficiency of...