New manuscript alert. Turns out that calcium ion coordination may be a more common mechanism than we initially expected to trigger polymerization of extracellular filaments. @mikesleutel.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

For over 100 years, Bt spores have been used to protect crops from caterpillars. These spores bear mysterious hair-like ENAs. Thanks to cryoEM, we now know ENAs are robust protein fibers that cluster spores like grappling hooks. Read more in Nature Communications. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to see the final version out! Cryo-EM structure of the PS2 S-layer in Corynebacterium 🔬! We show it provides mechanical support to the cell wall and assembles at the poles in coordination with PG. It can also be used for covalent surface display. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #microsky

In our latest preprint we used cryoEM to solve the structure of A-ENA fibers and show that they are stabilized by 10 isopeptide bonds per monomer. A-ENA couples the spore to the cry-toxins, and in doing so increases the virulence of Bacillus thuringiensis: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...