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The systemic discovery of metal–small-molecule complexes from biological samples is a difficult challenge. Now, a method based on liquid chromatography and native electrospray ionization mass spectrometry has been developed. The approach uses post-column pH adjustment and metal infusion combined with ion identity molecular networking, and a rule-based informatics workflow, to interrogate small-molecule–metal binding.

KdpFABC is a high-affinity bacterial K⁺ pump which combines the ion channel-like KdpA and the P-type ATPase KdpB. Here, the authors elucidate the mechanisms underlying transport and the coupling to ATP hydrolysis, and provide evidence that ions are transported via an intersubunit tunnel through KdpA and KdpB.

Here, the authors identify a third component of the outer membrane LPS translocon in Escherichia coli called LptM. Biochemical analysis and structural modelling reveal that LptM binds the LPS translocon by mimicking its native substrate, so stabilising an active conformation of the complex.

Second messengers regulate a broad spectrum of processes in bacteria. Here, authors characterize how the second messenger cyclic di-AMP inhibits the potassium transporter KimA using cryo-EM, molecular dynamics simulations and functional assays.

Lipid droplet biogenesis is orchestrated by the conserved membrane protein Seipin via an unknown mechanism. Here, the authors use structural, biochemical and molecular dynamics simulation approaches to reveal the mechanism of lipid droplet formation by the yeast Seipin Sei1 and its partner Ldb16.

Donors spins in silicon are coherent, high-performance qubits, but scale-up has been challenging. Here the authors present the first experimental demonstration of exchange-based, entangling two qubit gates between electrons bound to ³¹P donors in Si.

For solid-state qubits, the material environment hosts sources of errors that vary in time and space. This systematic analysis of errors affecting high-fidelity two-qubit gates in silicon can inform the design of large-scale quantum computers.

Interpretation of lipid-like densities in cryo-EM structures of membrane proteins is challenging. Here authors present LipIDens, enabling molecular dynamics analysis of protein-lipid interactions.

Native mass spectrometry, HDX-MS and MD simulations define the mechanism for how LPS binding to the Gram-negative outer membrane complex LptDE opens the LptD lateral exit gate and how thanatin impairs transport across the periplasm.

Peptidoglycan biosynthesis is regulated by a feedback mechanism preventing the pathway from sequestering essential lipid carriers used to assemble and transport surface glycan subunits.

The most parsimonious network of routes taken by the first people navigating Sahul emerge from landscape-based rules, which can also be applied to other peopling events, to quantify the likely patterns of the peopling of Earth.

Filamentous phages can assemble into mesoscale structures termed tactoids that protect bacteria in biofilms from antibiotics. Here, the authors dissect the biophysical factors influencing this protection using two model phages, Pf4 and fd.

A cryo-electron microscopy analysis reveals how HAS selects its substrates, hydrolyses the first substrate to prime the synthesis reaction, opens a hyaluronan-conducting transmembrane channel, ensures alternating substrate polymerization and coordinates hyaluronan inside its transmembrane pore.

Bacterial cell wall enzymes and their precursors are critical targets for antibiotic development. Here, the authors investigate several biosynthetic enzymes with their substrates and show that the passage of substrates and products in the pathway is controlled by their relative binding affinities.

Bacterial O antigen polysaccharides play a role in innate immune response evasion. Here, the authors uncover the ATP-bound structure of the Aquifex aeolicus WzmWzt O antigen ABC transporter, shedding light onto the mechanism of lipid-linked polysaccharide translocation.

Cryo-EM structures of human SERINC5 and its fly orthologue, along with extensive functional analyses, reveal the protein architecture and identify regions important for HIV-1 restriction.

KUP transporters facilitate potassium uptake by the co-transport of protons and are key players in potassium homeostasis. Here authors identify the potassium importer KimA from Bacillus subtilis as a new member of the KUP transporter family and show the cryo-EM structure of KimA in an inward-occluded, trans-inhibited conformation.

The detection of conserved motifs by pattern recognition receptors is a crucial component of the innate detection of pathogens and danger signals via conserved pattern recognition receptors. Here the authors define a pathway that transfers partially digested material from the phagolysosomal pathway of macrophages to release at the plasma membrane which is associated with enhanced inflammatory potential, by a process they introduce as eructophagy.

TMEM16K is a member of the TMEM16 family of integral membrane proteins that are either lipid scramblases or chloride channels. Here the authors combine cell biology, electrophysiology measurements, X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and MD simulations to structurally characterize TMEM16K and show that it is an ER-resident lipid scramblase.

In eukaryotes the SLC35 family of solute carriers mediate the selective uptake of nucleotide sugars from the cytoplasm into the Endoplasmic Reticulum or Golgi. Here authors report the crystal structure of the yeast GDP-mannose transporter, Vrg4, bound to guanine monophosphate (GMP) revealing the molecular basis for GMP recognition and transport.

ASLPrep is a software suite for reproducible processing of arterial spin labeled magnetic resonance imaging data.

A potent and selective catalytic inhibitor of p300/CBP histone acetyltransferases suppresses tumour proliferation across multiple cell lineages, illustrating the therapeutic potential of drug-like small molecules that target histone acetyltransferases.

Protein-lipid interactions can mediate the function of membrane proteins. Here coarse-grained molecular dynamics free energy perturbation simulations yield binding free energies for phosphoinositide lipids to hKir channels and mutants, in agreement with electrophysiological measurements.