{"id":25834,"date":"2011-07-21T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?p=25834"},"modified":"2024-11-14T16:29:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T15:29:56","slug":"a-hot-species-for-cool-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"A hot species for cool structures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A fungus that lives at extremely high temperatures could help understand structures within our own cells. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University, both in Heidelberg, Germany, were the first to sequence and analyse the genome of a heat-loving fungus, and used that information to determine the long sought 3-dimensional structure of the inner ring of the nuclear pore. The study was published today in <em>Cell<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fungus <em>Chaetomium thermophilum<\/em> lives in soil, dung and compost heaps, at temperatures up to 60\u00baC. This means its proteins \u2013 including some which are very similar to our own \u2013 have to be very stable, and the Heidelberg scientists saw this stability as an advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are a number of structures that we couldn\u2019t study before, because they are too unstable in organisms that live at more moderate temperatures,\u201d explains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.embl.org\/groups\/bork\/\">Peer Bork<\/a>, who led the genome analysis at EMBL. \u201cNow with this heat-loving fungus, we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientists compared the fungus\u2019 genome and proteome to those of other eukaryotes \u2013 organisms whose cells have a nucleus \u2013 and identified the proteins that make up the innermost ring of the nuclear pore, a channel that controls what enters and exits a cell\u2019s nucleus. Having identified the relevant building blocks, the scientists determined the complex 3D structure of that inner ring for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis work shows the power of interdisciplinary collaborations,\u201d says Ed Hurt, who led the structural and biochemical analyses at Heidelberg University: \u201cthe nuclear pore is an intricate biological puzzle, but by combining bioinformatics with biochemistry and structural biology, we were able to solve this piece of it for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientists have made <em>C. thermophilum<\/em>\u2019s genome and proteome publicly available, and are confident that these will prove valuable for studying other eukaryotic structures and their interactions, as well as general adaptations to life in hot places. Such knowledge could potentially lead to new biotechnology applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fungus that lives at extremely high temperatures could help understand structures within our own cells. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University, both in Heidelberg, Germany, were the first to sequence and analyse the genome of a heat-loving fungus,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":25844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[1716,365,1984,41,664,1790,1748,668,35,1982],"embl_taxonomy":[19179],"class_list":["post-25834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-3d","tag-bork","tag-fungus","tag-genetics","tag-genome","tag-nuclear-pore","tag-press-release","tag-proteome","tag-structural-biology","tag-thermophile","embl_taxonomy-bork-group"],"acf":{"show_featured_image":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"article_intro":"<p>Complex proteins in 3D thanks to simple heat-loving fungus<\/p>\n","article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Amlacher, S., Sarges, P., Flemming, D., van Noort, V., Kunze, R., Devos, D.P., Arumugam, M., Bork, P. &#038; Hurt, E. Insight into Structure and Assembly of the Nuclear Pore Complex by Utilizing the Genome of a Eukaryotic Thermophile. <em>Cell<\/em>, 22 July 2011. DOI:10.1016\/j.cell.2011.06.039 <\/p>\n","source_link_url":"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0092867411007148?via%3Dihub"}],"related_links":false,"in_this_article":false,"color":"#007B53","youtube_url":"","mp4_url":"","video_caption":"","press_contact":"EMBL Generic","field_target_display":"embl","source_article":false},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[{"uuid":"a:3:{i:0;s:36:\"302cfdf7-365b-462a-be65-82c7b783ebf7\";i:1;s:36:\"bd910dd7-0cda-4618-8bfa-d37fbda8438e\";i:2;s:36:\"2ce7bcc2-0091-4187-b6cb-01c5b0f24f68\";}","parents":[],"name":["Bork Group"],"slug":"bork-group","description":"What &gt; Molecular Systems Biology &gt; Bork Group"}],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A hot species for cool structures | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL scientists showed how a fungus that lives at extremely high temperatures could help understand structures within our own cells.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A hot species for cool structures | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL scientists showed how a fungus that lives at extremely high temperatures could help understand structures within our own cells.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-21T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T15:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/bork-nuclear-pore-model.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest author(s)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4d9366b2ebe691c4015c64c3619205b\"},\"headline\":\"A hot species for cool structures\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-21T16:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-14T15:29:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/\"},\"wordCount\":326,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/a-hot-species-for-cool-structures\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/bork-nuclear-pore-model.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"3D\",\"bork\",\"fungus\",\"genetics\",\"genome\",\"nuclear pore complex\",\"press release\",\"proteome\",\"structural biology\",\"thermophile\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; 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