• Scott Humphrey posted an update 1 year, 5 months ago

    GPR52 is a class-A orphan G-protein-coupled receptor that is highly expressed in the brain and represents a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of Huntington’s disease and several psychiatric disorders1,2. Pathological malfunction of GPR52 signalling occurs primarily through the heterotrimeric Gs protein2, but it is unclear how GPR52 and Gs couple for signal transduction and whether a native ligand or other activating input is required. Here we present the high-resolution structures of human GPR52 in three states a ligand-free state, a Gs-coupled self-activation state and a potential allosteric ligand-bound state. Together, our structures reveal that extracellular loop 2 occupies the orthosteric binding pocket and operates as a built-in agonist, conferring an intrinsically high level of basal activity to GPR523. A fully active state is achieved when Gs is coupled to GPR52 in the absence of an external agonist. The receptor also features a side pocket for ligand binding. These insights into the structure and function of GPR52 could improve our understanding of other self-activated GPCRs, enable the identification of endogenous and tool ligands, and guide drug discovery efforts that target GPR52.Gastruloids are three-dimensional aggregates of embryonic stem cells that display key features of mammalian development after implantation, including germ-layer specification and axial organization1-3. To date, the expression pattern of only a small number of genes in gastruloids has been explored with microscopy, and the extent to which genome-wide expression patterns in gastruloids mimic those in embryos is unclear. Here we compare mouse gastruloids with mouse embryos using single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics. We identify various embryonic cell types that were not previously known to be present in gastruloids, and show that key regulators of somitogenesis are expressed similarly between embryos and gastruloids. Using live imaging, we show that the somitogenesis clock is active in gastruloids and has dynamics that resemble those in vivo. Because gastruloids can be grown in large quantities, we performed a small screen that revealed how reduced FGF signalling induces a short-tail phenotype in embryos. Finally, we demonstrate that embedding in Matrigel induces gastruloids to generate somites with the correct rostral-caudal patterning, which appear sequentially in an anterior-to-posterior direction over time. This study thus shows the power of gastruloids as a model system for exploring development and somitogenesis in vitro in a high-throughput manner.CRISPR-Cas immunity protects prokaryotes against invading genetic elements1. It uses the highly conserved Cas1-Cas2 complex to establish inheritable memory (spacers)2-5. How Cas1-Cas2 acquires spacers from foreign DNA fragments (prespacers) and integrates them into the CRISPR locus in the correct orientation is unclear6,7. Here, using the high spatiotemporal resolution of single-molecule fluorescence, we show that Cas1-Cas2 selects precursors of prespacers from DNA in various forms-including single-stranded DNA and partial duplexes-in a manner that depends on both the length of the DNA strand and the presence of a protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequence. We also identify DnaQ exonucleases as enzymes that process the Cas1-Cas2-loaded prespacer precursors into mature prespacers of a suitable size for integration. Cas1-Cas2 protects the PAM sequence from maturation, which results in the production of asymmetrically trimmed prespacers and the subsequent integration of spacers in the correct orientation. Our results demonstrate the kinetic coordination of prespacer precursor selection and PAM trimming, providing insight into the mechanisms that underlie the integration of functional spacers in the CRISPR loci.At the historic Shelter Island Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in 1947, Willis Lamb reported an unexpected feature in the fine structure of atomic hydrogen a separation of the 2S1/2 and 2P1/2 states1. The observation of this separation, now known as the Lamb shift, marked an important event in the evolution of modern physics, inspiring others to develop the theory of quantum electrodynamics2-5. Quantum electrodynamics also describes antimatter, but it has only recently become possible to synthesize and trap atomic antimatter to probe its structure. Mirroring the historical development of quantum atomic physics in the twentieth century, modern measurements on anti-atoms represent a unique approach for testing quantum electrodynamics and the foundational symmetries of the standard model. Here we report measurements of the fine structure in the n = 2 states of antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of the hydrogen atom. Using optical excitation of the 1S-2P Lyman-α transitions in antihydrogen6, we determine their frequencies in a magnetic field of 1 tesla to a precision of 16 parts per billion. Assuming the standard Zeeman and hyperfine interactions, we infer the zero-field fine-structure splitting (2P1/2-2P3/2) in antihydrogen. The resulting value is consistent with the predictions of quantum electrodynamics to a precision of 2 per cent. Using our previously measured value of the 1S-2S transition frequency6,7, we find that the classic Lamb shift in antihydrogen (2S1/2-2P1/2 splitting at zero field) is consistent with theory at a level of 11 per cent. Our observations represent an important step towards precision measurements of the fine structure and the Lamb shift in the antihydrogen spectrum as tests of the charge-parity-time symmetry8 and towards the determination of other fundamental quantities, such as the antiproton charge radius9,10, in this antimatter system.Topological physics relies on the structure of the eigenstates of the Hamiltonians. selleckchem The geometry of the eigenstates is encoded in the quantum geometric tensor1-comprising the Berry curvature2 (crucial for topological matter)3 and the quantum metric4, which defines the distance between the eigenstates. Knowledge of the quantum metric is essential for understanding many phenomena, such as superfluidity in flat bands5, orbital magnetic susceptibility6,7, the exciton Lamb shift8 and the non-adiabatic anomalous Hall effect6,9. However, the quantum geometry of energy bands has not been measured. Here we report the direct measurement of both the Berry curvature and the quantum metric in a two-dimensional continuous medium-a high-finesse planar microcavity10-together with the related anomalous Hall drift. The microcavity hosts strongly coupled exciton-photon modes (exciton polaritons) that are subject to photonic spin-orbit coupling11 from which Dirac cones emerge12, and to exciton Zeeman splitting, breaking time-reversal symmetry.

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