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Inagaki and colleagues present solution structures of CRKI, CRKII and phosphorylated CRKI, which, together with mutational analyses, reveal the structural basis for the very different biological activities of these CRK splice forms. Matisse-inspired renderings represent CRK conformations. Cover by Erin Boyle.pp 503-510 | News and Views p 465
Meetings and conferences are the best places to feature the latest results coming out of the laboratory. Unfortunately, not enough researchers take advantage of these opportunities.
The Protein Structure Initiative of the US National Institutes of Health has entered its second year. Its status is reported here, as discussed at December's meeting of the principal investigators.
Cooperation between the DNA recombinase RAD51 and the breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2 is crucial for the repair of double-strand DNA breaks. Two papers provide new insight into the BRCA2-RAD51 interaction, revealing two different sets of motifs within BRCA2 that bind structurally distinct forms of RAD51. The balance between these interactions seems to be crucial for the function of BRCA2 in DNA repair.
Wnt signaling has key roles in embryogenesis and oncogenesis, yet several aspects of Wnt signal transduction remain mysterious. Schwarz-Romond et al. demonstrate that the Wnt signaling protein Dishevelled has the surprising ability to form dynamic polymers and present evidence that polymerization is crucial in signaling, perhaps forming an inducible scaffold for further signal transduction.
The solution structures of multiple forms of the adaptor protein CRK show how its domains fit together, providing insight into the autoregulation and ligand-mediated regulation of CRK.