primal soup Archives

a cryoEM volume revealing a two-start (C2) helical filament with a pitch p and diameter of 94.6 Å and 260 Å, and a rise and twist of 3.18 Å and 12.1°, respectively; b local interaction network between neighboring cannula protofilaments in which subunits interlock through donor strand complementation along the axial (e.g., i → j → k) direction and partake in further intermolecular contacts mediated by calcium coordination along the axial and radial (e.g., j-1→j → j + 1) direction; c stick representation of three types of calcium pockets: (i) axial stacking of subunits via type I and II calcium binding centers, (ii) radial contacts are mediated via type III Ca2+ binding sites; d raw cryoEM image of a cannulae filaments loaded with a helically winding thinner filament (2 nm; cargo). White arrows denote winding cargo and dangling cargo associated with the cannulae filaments; e surface electrostatics showing a predominantly negatively charged surface and a positively charged lumen for the cannula model. The representative image in this figure (d) is derived from a total of 2365 cryo-EM movies from two technical replicates.-- Nature Communications

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Extreme Engineering – Unlocking Design Secrets of Deep-sea Microbes

by Keith CowingDecember 7, 2025

The microbe Pyrodictium abyssi is an archaeon — a member of what’s known as the third domain of life — and an extremophile. It lives in deep-sea thermal vents, at […]

primal soup

Extreme Engineering – Unlocking Design Secrets of Deep-sea Microbes

PJ Harvey Announces New Song “Voyager”

Fifty Years after Viking: The Promise of Solar System Microbiology and Microbial Ecology

Characterising Transiting Exoplanets At Long Orbital Period: Lessons Learned For PLATO From 10 Years Of Monitoring The HIP41378 System

Implications Of Self-consistent H2O Ice Optical Constants On Radiative Transfer Models Of Disks

The GAPS Programme at TNG LXXIV. A Reanalysis Of The Planetary Systems TOI-1272 And TOI-1694 With HARPS-N And Retraction Of The Planetary Interpretation Of TOI-1272 c