Bacteria insert proteins into their outer membrane using a highly conserved apparatus known as the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM). A large group of bacteria with particularly complex outer-membrane proteins is now shown to have a BAM apparatus with a highly unusual composition.

The amino acid cysteine is crucial for life but is toxic at high concentrations. Cells and tissues are exposed to high cysteine levels but maintain low intracellular concentrations through unknown mechanisms. A new technology platform has enabled the discovery of a protein that responds to cysteine fluctuations and regulates its breakdown.

Little is known about the early history of lizards, snakes and their kin. New fossil discoveries reveal a complex evolutionary journey.

An approach that identifies, and predicts compatibility between, chemical and enzyme-sequence spaces can streamline and reduce risk in the discovery of enzymes that can catalyse a desired reaction. The strategy uses high-throughput experiments to generate data about enzyme-mediated reactions, and there is a tool that can predict compatible substrate–enzyme pairs.