EAS joins an increasing number of proteins that undergo a disorder-->order transition in carrying out their normal function. This report is one of the few examples where an amyloid-like state represents the wild-type functional form. Thus the mechanism of amyloid formation, now thought to be a general property of polypeptide chains, has actually been applied in nature to form these remarkable structures.

Global control of COVID-19 requires broadly accessible vaccines that are effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants. In this report, we exploit the immunostimulatory properties of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the existing tuberculosis vaccine, to deliver a vaccination regimen with potent SARS-CoV-2-specific protective immunity. Combination of BCG with a stabilised, trimeric form of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen promoted rapid development of virus-specific IgG antibodies in the blood of vaccinated mice, that was further augmented by the addition of alum. This vaccine formulation, BCG:CoVac, induced high-titre SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies (NAbs) and Th1-biased cytokine release by vaccine-specific T cells, which correlated with the early emergence of T follicular helper cells in local lymph nodes and heightened levels of antigen-specific plasma B cells after vaccination. Vaccination of K18-hACE2 mice with a single dose of BCG:CoVac almost completely abrogated disease after SARS-CoV-2 challenge, with minimal inflammation and no detectable virus in the lungs of infected animals. Boosting BCG:CoVac-primed mice with a heterologous vaccine further increased SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses, which effectively neutralised B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. These findings demonstrate the potential for BCG-based vaccination to protect against major SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating globally.

The Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase (NuRD) complex is essential for development in complex animals but has been refractory to biochemical analysis. We present the first integrated analysis of the architecture of the native mammalian NuRD complex, combining quantitative mass spectrometry, covalent cross-linking, protein biochemistry and electron microscopy. NuRD is built around a 2:2:4 pseudo-symmetric deacetylase module comprising MTA, HDAC and RBBP subunits. This module interacts asymmetrically with a remodeling module comprising one copy each of MBD, GATAD2 and CHD subunits. The previously enigmatic GATAD2 controls the asymmetry of the complex and directly recruits the ATP-dependent CHD remodeler. Unexpectedly, the MTA-MBD interaction acts as a point of functional switching. The transcriptional regulator PWWP2A modulates NuRD assembly by competing directly with MBD for binding to the MTA-HDAC-RBBP subcomplex, forming a 'moonlighting' PWWP2A-MTA-HDAC-RBBP complex that likely directs deacetylase activity to PWWP2A target sites. Taken together, our data describe the overall architecture of the intact NuRD complex and reveal aspects of its structural dynamics and functional plasticity. INO80(1, 2) and SWR1 complexes (3), as well as to the Snf2 (4) and Chromodomain-Helicase-DNA-binding 1 (CHD1) remodelers (5), our understanding of how such enzymes bring about remodeling is still underdeveloped. This is particularly true for the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex.The NuRD complex is widely distributed among Metazoans and is expressed in most, if not all, tissues. It is essential for normal development (6, 7) and is a key regulator in the reprogramming of differentiated cells into pluripotent stem cells (8-10). Age-related reductions in NuRD subunit levels are strongly associated with memory loss, metastatic potential in human cancers (11), and the accumulation of chromatin defects (12, 13).The mammalian NuRD complex comprises at least six subunits (Figure S1a), and for each subunit there are at least two paralogues, giving the potential for significant compositional heterogeneity. CHD4 (and its paralogues CHD3 and -5) is the ATP-dependent DNA translocase in the complex and harbours several regulatory and targeting domains. For example, the PHD domains of CHD4 can recognize histone H3 N-terminal tails bearing methyllysine marks (14-16), and the HMG domain has been shown to bind to poly-ADP(ribose) (17). What distinguishes NuRD from many other remodelers is that it harbours a second catalytic activity, imparted by the histone deacetylases HDAC1 and -2. MBD2 and -3 can bind hydroxymethylated and/or methylated , and RBBP4 and -7 can each bind histone tails (21) and other transcriptional regulators (22,23). The metastasis-associated proteins MTA1, -2 and -3 contain several domains that are associated with nucleosome recognition, whereas GATAD2A and GATAD2B bind to both 25) and CHD proteins (25, 26) but otherwise do not have known functions. Some structural information is available for portions of t...

The nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex remodels the genome in the context of both gene transcription and DNA damage repair. It is essential for normal development and is distributed across multiple tissues in organisms ranging from mammals to nematode worms. In common with other chromatin-remodeling complexes, however, its molecular mechanism of action is not well understood and only limited structural information is available to show how the complex is assembled. As a step towards understanding the structure of the NuRD complex, we have characterized the interaction between two subunits: the metastasis associated protein MTA1 and the histone-binding protein RBBP4. We show that MTA1 can bind to two molecules of RBBP4 and present negative stain electron microscopy and chemical crosslinking data that allow us to build a low-resolution model of an MTA1-(RBBP4) 2 subcomplex. These data build on our understanding of NuRD complex structure and move us closer towards an understanding of the biochemical basis for the activity of this complex.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to substantial morbidity, mortality, and disruption globally. Cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 is mediated by the viral spike protein, and affinity ligands to this surface protein have the potential for applications as antivirals and diagnostic reagents. Here, we describe the affinity selection of cyclic peptide ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) from three distinct libraries (in excess of a trillion molecules each) by mRNA display. We identified six high affinity molecules with dissociation constants ( K D ) in the nanomolar range (15–550 nM) to the RBD. The highest affinity ligand could be used as an affinity reagent to detect the spike protein in solution by ELISA, and the cocrystal structure of this molecule bound to the RBD demonstrated that it binds to a cryptic binding site, displacing a β-strand near the C-terminus. Our findings provide key mechanistic insight into the binding of peptide ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD, and the ligands discovered in this work may find future use as reagents for diagnostic applications.