Recent findings have revealed that the protein gasdermin D (GSDMD) plays key roles in cell pyroptosis. GSDMD binds lipids and forms pore structures to induce pyroptosis upon microbial infection and associated danger signals. However, detailed structural information for GSDMD remains unknown. Here, we report the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of human GSDMD (GSDMD-C) at 2.64-Å resolution. The first loop on GSDMD-C inserts into the N-terminal domain (GSDMD-N), which helps stabilize the conformation of the full-length GSDMD. Substitution of this region by a short linker sequence increased levels of cell death. Mutants F283A and F283R can increase protein heterogeneity in vitro and are capable of undergoing cell pyroptosis in 293T cells. The small-angle X-ray-scattering envelope of human GSDMD is consistent with the modeled GSDMD structure and mouse GSDMA3 structure, which suggests that GSDMD adopts an autoinhibited conformation in solution. The positive potential surface of GSDMD-N covered by GSDMD-C is exposed after being released from the autoinhibition state and can form high-order oligomers via a charge-charge interaction. Furthermore, by mapping different regions of GSDMD, we determined that one short segment is sufficient to kill bacteria in vitro and can efficiently inhibit cell growth in and These findings reveal that GSDMD-C acts as an auto-inhibition executor and GSDMD-N could form pore structures via a charge-charge interaction upon cleavage by caspases during cell pyroptosis.

Recently, much attention has been attracted to the use of biomass to produce functional carbonaceous materials from the viewpoint of economic, environmental and societal issues. Among different techniques, the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process, a traditional but recently revived method, presents superior characteristics that make it a promising route of wide potential application. This perspective gives an overview of the latest advances in the HTC process of functional carbonaceous materials from biomass. First, we discuss the preparation of carbonaceous materials synthesized by the use of either highly directed or catalyst/template-assisted methods, from crude plant materials and carbohydrates respectively. These carbonaceous materials not only have special morphologies, such as nanospheres, nanocables, nanofibers, submicrocables, submicrotubes and porous structures, but also contain rich functional groups which can greatly improve hydrophilicity and chemical reactivity. Further, a general look is cast on the applications of this kind of carbonaceous materials in environmental, catalytic and electrical areas. Recent advances have demonstrated that the HTC process from biomass can provide promising methods for the rational design of a rich family of carbonaceous and hybrid functional carbon materials with important applications.

The family Erythrobacteraceae , belonging to the order Sphingomonadales , class Alphaproteobacteria , is globally distributed in various environments. Currently, this family consist of seven genera: Altererythrobacter , Croceibacterium , Croceicoccus , Erythrobacter , Erythromicrobium , Porphyrobacter and Qipengyuania . As more species are identified, the taxonomic status of the family Erythrobacteraceae should be revised at the genomic level because of its polyphyletic nature evident from 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Phylogenomic reconstruction based on 288 single-copy orthologous clusters led to the identification of three separate clades. Pairwise comparisons of average nucleotide identity, average amino acid identity (AAI), percentage of conserved protein and evolutionary distance indicated that AAI and evolutionary distance had the highest correlation. Thresholds for genera boundaries were proposed as 70 % and 0.4 for AAI and evolutionary distance, respectively. Based on the phylo-genomic and genomic similarity analysis, the three clades were classified into 16 genera, including 11 novel ones, for which the names Alteraurantiacibacter, Altericroceibacterium, Alteriqipengyuania, Alteripontixanthobacter, Aurantiacibacter, Paraurantiacibacter, Parerythrobacter, Parapontixanthobacter, Pelagerythrobacter, Tsuneonella and Pontixanthobacter are proposed. We reclassified all species of Erythromicrobium and Porphyrobacter as species of Erythrobacter . This study is the first genomic-based study of the family Erythrobacteraceae , and will contribute to further insights into the evolution of this family.