Just out - bHLH/PAS: Structural and biochemical studies indicate that coiled coil coactivators bind to ARNT PAS-B within a HIF-2α/ARNT PAS-B heterodimer (Partch and Gardner 2011), suggesting a new role for PAS domains in these activator complexes (Partch and Gardner 2010) as utilized by multiple coactivators (Partch et al. 2009). Parallel efforts in Key et al. 2009 characterize artificial ligand binding within HIF-2<α> PAS-B, giving insight to specificity and entry pathways.

Just out - photoreceptors: Four recent papers extend our work on the LOV photosensors. Nash & McNulty et al. 2011 demonstrates that key aspects of the LOV2-Jα signaling model are used in EL222, a natural light-dependent LOV-HTH bacterial DNA-binding protein. Notably, the EL222 (4α) HTH helix binds its LOV domain at a similar location to the AsLOV2-Jα helix (Harper et al. 2003). Additional studies of AsLOV2 itself illustrate strategies for engineering properties of LOV function, including dynamic range (Strickland et al. 2010) and lit state lifetime (Song et al. 2011). Finally, we have reviewed blue light photosensing (including the LOV, BLUF and cryptochrome families) from the perspective of environmentally controlled protein/protein interactions in the first Biochemistry article of 2011 (Zoltowski and Gardner 2011).