Lipid droplets (LDs) are organelles regulating lipid storage and metabolism in cells. LD biogenesis takes place mostly in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and starts with the synthesis of neutral lipids, such as triglycerides. When the concentration of neutral lipids reaches a certain threshold, oil droplets form by phase-separation, yielding a lens-shaped nascent lipid droplet – a process...
Pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs) perform electrochemical signal transduction in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. Among the prokaryotic pLGICs there is an architectural diversity involving N-terminal domains (NTDs) not found for the eukaryotic relatives, exemplified by the calcium-sensitive channel DeCLIC. Here, we characterized DeCLIC structure using cryogenic electron...
Bile secretion is an essential function of the liver for the elimination of xenobiotics and endogenous metabolites. This function mostly relies on membrane transporters located at the canalicular membrane of hepatocytes, such as the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter ABCB4 responsible for phosphatidylcholine (PC) secretion into bile. Variations in the ABCB4 gene were reported from...
