Catch the Future

Convergence, Catch Up, and the Future of Latin America

Proteolysis: Adaptor, Adaptor, Catch Me a Catch

The ClpXP protease of bacteria can degrade a wide variety of proteins while maintaining remarkable substrate selectivity. New work in Escherichia coli implicates adaptor proteins in enhancing substrate selectivity and regulating the flow of substrates to cellular proteases.

Hunting archer fish match their take-off speed to distance from the future point of catch.

Archer fish can shoot down insect prey with a sharp jet of water. Fish usually fire from positions that are not directly below their target so that a dislodged insect falls ballistically with a horizontal velocity component. Only 100 ms after the insect is on its path both the shooter and other school members can initiate a rapid turn and then head straight in the direction of the later point o...

Catch bonds

What has been your biggest error? Back at the beginning of this century, I used to say “I am going to spend the rest of my life trapped in a mitochondrion!”. This was because I was convinced that it was never going to be possible to retrieve even partial extinct genomes. Now, there are genomic sequences for many ancient humans and animals. This goes back to the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote: “W...

Leukocyte Adhesion: What's the Catch?

A recent study shows that the leukocyte adhesion molecules known as selectins form 'catch' bonds, the dissociation rate of which decreases with increasing applied force. The ability of selectins to switch between catch and slip bonds, where dissociation increases with force, can explain the shear threshold effect, in which leukocyte adhesion goes through a maximum with increasing shear rate.