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Protein tertiary structure mimetics are valuable tools to target large protein–protein interaction interfaces. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for designing dimeric helix-hairpin motifs from a previously reported three-helix-bundle miniprotein that targets the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Through truncation of the third helix and optimization of the interhelical loop residues of the miniprotein, we developed a thermostable dimeric helix-hairpin. The dimeric four-helix bundle competes with the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in binding to RBD with 2:2 stoichiometry. Cryogenic-electron microscopy revealed the formation of dimeric spike ectodomain trimer by the four-helix bundle, where all the three RBDs from either spike protein are attached head-to-head in an open conformation, revealing a novel mechanism for virus neutralization. The proteomimetic protects hamsters from high dose viral challenge with replicative SARS-CoV-2 viruses, demonstrating the promise of this class of peptides that inhibit protein–protein interaction through target dimerization.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health concern. Colistin is one of the last-resort antibiotics that treats multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacterial infection. However, bacteria resistant to colistin have become increasingly prevalent. Using a bacterial whole-cell screen of a fragment-based library, one compound was discovered to resensitize MDR

We present new 3-mm continuum and molecular lines observations from the ATOMS survey towards the massive protostellar clump, MM1, located in the filamentary infrared dark cloud (IRDC), G034.43+00.24 (G34). The lines observed are the tracers of either dense gas (e.g. HCO+/H13CO+ J = 1-0) or outflows (e.g. CS J = 2-1). The most complete picture to date of seven cores in MM1 is revealed by dust continuum emission. These cores are found to be gravitationally bound, with virial parameter, $\alpha_{vir}, Comment: 14 pages with 6 figures, and in press

The structures of a cyanophage small heat shock protein (sHSP) were determined as octahedrons of 24-mers and 48-mers and as icosahedrons of 60-mers. An N-terminal deletion construct of an 18 kDa sHSP of Synechococcus sp. phage S-ShM2 crystallized as a 24-mer and its structure was determined at a resolution of 7 Å. The negative stain electron microscopy (EM) images showed that the full-length protein is a mixture of a major population of larger and a minor population of smaller cage-like particles. Their structures have been determined by electron cryomicroscopy 3D image reconstruction at a resolution of 8 Å. The larger particles are 60-mers with icosahedral symmetry and the smaller ones are 48-mers with octahedral symmetry. These structures are the first of the viral/phage origin and the 60-mer is the largest and the first icosahedral assembly to be reported for sHSPs.

Methionine and cysteine metabolisms are important for the survival and pathogenesis ofMycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb). The transsulfuration pathway converts methionine to cysteine and represents an important link between antioxidant and methylation metabolism in diverse organisms. Using a combination of biochemistry and cryo–electron microscopy, we characterized the first enzyme of the transsulfuration pathway, cystathionine β-synthase (MtbCbs) inMtb. We demonstrated thatMtbCbs is a heme-less, pyridoxal-5′-phosphate–containing enzyme, allosterically activated byS-adenosylmethionine (SAM). The atomic model ofMtbCbs in its native and SAM-bound conformations revealed a unique mode of SAM-dependent allosteric activation. Further, SAM stabilizedMtbCbs by sterically occluding proteasomal degradation, which was crucial for supporting methionine and redox metabolism inMtb. Genetic deficiency ofMtbCbs reducedMtbsurvival upon homocysteine overload in vitro, inside macrophages, and in mice coinfected with HIV. Thus, theMtbCbs-SAM axis constitutes an important mechanism of coordinating sulfur metabolism inMtb.

Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) is a potent membrane-damaging β-barrel pore-forming toxin. Upon binding to the target membranes, VCC monomers first assemble into oligomeric prepore intermediates and subsequently transform into transmembrane β-barrel pores. VCC harbors a designated pore-forming motif, which, during oligomeric pore formation, inserts into the membrane and generates a transmembrane β-barrel scaffold. It remains an enigma how the molecular architecture of the pore-forming motif regulates the VCC pore-formation mechanism. Here, we show that a specific pore-forming motif residue, E289, plays crucial regulatory roles in the pore-formation mechanism of VCC. We find that the mutation of E289A drastically compromises pore-forming activity, without affecting the structural integrity and membrane-binding potential of the toxin monomers. Although our single-particle cryo-EM analysis reveals WT-like oligomeric β-barrel pore formation by E289A-VCC in the membrane, we demonstrate that the mutant shows severely delayed kinetics in terms of pore-forming ability that can be rescued with elevated temperature conditions. We find that the pore-formation efficacy of E289A-VCC appears to be more profoundly dependent on temperature than that of the WT toxin. Our results suggest that the E289A mutation traps membrane-bound toxin molecules in the prepore-like intermediate state that is hindered from converting into the functional β-barrel pores by a large energy barrier, thus highlighting the importance of this residue for the pore-formation mechanism of VCC.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria are an urgent and rapidly spreading threat to human health with limited treatment options. Previously, we discovered a novel [1,2,5]oxadiazolo[3,4-b]pyrazine-containing compound (1) that selectively re-sensitized a variety of MDR Gram-negative bacteria to colistin, one of the last-resort antibiotic. Herein, we report the structure–activity relationship studies of compound 1 that led to the discovery of several more potent and/or less toxic resistance-modifying agents (RMAs). Further evaluation of these RMAs showed that they were effective in a wide range of MDR bacteria. These results demonstrated these compounds as a novel class of RMAs and may be further developed as therapeutic agents.

β-barrel pore-forming toxins perforate cell membranes by forming oligomeric β-barrel pores. The most crucial step is the membrane-insertion of the pore-forming motifs that create the transmembrane β-barrel scaffold. Molecular mechanism that regulates structural reorganization of these pore-forming motifs during β-barrel pore-formation still remains elusive. Using Vibrio cholerae cytolysin as an archetypical example of the β-barrel pore-forming toxin, we show that a key tyrosine residue (Y321) in the hinge region of the pore-forming motif plays crucial role in this process. Mutation of Y321 abrogates oligomerization of the membrane-bound toxin protomers, and blocks subsequent steps of pore-formation. Our study suggests that the presence of Y321 in the hinge region of the pore-forming motif is crucial for the toxin molecule to sense membrane-binding, and to trigger essential structural rearrangements required for the subsequent oligomerization and pore-formation process. Such a regulatory mechanism of pore-formation by V. cholerae cytolysin has not been documented earlier in the structurally related β-barrel pore-forming toxins.

Stabilization of the metastable envelope glycoprotein (Env) of HIV-1 is hypothesized to improve induction of broadly neutralizing antibodies. We improved the expression yield and stability of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein BG505SOSIP.664 gp140 by means of a previously described automated sequence and structure-guided computational thermostabilization approach, PROSS. This combines sequence conservation information with computational assessment of mutant stabilization, thus taking advantage of the extensive natural sequence variation present in HIV-1 Env. PROSS is used to design three gp140 variants with 17-45 mutations relative to the parental construct. One of the designs is experimentally observed to have a fourfold improvement in yield and a 4 °C increment in thermostability. In addition, the designed immunogens have similar antigenicity profiles to the native flexible linker version of wild type, BG505SOSIP.664 gp140 (NFL Wt) to major epitopes targeted by broadly neutralizing antibodies. PROSS eliminates the laborious process of screening many variants for stability and functionality, providing a proof of principle of the method for stabilization and improvement of yield without compromising antigenicity for next generation complex, highly glycosylated vaccine candidates.

We have conducted a line survey towards Orion KL using the Q-band receiver of Tianma 65 m radio telescope (TMRT), covering 34.8--50 GHz with a velocity resolution between 0.79 km s$^{-1}$ and 0.55 km s$^{-1}$ respectively. The observations reach a sensitivity on the level of 1-8 mK, proving that the TMRT is sensitive for conducting deep line surveys. In total, 597 Gaussian features are extracted. Among them, 177 radio recombination lines (RRLs) are identified, including 126, 40 and 11 RRLs of hydrogen, helium and carbon, with a maximum $\Delta n$ of 16, 7, and 3, respectively. The carbon RRLs are confirmed to originate from photodissociation regions with a $V_{\rm LSR}\sim$9 km s$^{-1}$. In addition, 371 molecular transitions of 53 molecular species are identified. Twenty-one molecular species of this survey were not firmly detected in the Q band by Rizzo et al. (2017), including species such as H$_2$CS, HCOOH, C$_2$H$_5$OH, H$_2^{13}$CO, H$_2$CCO, CH$_3$CHO, CH$_2$OCH$_2$, HCN $v_2=1$, and CH$_3$OCHO $v_t=1$. In particular, the vibrationally excited states of ethyl cyanide (C$_2$H$_5$CN $v$13/$v$21) are for the first time firmly detected in the Q band. NH$_3$ (15,15) and (16,16) are identified, and they are so far the highest transitions of the NH$_3$ inversion lines detected towards Orion KL. All the identified lines can be reproduced by a radiative transfer model., Comment: 51 pages, 18 figures, accepted by ApJS

Registering partial point clouds is crucial in numerous applications in the field of robotics, vision, and graphics. For arbitrary configurations, the registration problem requires an initial global alignment, which is computationally expensive and often still requires refinement. In this paper, we propose a pair-wise global registration method that combines the fast convergence made possible by global hierarchical surface descriptors with the arbitrarily fine sampling enabled by continuous surface representations. Registration is performed by matching descriptors of increasing resolution – which the continuous surfaces allow us to choose arbitrarily high – while restricting the search space according to the hierarchy. We evaluated our method on a large set of pair-wise registration problems, demonstrating very competitive registration accuracy that often makes subsequent refinement with a local method unnecessary.

We present the four-year survey results of monthly submillimeter monitoring of eight nearby ($< 500 $pc) star-forming regions by the JCMT Transient Survey. We apply the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram technique to search for and characterize variability on 295 submillimeter peaks brighter than 0.14 Jy beam$^{-1}$, including 22 disk sources (Class II), 83 protostars (Class 0/I), and 190 starless sources. We uncover 18 secular variables, all of them protostars. No single-epoch burst or drop events and no inherently stochastic sources are observed. We classify the secular variables by their timescales into three groups: Periodic, Curved, and Linear. For the Curved and Periodic cases, the detectable fractional amplitude, with respect to mean peak brightness, is $\sim4$ % for sources brighter than $\sim$ 0.5 Jy beam$^{-1}$. Limiting our sample to only these bright sources, the observed variable fraction is 37 % (16 out of 43). Considering source evolution, we find a similar fraction of bright variables for both Class 0 and Class I. Using an empirically motivated conversion from submillimeter variability to variation in mass accretion rate, six sources (7 % of our full sample) are predicted to have years-long accretion events during which the excess mass accreted reaches more than 40 % above the total quiescently accreted mass: two previously known eruptive Class I sources, V1647 Ori and EC 53 (V371 Ser), and four Class 0 sources, HOPS 356, HOPS 373, HOPS 383, and West 40. Considering the full protostellar ensemble, the importance of episodic accretion on few years timescale is negligible, only a few percent of the assembled mass. However, given that this accretion is dominated by events of order the observing time-window, it remains uncertain as to whether the importance of episodic events will continue to rise with decades-long monitoring., Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) is a water-soluble, membrane-damaging, pore-forming toxin (PFT) secreted by pathogenic V. cholerae, which causes eukaryotic cell death by altering the plasma membrane permeability. VCC self-assembles on the cell surface and undergoes a dramatic conformational change from prepore to heptameric pore structure. Over the past few years, several high-resolution structures of detergent-solubilized PFTs have been characterized. However, high-resolution structural characterization of small β-PFTs in a lipid environment is still rare. Therefore, we used single-particle cryo-EM to characterize the structure of the VCC oligomer in large unilamellar vesicles, which is the first atomic-resolution cryo-EM structure of VCC. From our study, we were able to provide the first documented visualization of the rim domain amino acid residues of VCC interacting with lipid membrane. Furthermore, cryo-EM characterization of lipid bilayer–embedded VCC suggests interesting conformational variabilities, especially in the transmembrane channel, which could have a potential impact on the pore architecture and assist us in understanding the pore formation mechanism.

The Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 is the primary target of neutralizing antibodies. We designed a trimeric, highly thermotolerant glycan engineered RBD by fusion to a heterologous, poorly immunogenic disulfide linked trimerization domain derived from cartilage matrix protein. The protein expressed at a yield of ∼80-100 mg/liter in transiently transfected Expi293 cells, as well as CHO and HEK293 stable cell lines and formed homogeneous disulfide-linked trimers. When lyophilized, these possessed remarkable functional stability to transient thermal stress of upto 100 °C and were stable to long term storage of over 4 weeks at 37 °C unlike an alternative RBD-trimer with a different trimerization domain. Two intramuscular immunizations with a human-compatible SWE adjuvanted formulation, elicited antibodies with pseudoviral neutralizing titers in guinea pigs and mice that were 25-250 fold higher than corresponding values in human convalescent sera. Against the beta (B.1.351) variant of concern (VOC), pseudoviral neutralization titers for RBD trimer were ∼ three-fold lower than against wildtype B.1 virus. RBD was also displayed on a designed ferritin-like Msdps2 nanoparticle. This showed decreased yield and immunogenicity relative to trimeric RBD. Replicative virus neutralization assays using mouse sera demonstrated that antibodies induced by the trimers neutralized all four VOC to date, namely B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1 and B.1.617.2 without significant differences. Trimeric RBD immunized hamsters were protected from viral challenge. The excellent immunogenicity, thermotolerance, and high yield of these immunogens suggest that they are a promising modality to combat COVID-19, including all SARS-CoV-2 VOC to date.

Metabotropic glutamate receptors are family C G-protein-coupled receptors. They form obligate dimers and possess extracellular ligand-binding Venus flytrap domains, which are linked by cysteine-rich domains to their 7-transmembrane domains. Spectroscopic studies show that signalling is a dynamic process, in which large-scale conformational changes underlie the transmission of signals from the extracellular Venus flytraps to the G protein-coupling domains-the 7-transmembrane domains-in the membrane. Here, using a combination of X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and signalling studies, we present a structural framework for the activation mechanism of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5. Our results show that agonist binding at the Venus flytraps leads to a compaction of the intersubunit dimer interface, thereby bringing the cysteine-rich domains into close proximity. Interactions between the cysteine-rich domains and the second extracellular loops of the receptor enable the rigid-body repositioning of the 7-transmembrane domains, which come into contact with each other to initiate signalling.

Current influenza vaccines need to be updated annually due to mutations in the globular head of the viral surface protein, hemagglutinin (HA). To address this, vaccine candidates have been designed based on the relatively conserved HA stem domain and have shown protective efficacy in animal models. Oligomerization of the antigens either by fusion to oligomerization motifs or display on self-assembling nanoparticle scaffolds, can induce more potent immune responses compared to the corresponding monomeric antigen due to multivalent engagement of B-cells. Since nanoparticle display can increase manufacturing complexity, and often involves one or more mammalian cell expressed components, it is important to characterize and compare various display and oligomerization scaffolds. Using a structure guided approach, we successfully displayed multiple copies of a previously designed soluble, trimeric influenza stem domain immunogen, pH1HA10, on the ferritin like protein, MsDps2 (12 copies), Ferritin (24 copies) and Encapsulin (180 copies). All proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli. The nanoparticle fusion immunogens were found to be well folded and bound to the influenza stem directed broadly neutralizing antibodies with high affinity. An 8.5 Å Cryo-EM map of Msdps2-pH1HA10 confirmed the successful design of the nanoparticle fusion immunogen. Mice immunization studies with the soluble trimeric stem and nanoparticle fusion constructs revealed that all of them were immunogenic, and protected mice against homologous (A/Belgium/145-MA/2009) and heterologous (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934) challenge with 10MLD50 mouse adapted virus. Although nanoparticle display conferred a small but statistically significant improvement in protection relative to the soluble trimer in a homologous challenge, heterologous protection was similar in both nanoparticle-stem immunized and trimeric stem immunized groups. Such rapidly producible, bacterially expressed antigens and nanoparticle scaffolds are useful modalities to tackle future influenza pandemics.

In this manuscript, we report the application of graphene oxide (GO) in the preparation of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids. We treated GO with water and organic solvents, such as, methanol, ethanol and isopropanol separately to isolate significantly large GO monolayer flake to fabricate the grids for cryo-EM and TEM study. We implemented a simplified approach to isolate flakes of GO monolayer for constructing the TEM grids, independent of expensive heavy equipment (Langmuir–Blodgett trough, glow-discharge system, carbon-evaporator or plasma-cleaner or peristaltic pumps). We employed confocal microscopy, SEM and TEM to characterize the flake size, stability and transparency of the GO monolayer and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to probe the depth of GO coated grids. Additionally, GO grids are visualized at cryogenic condition for suitability of GO monolayer for cryo-EM study. In addition, GO-Met-H2O grids reduce the effect of preferred orientation of biological macromolecules within the amorphous ice. The power-spectrum and contrast-transfer-function unequivocally suggest that GO-Met-H2O fabricated holey grids have excellent potential for application in high-resolution structural characterization of biomolecules. Furthermore, only 200 movies and ~8000 70S ribosome particles are selected on GO-coated grids for cryo-EM reconstruction to achieve high-resolution structure.

We present the time-dependent properties of a poorly known OH/IR star $-$ IRAS 18278+0931 (hereafter, IRAS 18+09) towards the Ophiuchus constellation. We have carried out long-term optical/near-infrared (NIR) photometric and spectroscopic observations to study the object. From optical $R$- and $I$-band light curves, the period of IRAS 18+09 is estimated to be 575 $\pm$ 30 days and the variability amplitudes range from $\Delta$R $\sim$ 4.0 mag to $\Delta$I $\sim$ 3.5 mag. From the standard Period-Luminosity (PL) relations, the distance ($D$) to the object, 4.0 $\pm$ 1.3 kpc, is estimated. Applying this distance in the radiative transfer model, the spectral energy distribution (SED) are constructed from multi-wavelength photometric and IRAS-LRS spectral data which provides the luminosity, optical depth, and gas mass-loss rate (MLR) of the object to be 9600 $\pm$ 500 $L_{\odot}$, 9.1 $\pm$ 0.6 at 0.55 $\mu$m and 1.0$\times$10$^{-6}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, respectively. The current mass of the object infers in the range 1.0 $-$ 1.5 $M_\odot$ assuming solar metallicity. Notably, the temporal variation of atomic and molecular features (e.g., TiO, Na I, Ca I, CO, H$_2$O) over the pulsation cycle of the OH/IR star illustrates the sensitivity of the spectral features to the dynamical atmosphere as observed in pulsating AGB stars., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in AJ

Prestellar cores are self-gravitating dense and cold structures within molecular clouds where future stars are born. They are expected, at the stage of transitioning to the protostellar phase, to harbor centrally concentrated dense (sub)structures that will seed the formation of a new star or the binary/multiple stellar systems. Characterizing this critical stage of evolution is key to our understanding of star formation. In this work, we report the detection of high-density (sub)structures on the thousand-astronomical-unit (au) scale in a sample of dense prestellar cores. Through our recent ALMA observations toward the Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps, we have found five extremely dense prestellar cores, which have centrally concentrated regions of ∼2000 au in size, and several 107 cm-3 in average density. Masses of these centrally dense regions are in the range of 0.30 to 6.89M⊙. For the first time, our higher resolution observations (0.8' ∼ 320 au) further reveal that one of the cores shows clear signatures of fragmentation; such individual substructures/fragments have sizes of 800-1700 au, masses of 0.08 to 0.84M⊙, densities of 2 - 8 × 107 cm-3, and separations of ∼1200 au. The substructures are massive enough (≳0.1M⊙) to form young stellar objects and are likely examples of the earliest stage of stellar embryos that can lead to widely (∼1200 au) separated multiple systems., L. acknowledges the support from the international partnership program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through grant No.114231KYSB20200009, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grant NSFC No.12073061, and Shanghai Pujiang Program 20PJ1415500. N.H. acknowledges MoST 108-2112-M-001-017 and MoST 109-2112-M-001-023 grants. G.G. acknowledges support from ANID project AFB 170002. L.B. acknowledges support from ANID project AFB-170002. S.L.Q. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant No. U1631237. D.J. is supported by NRC Canada and by an NSERC Discovery Grant. V.M.P. acknowledges support by the Spanish MINECO under project AYA2017-88754-P, and financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “Unit of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023” award to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (CEX2019-000918-M). C.W.L. is supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2019R1A2C1010851). A.S. acknowledges financial support from the NSF through grant AST-1715876. The research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. D. L. acknowledges support from NSFC No. 11911530226 and 11725313. K.T. was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. 20H05645. J.H. thanks the NSFC grant No. 11873086 and Yunnan Province of China (No. 2017HC018).This work is sponsored (in part) by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), through a grant to the CAS South America Center for Astronomy (CASSACA) in Santiago, Chile.

Gas at high Galactic latitude is a relatively little-noticed component of the interstellar medium. In an effort to address this, forty-one Planck Galactic Cold Clumps at high Galactic latitude (HGal; $|b|>25^{\circ}$) were observed in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O J=1-0 lines, using the Purple Mountain Observatory 13.7-m telescope. $^{12}$CO (1-0) and $^{13}$CO (1-0) emission was detected in all clumps while C$^{18}$O (1-0) emission was only seen in sixteen clumps. The highest and average latitudes are $71.4^{\circ}$ and $37.8^{\circ}$, respectively. Fifty-one velocity components were obtained and then each was identified as a single clump. Thirty-three clumps were further mapped at 1$^\prime$ resolution and 54 dense cores were extracted. Among dense cores, the average excitation temperature $T_{\mathrm{ex}}$ of $^{12}$CO is 10.3 K. The average line widths of thermal and non-thermal velocity dispersions are $0.19$ km s$^{-1}$ and $0.46$ km s$^{-1}$ respectively, suggesting that these cores are dominated by turbulence. Distances of the HGal clumps given by Gaia dust reddening are about $120-360$ pc. The ratio of $X_{13}$/$X_{18}$ is significantly higher than that in the solar neighbourhood, implying that HGal gas has a different star formation history compared to the gas in the Galactic disk. HGal cores with sizes from $0.01-0.1$ pc show no notable Larson's relation and the turbulence remains supersonic down to a scale of slightly below $0.1$ pc. None of the HGal cores which bear masses from 0.01-1 $M_{\odot}$ are gravitationally bound and all appear to be confined by outer pressure., 35 pages, 13 figures

During the transition phase from a prestellar to a protostellar cloud core, one or several protostars can form within a single gas core. The detailed physical processes of this transition, however, remain unclear. We present 1.3 mm dust continuum and molecular line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array toward 43 protostellar cores in the Orion molecular cloud complex (λ Orionis, Orion B, and Orion A) with an angular resolution of ∼0.″35 (∼140 au). In total, we detect 13 binary/multiple systems. We derive an overall multiplicity frequency (MF) of 28% ± 4% and a companion star fraction (CSF) of 51% ± 6%, over a separation range of 300-8900 au. The median separation of companions is about 2100 au. The occurrence of stellar multiplicity may depend on the physical characteristics of the dense cores. Notably, those containing binary/multiple systems tend to show a higher gas density and Mach number than cores forming single stars. The integral-shaped filament of the Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC), which has the highest gas density and hosts high-mass star formation in its central region (the Orion Nebula cluster), shows the highest MF and CSF among the Orion GMCs. In contrast, the λ Orionis GMC has a lower MF and CSF than the Orion B and Orion A GMCs, indicating that feedback from H ii regions may suppress the formation of multiple systems. We also find that the protostars comprising a binary/multiple system are usually at different evolutionary stages., T.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants No. 12073061 and No. 12122307, the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) through grant No. 114231KYSB20200009, the Shanghai Pujiang Program (20PJ1415500), and science research grants from the China Manned Space Project with no. CMS-CSST-2021-B06. K.T. was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (grant No. 20H05645). D.J. and J.d.F. are supported by NRC Canada and by NSERC Discovery Grants. C.-F.L. acknowledge grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MoST 107-2119-M-001-040-MY3 and 110-2112-M-001-021-MY3) and Academia Sinica (Investigator Award AS-IA-108-M01). This research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). J.-E.L. was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (grant No. 2021R1A2C1011718). J.H. acknowledges the support of NSFC projects 11873086 and U1631237. This work is sponsored (in part) by the CAS, through a grant to the CAS South America Center for Astronomy in Santiago, Chile. S.-L.Q. is supported by the NSFC with grant No. 12033005. S.Z. acknowledges the support of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation through grant No. 2021M700248. L.B. gratefully acknowledges support by the ANID BASAL projects ACE210002 and FB210003. P.S. was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI No. 18H01259) of JSPS. V.-M.P. acknowledges support by the grant PID2020-115892GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

We have selected six sources (G209.55–19.68S2, G205.46–14.56S1-A, G203.21–11.20W2, G191.90–11.21S, G205.46–14.56S3, and G206.93–16.61W2) from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP), in which these sources have been mapped in the CO (J = 2−1), SiO (J = 5−4), and C18O (J = 2−1) lines. These sources have high-velocity SiO jets surrounded by low-velocity CO outflows. The SiO jets consist of a chain of knots. These knots have been thought to be produced by semiperiodic variations in jet velocity. Therefore, we adopt a shock-forming model, which uses such variations to estimate the inclination angle and velocity of the jets. We also derive the inclination angle of the CO outflows using the wide-angle wind-driven shell model and find it to be broadly consistent with that of the associated SiO jets. In addition, we apply this shock-forming model to another three protostellar sources with SiO jets in the literature—HH 211, HH 212, and L1448C(N)—and find that their inclination angle and jet velocity are consistent with those previously estimated from proper-motion and radial-velocity studies.

Spike (S) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV2 exists chiefly in two conformations, open and closed. Most previous structural studies on S protein have been conducted at pH 8.0, but knowledge of the conformational propensities under both physiological and endosomal pH conditions is important to inform vaccine development. Our current study employed single-particle cryoelectron microscopy to visualize multiple states of open and closed conformations of S protein at physiological pH 7.4 and near-physiological pH 6.5 and pH 8.0. Propensities of open and closed conformations were found to differ with pH changes, whereby around 68% of S protein exists in open conformation at pH 7.4. Furthermore, we noticed a continuous movement in the N-terminal domain, receptor-binding domain (RBD), S2 domain, and stalk domain of S protein conformations at various pH values. Several key residues involving RBD-neutralizing epitopes are differentially exposed in each conformation. This study will assist in developing novel therapeutic measures against SARS-CoV2., Graphical abstract, In this study, Pramanick et al. demonstrate inherent structural flexibility of NTD, RBD, and stalk domain of SARS-CoV2 Spike glycoprotein. Eleven high-resolution cryo-EM structures obtained over a range of near-physiological pH values indicate a trend of increasing open conformational state of S protein at physiological pH 7.4.

Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCCs) are contemplated to be the ideal targets to probe the early phases of star formation. We have conducted a survey of 72 young dense cores inside PGCCs in the Orion complex with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at 1.3\,mm (band 6) using three different configurations (resolutions $\sim$ 0$\farcs$35, 1$\farcs$0, and 7$\farcs$0) to statistically investigate their evolutionary stages and sub-structures. We have obtained images of the 1.3\,mm continuum and molecular line emission ($^{12}$CO, and SiO) at an angular resolution of $\sim$ 0$\farcs$35 ($\sim$ 140\,au) with the combined arrays. We find 70 substructures within 48 detected dense cores with median dust-mass $\sim$ 0.093\,M$_{\sun}$ and deconvolved size $\sim$ 0$\farcs$27. Dense substructures are clearly detected within the central 1000\,au of four candidate prestellar cores. The sizes and masses of the substructures in continuum emission are found to be significantly reduced with protostellar evolution from Class\,0 to Class\,I. We also study the evolutionary change in the outflow characteristics through the course of protostellar mass accretion. A total of 37 sources exhibit CO outflows, and 20 ($>$50\%) show high-velocity jets in SiO. The CO velocity-extents ($\Delta$Vs) span from 4 to 110 km/s with outflow cavity opening angle width at 400\,au ranging from $[\Theta_{obs}]_{400}$ $\sim$ 0$\farcs$6 to 3$\farcs$9, which corresponds to 33$\fdg$4$-$125$\fdg$7. For the majority of the outflow sources, the $\Delta$Vs show a positive correlation with $[\Theta_{obs}]_{400}$, suggesting that as protostars undergo gravitational collapse, the cavity opening of a protostellar outflow widens and the protostars possibly generate more energetic outflows., Comment: 43 pages, 25 figures (14 in the main text, 9 in the appendix), accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS)

We present here optical I-band photometric variability study down to $\simeq$ 19 mag of a young ($\sim$2-3 Myr) star-forming region IC 348 in the Perseus molecular cloud. We aim to explore the fast rotation (in the time-scales of hours) in Very Low Mass stars (VLMs) including Brown Dwarfs (BDs). From a sample of 177 light-curves using our new I-band observations, we detect new photometric variability in 22 young M-dwarfs including 6 BDs, which are bonafide members in IC 348 and well-characterized in the spectral type of M-dwarfs. Out of 22 variables, 11 M dwarfs including one BD show hour-scale periodic variability in the period range 3.5 - 11 hours and rest are aperiodic in nature. Interestingly, an optical flare is detected in a young M2.75 dwarf in one night data on 20 December 2016. From the flare light curve, we estimate the emitted flared energy of 1.48 $\times$ 10$^{35}$ ergs. The observed flared energy with an uncertainty of tens of per cent is close to the super-flare range ($\sim$ 10$^{34}$ ergs), which is rarely observed in active M dwarfs., 12 pages, 5 figures

We present here identification and characterization of the young stellar population associated with an active star-forming site Sh2-242. We used our own new optical imaging and spectroscopic observational data, as well as several archival catalogs, e.g., Pan-STARRS 1, $Gaia$ DR2, IPHAS, WIRCam, 2MASS, and $Spitzer$. Slit spectroscopic results confirm the classification of the main ionizing source BD+26 980 as an early-type star of spectral type B0.5 V. The spectrophotometric distance of the star is estimated as 2.08 $\pm$ 0.24 kpc, which confirms the source as a member of the cluster. An extinction map covering a large area (diameter $\sim$ 50') is generated with $H$ and $K$ photometry toward the region. From the map, three distinct locations of peak extinction complexes ($A_{V}$ $\simeq$ 7$-$17 mag) are identified for the very first time. Using the infrared color excess, a total of 33 Class I and 137 Class II young objects are classified within the region. The IPHAS photometry reveals classification of 36 H$\alpha$ emitting sources, which might be class II objects. Among 36 H$\alpha$ emitting sources, 5 are already identified using infrared excess emission. In total, 201 young objects are classified toward S242 from this study. The membership status of the young sources is further windowed with the inclusion of parallax from the $Gaia$ DR2 catalog. Using the optical and infrared color-magnitude diagrams, the young stellar objects are characterized with an average age of $\sim$ 1 Myr and the masses in the range 0.1$-$3.0 $M_\odot$. The census of the stellar content within the region is discussed using combined photometric and spectroscopic data., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, Published in the Astronomical Journal

The presence of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the interstellar medium (ISM) is of great interest since it may link to the origin and prevalence of life in the universe. Aiming to investigate the occurrence of COMs and their possible origins, we conducted a chemical census toward a sample of protostellar cores as part of the ALMA Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP) project. We report the detection of 11 hot corino sources, which exhibit compact emissions from warm and abundant COMs, among 56 Class 0/I protostellar cores. All the hot corino sources discovered are likely Class 0 and their sizes of the warm region ($>$ 100 K) are comparable to 100 au. The luminosity of the hot corino sources exhibits positive correlations with the total number of methanol and the extent of its emissions. Such correlations are consistent with the thermal desorption picture for the presence of hot corino and suggest that the lower luminosity (Class 0) sources likely have a smaller region with COMs emissions. With the same sample selection method and detection criteria being applied, the detection rates of the warm methanol in the Orion cloud (15/37) and the Perseus cloud (28/50) are statistically similar when the cloud distances and the limited sample size are considered. Observing the same set of COM transitions will bring a more informative comparison between the cloud properties., 34 pages. 14 figures. 1 figure set. 1 machine-readable table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Jets and outflows trace the accretion history of protostars. High-velocity molecular jets have been observed from several protostars in the early Class 0 phase of star formation, detected with the high-density tracer SiO. Until now, no clear jet has been detected with SiO emission from isolated evolved Class I protostellar systems. We report a prominent dense SiO jet from a Class I source G205S3 (HOPS-315: T bol ∼ 180 K, spectral index ∼0.417), with a moderately high mass-loss rate (∼0.59 × 10−6 M ⊙ yr−1) estimated from CO emission. Together, these features suggest that G205S3 is still in a high-accretion phase, similar to that expected of Class 0 objects. We compare G205S3 to a representative Class 0 system G206W2 (HOPS-399) and literature Class 0/I sources to explore the possible explanations behind the SiO emission seen at the later phase. We estimate a high inclination angle (∼40°) for G205S3 from CO emission, which may expose the infrared emission from the central core and mislead the spectral classification. However, the compact 1.3 mm continuum, C18O emission, location in the bolometric luminosity to submillimeter fluxes diagram, outflow force (∼3.26 × 10−5 M ⊙ km s−1 yr−1) are also analogous to that of Class I systems. We thus consider G205S3 to be at the very early phase of Class I, and in the late phase of high accretion. The episodic ejection could be due to the presence of an unknown binary, a planetary companion, or dense clumps, where the required mass for such high accretion could be supplied by a massive circumbinary disk.

We report here CCD $I$-band time-series photometry of a young (2$-$5 Myr) cluster NGC 2282 to identify and understand the variability of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars. The $I$-band photometry, down to $\sim$ 20.5 mag, enables us to probe the variability towards the lower mass end ($\sim$ 0.1 M$_\odot$) of the PMS stars. From the light curves of 1627 stars, we identified 62 new photometric variable candidates. Their association with the region was established from H$\alpha$ emission and infrared (IR) excess. Among 62 variables, 30 young variables exhibit H$\alpha$ emission, near-IR (NIR)/mid-IR (MIR) excess or both, and they are candidate members of the cluster. Out of 62 variables, 41 are periodic variables with the rotation rate ranging from 0.2 to 7 days. The period distribution exhibits a median period at $\sim$ 1-day as in many young clusters (e.g., NGC~2264, ONC, etc.), but it follows a uni-modal distribution unlike others having bimodality with the slow rotators peaking at $\sim$ 6$-$8 days. To investigate the rotation-disk and variability-disk connection, we derived NIR excess from $\Delta$(I$-$K) and MIR excess from $Spitzer$ [3.6]$-$[4.5] $\mu$m data. No conclusive evidence of slow rotation with the presence of disks around stars and fast rotation for diskless stars is obtained from our periodic variables. A clear increasing trend of the variability amplitude with the IR excess is found for all variables.

The ESCRT pathway functions at different subcellular membranes to induce their negative curvature, and it has been largely characterized in model eukaryotes belonging to Opisthokonta. But searches of the genomes of many nonopisthokonts belonging to various supergroups indicate that some of them may harbour fewer ESCRT components. Of the genomes explored thus far, one of the most minimal set of ESCRT components was identified in the human pathogen Giardia lamblia, which belongs to Excavata. Here we report that an ESCRT-mediated pathway most likely operates at the peripheral vesicles, which are located at the cell periphery and the bare zone of this protist. Functional comparison of all the identified putative giardial ESCRT components, with the corresponding well-characterized orthologues from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, indicated that only some of the ESCRT components could functionally substitute for the corresponding yeast proteins. While GlVps25, GlVps2, and all three paralogues of GlVps4, tested positive in functional complementation assays, GlVps22, GlVps20, and GlVps24 did not. Binary interactions of either GlVps22 or GlVps25, with other ESCRT-II components from Giardia or yeast indicate that the giardial Vps36 orthologue is either completely missing or highly diverged. Interactions within the giardial ESCRT-III components also differ from those in yeast; while GlVps46a interacts preferentially with Vps24 compared to Vps2, GlVps46b, like the yeast orthologue, interacts with both.