BioF:GREAT

Pittman et al. · Cell Rep · 2026

A CRISPR system that cuts everything but its target

Type IV-C CRISPR-Cas effector complexes recognize double-stranded DNA and switch on collateral cleavage of ssDNA and RNA.

Type IV-C CRISPR-Cas systems split into archaeal (IV-C1) and bacterial (IV-C2) clades. The archaeal complexes use crRNAs and a 5′-GGG-3′ PAM to bind double-stranded DNA targets, but do not cut at the bound site. Instead, target binding allosterically aligns the Cas10IVc HD domain — captured by cryo-EM — which then cleaves single-stranded DNA and RNA indiscriminately to defend against invaders.

DOI / PubMed

Griffith, Hahn & Wallace · 2026

Barcoded antibodies count cell wall polymers

DNA-barcoded polysaccharide specific monoclonal antibodies facilitate sensitive and multiplexed detection of cell wall polymers.

Monoclonal antibodies against major plant cell wall polysaccharides were tagged with unique DNA barcodes, so the amount of antibody bound to a sample can be read out by quantitative PCR. Pooled barcoded antibodies quantified several polysaccharide epitopes at once in standards and fractionated cell wall material, opening the way to high-throughput glycome profiling and spatial glycomics.

Berardinelli et al. · J Biol Chem · 2026

A glycosyltransferase with a catalytically dead second domain

Crystal structure of a β1,3-Glucosyltransferase reveals an unusual substrate recognition by a two-domain GT-A fold glycosyltransferase.

B3GLCT extends the rare O-fucose modification on thrombospondin type 1 repeats, and pathogenic variants cause Peters Plus syndrome. Unusually for its fold family, it carries a second GT-A domain — and the crystal structure of the enzyme bound to an O-fucosylated repeat shows that domain is essential for substrate binding yet catalytically dead: it binds neither UDP nor Mn²⁺, and its vestigial active site faces away from where the substrate sits.

DOI / PubMed

Tiwari et al. · Biochem Mol Biol Educ · 2026

Getting glycoscience into the classroom

Building Bridges: A Story of How Institutional Investment in Discipline-Based Education Research Enables Evidence-Based Teaching in Biochemistry Education.

Discoveries reach the literature faster than they reach undergraduate teaching, which is why glycoscience is largely absent from the curriculum. This account describes how institutional investment in discipline-based education research faculty at UGA lets disciplinary scientists and education researchers co-develop teaching materials that are both current and built around how students actually learn — with BioF:GREAT’s education arm as the worked example.

DOI / PubMed

Tehrani et al. · Nat Commun · 2026

Chondroitin synthases work as heterodimers

Structural basis of chondroitin sulfate backbone polymer synthesis.

Four homologous proteins build the chondroitin sulfate backbone, and this work shows why they need each other: one CHPF and one CHSY must be co-expressed to form a soluble, functional heterodimer. Cryo-EM of CHSY3-CHPF1 plus mutagenesis places both catalytic activities in the CHSY subunit — its GT31 domain transfers β1,3-GlcA and its GT7 domain β1,4-GalNAc — while the CHPF domains contribute no synthesis and instead stabilise their CHSY counterparts.

DOI / PubMed

Kamatar et al. · Biophys J · 2026

Why glycans resist endocytosis

Inhibition of endocytosis by glycans arises from steric rather than electrostatic repulsion.

Glycosylation slows the uptake of membrane proteins by clathrin-mediated endocytosis, but it was unclear whether the barrier is steric bulk or negative charge. Stripping sialic acid from a densely O-glycosylated ligand changed neither receptor uptake nor the ligand’s hydrodynamic radius, pointing to steric bulk rather than electrostatic repulsion.

DOI / PubMed