Biology subjects

Gilchrist, J. B.

Publications and source records attributed to Gilchrist, J. B..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Coronavirus spherules are supported by a novel triple-layer protein lattice

Coronaviruses (CoVs) cause significant disease in humans and animals, with a track-record of cross-species transmission. Despite their global significance, available control strategies are limited, especially for emerging CoVs. A deeper fundamental understanding of the virus life cycle is essential to underpin development of control measures. A critical step of the CoV life cycle is the rearrangement of host cell membranes into replication organelles (ROs). This is conserved across all CoVs and ROs comprise double membrane vesicles (DMVs), the site of viral RNA synthesis, and double membrane spherules. CoV spherules are complex structures requiring both positive and negative curvature of paired membranes so are predicted to have a high energy cost to maintain. To date they have an entirely unknown function. Interestingly, although always present, abundance of spherules in CoV infected cells varies with Betacoronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Gammacoronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and porcine deltacoronavirus in particular producing a considerable number. Here, using cryo-bioimaging we identified for the first time that CoV spherules are embedded with a complex and organised triple-layered protein lattice and that spherules always contain a cargo that appears arranged as a shell inside the vesicle. In addition, we confirmed the presence of a double membrane spanning molecular pore in Gammacoronavirus DMVs and further identified a population of potential DMV formation intermediates. Together, this work provides a foundation for understanding a fundamental yet unresolved aspect of coronavirus replication.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2026

Adaptive Milling: imaging feedback-driven automated fabrication of consistently thin cryo-lamellae

Cryo-electron tomography of 100-200 nm lamellae prepared by focused ion beam milling enables structural analysis of macromolecules within cells, tissues, and small organisms, but lamella preparation remains time-consuming and limits throughput. Although automated workflows enable unsupervised fabrication, they commonly produce variable results because fixed, pre-calibrated parameters are applied without accounting for lamella-to-lamella variability. To overcome these limitations, we developed an Adaptive Milling approach that adapts milling parameters based on imaging feedback. We implemented this approach for the critical polishing stage as Adaptive Polishing, which uses machine-learning-based segmentation of scanning electron microscopy images to identify lamella features predictive of imminent collapse. These are used to periodically assess whether to continue or stop thinning during polishing. We performed a systematic comparison of the quality of lamellae prepared with Adaptive Polishing and conventional automation, and demonstrate that Adaptive Polishing produces thinner lamellae with greater consistency in thickness, and performs well for in situ cryo-electron tomography. Adaptive Polishing was tested on three different microscopes with minimal model retraining required, demonstrating transferability of the approach. We implemented Adaptive Polishing as an open-source plugin for fibsemOS together with machine-learning model training software and pre-trained models.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2022

3D electron diffraction reveals the chiral nature of the malaria pigment crystal hemozoin

Detoxification of heme in Plasmodium depends on its crystallization into hemozoin. This pathway is a major target of antimalarial drugs. X-ray powder diffraction has established that the unit cell contains a cyclic hematin dimer, yet the pro-chiral nature of heme supports formation of four distinct stereoisomers, two centrosymmetric and two chiral enantiomers. Here we apply emerging methods of in situ cryo-electron tomography and diffraction to obtain a definitive structure of biogenic hemozoin. Individual crystals take a striking polar morphology. Diffraction analysis, supported by density functional theory, indicates a compositional mixture of one centrosymmetric and one chiral dimer, whose absolute configuration has been determined on the basis of crystal morphology and interaction with the aqueous medium. Structural modeling of the heme detoxification protein suggests a mechanism for dimer selection. The refined structure of hemozoin should serve as a guide to new drug development.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2020

SARS-CoV-2 Assembly and Egress Pathway Revealed by Correlative Multi-modal Multi-scale Cryo-imaging

Since the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there have been intense structural studies on purified recombinant viral components and inactivated viruses. However, investigation of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the native cellular context is scarce, and there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 replicative cycle. Understanding the genome replication, assembly and egress of SARS-CoV-2, a multistage process that involves different cellular compartments and the activity of many viral and cellular proteins, is critically important as it bears the means of medical intervention to stop infection. Here, we investigated SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero cells under the near-native frozen-hydrated condition using a unique correlative multi-modal, multi-scale cryo-imaging approach combining soft X-ray cryo-tomography and serial cryoFIB/SEM volume imaging of the entire SARS-CoV-2 infected cell with cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) of cellular lamellae and cell periphery, as well as structure determination of viral components by subtomogram averaging. Our results reveal at the whole cell level profound cytopathic effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, exemplified by a large amount of heterogeneous vesicles in the cytoplasm for RNA synthesis and virus assembly, formation of membrane tunnels through which viruses exit, and drastic cytoplasm invasion into nucleus. Furthermore, cryoET of cell lamellae reveals how viral RNAs are transported from double-membrane vesicles where they are synthesized to viral assembly sites; how viral spikes and RNPs assist in virus assembly and budding; and how fully assembled virus particles exit the cell, thus stablishing a model of SARS-CoV-2 genome replication, virus assembly and egress pathways.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2020

A Workflow for Protein Structure Determination from Thin Crystal Lamella by Micro-Electron Diffraction

Micro-Electron Diffraction (MicroED) has recently emerged as a powerful method for the analysis of biological structures at atomic resolution. This technique has been largely limited to protein nanocrystals which grow either as needles or plates measuring only a few hundred nanometres in thickness. Furthermore, traditional microED data processing uses established X-ray crystallography software that is not optimised for handling compound effects that are unique to electron diffraction data. Here, we present an integrated workflow for microED, from sample preparation by cryo-focused ion beam milling, through data collection with a standard Ceta-D detector, to data processing using the DIALS software suite, thus enabling routine atomic structure determination of protein crystals of any size and shape using microED. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the workflow by determining the structure of proteinase K to 2.0 [A] resolution and show the advantage of using protein crystal lamellae over nanocrystals.

biophysics↗