A chemical strategy to study transient states in substrate ubiquitylation by cryo-EM

Characterization of short-lived intermediate states along the path of a ubiquitylation reaction remains challenging. In this issue of Chem, Ai et al. present a chemical trapping method for probing transient intermediates in substrate ubiquitylation. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated by the determination of single-particle cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures related to nucleo-some ubiquitylation.

Automated summary

The study presents a chemical trapping method to investigate short-lived intermediate states in substrate ubiquitylation. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by determining single-particle cryo-EM structures related to nucleosome ubiquitylation.