Upon ligand binding at the subunit interfaces, the extracellular domain of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor undergoes conformational changes, and agonist binding allosterically triggers opening of the ion channel. The soluble acetylcholine‐binding protein (AChBP) from snail has been shown to be a structural and functional surrogate of the ligand‐binding domain (LBD) of the receptor. Yet, individual AChBP species display disparate affinities for nicotinic ligands. The crystal structure of AChBP from Aplysia californica in the apo form reveals a more open loop C and distinctive positions for other surface loops, compared with previous structures. Analysis of Aplysia AChBP complexes with nicotinic ligands shows that loop C, which does not significantly change conformation upon binding of the antagonist, methyllycaconitine, further opens to accommodate the peptidic antagonist, α‐conotoxin ImI, but wraps around the agonists lobeline and epibatidine. The structures also reveal extended and nonoverlapping interaction surfaces for the two antagonists, outside the binding loci for agonists. This comprehensive set of structures reflects a dynamic template for delineating further conformational changes of the LBD of the nicotinic receptor.

The peripheral anionic site on acetylcholinesterase (AChE), located at the active center gorge entry, encompasses overlapping binding sites for allosteric activators and inhibitors; yet, the molecular mechanisms coupling this site to the active center at the gorge base to modulate catalysis remain unclear. The peripheral site has also been proposed to be involved in heterologous protein associations occurring during synaptogenesis or upon neurodegeneration. A novel crystal form of mouse AChE, combined with spectrophotometric analyses of the crystals, enabled us to solve unique structures of AChE with a free peripheral site, and as three complexes with peripheral site inhibitors: the phenylphenanthridinium ligands, decidium and propidium, and the pyrogallol ligand, gallamine, at 2.20–2.35 Å resolution. Comparison with structures of AChE complexes with the peptide fasciculin or with organic bifunctional inhibitors unveils new structural determinants contributing to ligand interactions at the peripheral site, and permits a detailed topographic delineation of this site. Hence, these structures provide templates for designing compounds directed to the enzyme surface that modulate specific surface interactions controlling catalytic activity and non‐catalytic heterologous protein associations.

The ESTHER database, which is freely available via a web server (http://bioweb.ensam.inra.fr/esther) and is widely used, is dedicated to proteins with an α/β-hydrolase fold, and it currently contains >30 000 manually curated proteins. Herein, we report those substantial changes towards improvement that we have made to improve ESTHER during the past 8 years since our 2004 update. In particular, we generated 87 new families and increased the coverage of the UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB). We also renewed the ESTHER website and added new visualization tools, such as the Overall Table and the Family Tree. We also address two topics of particular interest to the ESTHER users. First, we explain how the different enzyme classifications (bacterial lipases, peptidases, carboxylesterases) used by different communities of users are combined in ESTHER. Second, we discuss how variations of core architecture or in predicted active site residues result in a more precise clustering of families, and whether this strategy provides trustable hints to identify enzyme-like proteins with no catalytic activity.

The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between unactivated azides and acetylenes proceeds exceedingly slowly at room temperature. However, considerable rate acceleration is observed when this reaction occurs inside the active center gorge of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) between certain azide and acetylene reactants, attached via methylene chains to specific inhibitor moieties selective for the active center and peripheral site of the enzyme. AChE catalyzes the formation of its own inhibitor in a highly selective fashion: only a single syn1 -triazole regioisomer with defined substitution positions and linker distances is generated from a series of reagent combinations. Inhibition measurements revealed this syn1 -triazole isomer to be the highest affinity reversible organic inhibitor of AChE with association rate constants near the diffusion limit. The corresponding anti1 isomer, not formed by the enzyme, proved to be a respectable but weaker inhibitor. The crystal structures of the syn1 - and anti1 -mouse AChE complexes at 2.45- to 2.65-Å resolution reveal not only substantial binding contributions from the triazole moieties, but also that binding of the syn1 isomer induces large and unprecedented enzyme conformational changes not observed in the anti1 complex nor predicted from structures of the apoenzyme and complexes with the precursor reactants. Hence, the freeze-frame reaction offers both a strategically original approach for drug discovery and a means for kinetically controlled capture, as a high-affinity complex between the enzyme and its self-created inhibitor, of a highly reactive minor abundance conformer of a fluctuating protein template.