Francis Martin

Conviction a ‘realistic prospect', but anxiety of complainants too great, rules KC

09 October 2024 Tearfund charity warns of a catastrophe. Future of Lebanon ‘gloomy' Smoke rises across the southern suburbs of Beirut, as Israeli strikes continue, on Tuesday Smoke rises across the southern suburbs of Beirut, as Israeli strikes continue, on Tuesday

Dr Wambunya receives formal rebuke under the Clergy Discipline Measure

FOUR of the seven diocesan bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, including the Primus, have urge...

Glasgow City Mission building, which opened last month. The work of the charity, which offers care to vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the...

THE Bishop of St Albans , Dr Alan Smith, has called for a national strategy to address the rise in religiously aggravated hate crime , after Home

THE Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, said on Friday that some of her episcopal colleagues had chosen to “threaten” her in an “unprofessional and un-Christian manner” by asking her to resign.

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are copper-containing enzymes that play a key role in the oxidative degradation of various biopolymers such as cellulose and chitin. While hunting for new LPMOs, we identified a new family of proteins, defined here as X325, in various fungal lineages. The three-dimensional structure of X325 revealed an overall LPMO fold and a His brace with an additional Asp ligand to Cu(II). Although LPMO-type activity of X325 members was initially expected, we demonstrated that X325 members do not perform oxidative cleavage of polysaccharides, establishing that X325s are not LPMOs. Investigations of the biological role of X325 in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor revealed exposure of the X325 protein at the interface between fungal hyphae and tree rootlet cells. Our results provide insights into a family of copper-containing proteins, which is widespread in the fungal kingdom and is evolutionarily related to LPMOs, but has diverged to biological functions other than polysaccharide degradation.

THE “prolific, brutal and horrific” abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a Reader in the Church of England, was covered up by “powerful evangelical clergy”, the long-awaited Makin review has concluded.

Bishops, dioceses, and Anglican Communion respond to Makin report and its aftermath