The X-ray structure of the complex formed between yeast 5-aminolaevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) and the inhibitor laevulinic acid has been determined at 2.15 Å resolution. The inhibitor binds by forming a Schiff base link with one of the two invariant lysines at the catalytic center: Lys263. It is known that this lysine forms a Schiff base link with substrate bound at the enzyme's so-called P-site. The carboxyl group of laevulinic acid makes hydrogen bonds with the side-chain–OH groups of Tyr329 and Ser290, as well as with the main-chain >NH group of Ser290. The aliphatic moiety of the inhibitor makes hydrophobic interactions with surrounding aromatic residues in the protein including Phe219, which resides in the flap covering the active site. Our analysis strongly suggests that the same interactions will be made by P-side substrate and also indicates that the substrate that binds at the enzyme's A-site will interact with the enzyme's zinc ion bound by three cysteines (133, 135, and 143). Inhibitor binding caused a substantial ordering of the active site flap (residues 217–235), which was largely invisible in the native electron density map and indicates that this highly conserved yet flexible region has a specific role in substrate binding during catalysis.

Albert Chavannes is not a name that is mentioned often in intellectual histories of the United States in the late nineteenth century. Few nowadays are familiar with the work of this émigré farmer and businessman who lived for most of his life in Knoxville, Tennessee. Yet his achievement was impressive. Between 1883 and 1885 he edited and published The Sociologist, which was possibly the first monthly journal of its kind in the U.S.A. Inspired by Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward (1888), and the nationalist movement which resulted from it, he also wrote utopian fiction in two books, The Future Commonwealth (1892) and its sequel In Brighter Climes (1895). In the first of these novels Chavannes synthesized Darwinian theories of evolution and secular notions of progress to suggest that scientific sociological inquiry could aid rational planning in the cause of perfecting society. In the sequel, he built a firmer bridge from this dynamic sociology to a form of naive Marxism. Chavannes's work thus colours with European ideas and influences that distinctive American utopian tradition which retains a nostalgic faith in the realization of Jefferson's millennial democratic vision.