Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The lipid-derived hormone jasmonate promotes durable resistance of plants to a myriad of herbivores and pathogens. New evidence reveals an alternative pathway for the terminal steps of jasmonate biosynthesis and further advances our understanding of bioactive oxylipins in the plant kingdom.
A potent and specific small-molecule inhibitor of a long-sought-after anticancer drug target, USP7, that acts allosterically to inhibit MDM2-stabilizing activity foretells of more allosteric inhibitors for deubiquitinases and E3 ligases.
By integrating metagenomics, spectroscopy and synthetic biology, the individualized chemistry of small reef-dwelling organisms and their associated microbiota can be characterized in exquisite detail, unlocking a wealth of structural diversity for the development of new drugs.
The central dogma processes of DNA replication, transcription, and translation are responsible for the maintenance and expression of every gene in an organism. An orthogonal central dogma may insulate genetic programs from host regulation and allow expansion of the roles of these processes within the cell.
A de novo–designed protein, Syn-F4, hydrolyzes the siderophore ferric enterobactin both in vitro and in Escherichia coli cells, enabling a bacterial strain lacking the essential natural enterobactin esterase to grow in iron-limited medium.
NMR to resolve the subtype specificity of two peptide ligands for human bradykinin receptors B1R and B2R shows different presentations of the peptide termini toward the receptor and interactions with nonconserved receptor binding-pocket residues.
A method called Light Activated Structural Examination of RNA (LASER) enables monitoring of the solvent accessibility of purine nucleobases and identifies rapid structural changes of cellular RNA–protein interactions and intracellular RNA structures.
A structure of leukotriene B4 receptor BLT1 bound with a benzamidine-containing compound, BIIL260, reveals an inverse-agonist mechanism involving ligand binding in the sodium ion-centered water cluster adjacent to the conserved orthosteric site of class A GPCRs.
A combination of biochemical and structural techniques allows the characterization of a novel docking domain in polyketide synthases, which is structurally disordered and facilitates association of subunits at ketosynthase–dehydratase junctions.
An environmentally friendly approach to indigo production is facilitated by the characterization of a plant indoxyl glucosyltransferase, which converts the unstable indoxyl precursor into indican by addition of a glucose protecting group.
OPR3 is required to reduce the JA-Ile precursor OPDA. Analyses of JA levels in a loss-of-function opr3-3 mutant identified an OPR3-independent pathway for JA-Ile biosynthesis, based on OPDA conversion to 4,5-ddh-JA and reduction to JA by OPR2.
A combination of spectroscopy, metagenomics, and synthetic biology enables the characterization of the antiviral divamides, a class of lanthipeptide natural products in which even minor changes in structure lead to different biological activities.
