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Biotechnological applications of hydrogenases are limited by their susceptibility to inactivation by oxygen, thought to proceed by trapping a reduced O2 in the active site. Electrochemical and spectroscopic studies using various electron acceptors now show that oxygen inactivation is not linked to oxygen atom donation.
Equilibrium isomerization of retinol is a new activity now attributable to DES1. 11-cis-retinol synthesized by DES1 in Müller cells of the retina can be converted to the visual chromophore for regenerating opsin pigment in cone photoreceptors.
Acanthaporin is identified as a pore-forming protein from the infectious Acanthamoeba culbertsoni with a previously unknown structure. The newly identified structure includes a pH-dependent histidine switch that controls partitioning between the inactive dimer and the active monomer, which assembles into larger species to cause toxicity.
Src family kinase mutants, with altered regulatory domain interactions, were profiled with a photodependent crosslinking strategy to reveal conformation-specific ATP-competitive inhibitors that affect intermolecular binding interactions.
Post-translational modification of proteins by N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is carried out by a single glycosyltransferase, OGT. Two independent groups have generated structures of ternary complexes that elegantly illuminate substrate and product binding modes, and thus the overall reaction coordinate, but the respective authors differ in their choice of catalytic base.
Understanding the reaction mechanism of OGT, responsible for O-GlcNAcylating various protein substrates, has been hampered by a lack of structural information. Snapshots of ternary complexes along the reaction coordinate now provide evidence for substrate participation in an electrophilic migration mechanism.
The identification of Escherichia coli ycfD and human MINA53 and NO66 as ribosomal amino acid hydroxylases defines a role for 2-oxoglutarate/iron-dependent oxygenases in translational regulation.
OGT modifies numerous proteins with O-GlcNAc, but the mechanism for this reaction has been difficult to define. Ternary crystal structures and activity assays with substrate analogs now provide evidence that the α-phosphate of the donor substrate is the catalytic base.
The creation and application of engineered constructs specific for one of two IL-4 coreceptors explain how immune signaling is limited by coreceptor concentration and establish specific roles for type II receptor–specific signaling in dendritic cell differentiation.
Potent, selective inhibitors reveal that DAGLβ is a principal 2-AG biosynthetic enzyme and regulates inflammatory processes in mouse peritoneal macrophages.
Riboswitches—RNA motifs that regulate gene expression in response to binding of specific ligands—have been identified for many small-molecule metabolites. An ATP-binding element in the ydaO mRNA of Bacillus subtilis provides the first example of an ATP-responsive riboswitch.
A kinase inhibitor based on a known type II inhibitor allosterically inhibits the RNase activity of IRE1α in vitro and in cells via the ATP-binding site in the kinase domain.
