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The crystal structure of EarP, an inverting glycosyltransferase that generates rhamnosyl-arginine modifications, suggests that the enzyme uses an SN2 reaction mechanism that may involve perturbation of the donor sugar nucleotide conformation.
Partial substitution of CRISPR RNAs with DNA nucleotides retains CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing activity while enhancing efficiency and specificity within cells, suggesting that DNA–RNA hybrids may be economical reagents for targeted genome editing.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells were engineered to recognize soluble protein ligands that, by inducing CAR dimerization, mechanically couple ligand binding and receptor signaling to produce immune effector molecules.
A new type of fungal lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) catalyzes the oxidative degradation of xylan components of cellulosic biomass and offers potential in wood biorefining.
A synthetic, orthogonal pair of the plant hormone auxin and its receptor TIR1 was engineered to hijack auxin signaling without interfering with the endogenous system. The synthetic system conclusively demonstrates the role for TIR1 in auxin-induced acid growth.
Combining Drosophila genetics with chemistry and computation led to the development of novel kinase inhibitors based on the RAF-targeting drug sorafenib that reveal the RET oncogene as an enhancer of drug action and improve the therapeutic window in medullary thyroid carcinoma models.
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.