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The aerial surfaces of land plants are surrounded by cutin, a strong, lipid-based polymer assembled from glycerol and oxidized fatty acids. The first extracellular enzyme forming polyester linkages that are central to the assembly of cutin is now identified.
The origin of the flavonoid biosynthetic enzyme chalcone isomerase has remained a mystery. A combination of phylogenetic analysis, crystallography, biochemistry and genetics has uncovered how a stereospecific chalcone isomerase could have evolved from a nonenzymatic ancestral gene.
Modular polyketide synthases are intensively studied as exquisite synthetic machines generating bioactive natural products. The enoylreductase, a common component of these machines, has been structurally and functionally characterized, revealing a new complex architecture.
Crk-like (CrkL) is a key signaling protein that mediates the leukemogenic activity of Bcr-Abl. Structural investigations show that the intramolecular assembly of CrkL is entirely distinct from that of CrkII, shedding light on how CrkL specifically mediates Bcr-Abl signaling.
Heterocycles such as thiazoles are introduced into ribosomally synthesized peptide metabolites by post-translational modification. The enzyme that installs those rings has been identified, providing insight into heterocyclization biochemistry and the potential capabilities of an entire protein family.
Lymphoid tyrosine phosphatase (LYP) is often mutated in humans suffering from autoimmune diseases. A recent study proposes a mechanism by which LYP can cause these diseases and suggests that drugs against LYP could be a useful treatment.
RNA molecules have diverse functional roles, including silencing genes, catalyzing biochemical reactions and sensing chemicals that control gene expression. Biologists have drawn from nature's toolbox to construct engineered RNA molecules with versatile capabilities and can now begin to automate the design of libraries of regulatory RNAs.
Sensing of the plant hormone auxin involves formation of a co-receptor complex consisting of an F-box protein and an AUXIN/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) transcriptional repressor. Distinct co-receptor combinations might provide cells with an unexpectedly broad range of auxin-sensing capacities and contribute to diverse transcriptional programs activated by different auxin levels in various developmental contexts.
Chromatin structure and its modulation by epigenetic mechanisms represent a complex system that regulates gene expression in cells. Chemical biology approaches, including chemical probes, designer chromatin and molecular-level analysis of chromatin states, offer powerful mechanistic tools for understanding and manipulating chromatin at all levels of cellular organization.
The activity of the anaphase-promoting complex is regulated by the autoubiquitination of Cdc20. How this autoubiquitination is regulated remains an open question. The pharmacological inhibitor TAME now provides insight into this regulation.
Owing to population aging, the number of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease is rapidly increasing; consequently, finding an effective treatment is becoming an increasingly important goal. The use of O-GlcNAcase inhibitors is emerging as a promising track to prevent and slow disease progression.
The cell wall of tubercle bacilli is targeted by many drugs. A new adamantyl urea compound unveils MmpL3, a member of the resistance, nodulation and division protein family, as the long-sought trehalose monomycolate transporter, essential for translocation of mycolic acids into the cell envelope.
Selective reduction of keto groups contributes to the structural diversity of polyketide natural products. New research on fungal polyketide synthases reveals unusual biosynthetic programming in which a single ketoreductase domain shows different stereochemical preferences on the basis of substrate-chain length.
Osmolytes that normally accumulate in cells to equilibrate osmotic stress are also called chemical chaperones because of their ability to stabilize native proteins in vitro. A recent paper shows that various chemical chaperones differently alter the cellular milieu and permit the appearance of osmolyte-specific protein mutant variants during evolution.
