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Volume 5 Issue 12, December 2009

The ribosomal translation of genetic material into protein polymers serves as an archetype for the elegance and complexity possible in biological processes. Effraim et al. (p 947) probed the limits of substrate selection in this process, studying translational efficiency with misloaded amino acids. In an unrelated study, Kawakami et al. (p 888) further employed misloaded amino acids to create a self-cyclizing peptide sequence. The enabled keyboard featured on the cover highlights both our current paradigms in ribosomal translation as well as the open questions and engineering potential that remain. Cover art by Erin Dewalt, based on an original image from iStockphoto.com, © Paul Cowan.

Volume 5 Issue 12

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Editorial

  • The third Nature Chemical Biology symposium brought together nearly 200 scientists to explore the frontiers of chemical biology and drug discovery.

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Meeting Report

  • Inorganic nitrate and nitrite from endogenous or dietary sources are metabolized in vivo to nitric oxide (NO) and other bioactive nitrogen oxides. The nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway is emerging as an important mediator of blood flow regulation, cell signaling, energetics and tissue responses to hypoxia. The latest advances in our understanding of the biochemistry, physiology and therapeutics of nitrate, nitrite and NO were discussed during a recent 2-day meeting at the Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

    • Jon O Lundberg
    • Mark T Gladwin
    • Eddie Weitzberg
    Meeting Report
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News & Views

  • Vibrio cholerae produces cholera autoinducer-1 (CAI-1), a signaling molecule previously believed to be synthesized by the CqsA enzyme. Here it is shown that CqsA does not directly synthesize CAI-1; instead, it synthesizes amino-CAI-1, which is then converted into CAI-1 in a CqsA-independent manner.

    • Vanessa Sperandio
    News & Views

  • A unique heterotrimeric assembly of individually inactive paralogs, two of which are also involved in regulating phosphatase activity, creates one of the key enzymes of coenzyme A biosynthesis in yeast, pointing to the possibility of a previously undescribed cross-talk between metabolic and signaling pathways.

    • Andrei L Osterman
    News & Views

  • The RNA-activated protein kinase PKR inhibits translation initiation by sensing long viral double-stranded RNA. A new report indicates that PKR is also activated by a cellular mRNA, but only when ribosomes are not initiating translation.

    • Rebecca Toroney
    • Philip C Bevilacqua
    News & Views

  • Two iron regulatory proteins (IRP1 and IRP2) regulate translation and/or stability of mRNAs encoding proteins required for iron storage, acquisition and utilization. Rather than IRP2 directly sensing iron concentrations, iron has been shown to regulate the level of the SKP1-CUL1-FBXL5 E3 ubiquitin ligase protein complex, which is responsible for IRP2 degradation.

    • Naoko Takahashi-Makise
    • Diane McVey Ward
    • Jerry Kaplan
    News & Views
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