[ASAP] Chemoenzymatic Semisynthesis of Phosphorylated a-Synuclein Enables Identification of a Bidirectional Effect on Fibril Formation
February 17th, 2020 by Buyan Pan, Elizabeth Rhoades*, and E. James Petersson*
ACS Chemical Biology
DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.9b01038
[ASAP] Splice Modulation Synergizes Cell Cycle Inhibition
February 17th, 2020 by Kelsey A. Trieger, James J. La Clair, and Michael D. Burkart*
ACS Chemical Biology
DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.9b00833
On the wrong DNA track: Molecular mechanisms of repeat-mediated genome instability [DNA and Chromosomes]
February 14th, 2020 by Alexandra N. Khristich, Sergei M. Mirkin
Expansions of simple tandem repeats are responsible for almost 50 human diseases, the majority of which are severe, degenerative, and not currently treatable or preventable. In this review, we first describe the molecular mechanisms of repeat-induced toxicity, which is the connecting link between repeat expansions and pathology. We then survey alternative DNA structures that are formed by expandable repeats and review the evidence that formation of these structures is at the core of repeat instability. Next, we describe the consequences of the presence of long structure-forming repeats at the molecular level: somatic and intergenerational instability, fragility, and repeat-induced mutagenesis. We discuss the reasons for gender bias in intergenerational repeat instability and the tissue specificity of somatic repeat instability. We also review the known pathways in which DNA replication, transcription, DNA repair, and chromatin state interact and thereby promote repeat instability. We then discuss possible reasons for the persistence of disease-causing DNA repeats in the genome. We describe evidence suggesting that these repeats are a payoff for the advantages of having abundant simple-sequence repeats for eukaryotic genome function and evolvability. Finally, we discuss two unresolved fundamental questions: (i) why does repeat behavior differ between model systems and human pedigrees, and (ii) can we use current knowledge on repeat instability mechanisms to cure repeat expansion diseases?[ASAP] Examining the Mechanism of Phosphite Dehydrogenase with Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical Free Energy Simulations
February 14th, 2020 by David R. Stevens and Sharon Hammes-Schiffer*
Biochemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.9b01089
[ASAP] Depurination of Colibactin-Derived Interstrand Cross-Links
February 13th, 2020 by Mengzhao Xue†, Kevin M. Wernke†, and Seth B. Herzon*†‡
Biochemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.9b01070
[ASAP] Substitutions of Amino Acid Residues in the Substrate Binding Site of Horse Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase Have Small Effects on the Structures but Significantly Affect Catalysis of Hydrogen Transfer
February 10th, 2020 by Keehyuk Kim† and Bryce V. Plapp*
Biochemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.9b01074
Keth-seq for transcriptome-wide RNA structure mapping
February 3rd, 2020 by Xiaocheng Weng
Nature Chemical Biology, Published online: 03 February 2020; doi:10.1038/s41589-019-0459-3
The authors designed a chemical probe, azido-kethoxal, to specifically label guanosine in single-strand RNAs in live cells that could be used to determine transcriptome-wide RNA secondary structures.[ASAP] Engineering a DNAzyme-Based Operon System for the Production of DNA Nanoscaffolds in Living Bacteria
February 3rd, 2020 by Dan M. Alon†, Cristopher A. Voigt‡, and Johann Elbaz*†
ACS Synthetic Biology
DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.9b00415
[ASAP] Ferroptosis Suppressor Protein 1 (FSP1) and Coenzyme Q<sub>10</sub> Cooperatively Suppress Ferroptosis
January 31st, 2020 by Kamyar Hadian*
Biochemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00030
[ASAP] A Multimodal Ca(II) Responsive Near IR-MR Contrast Agent Exhibiting High Cellular Uptake
January 30th, 2020 by Casey J. Adams, Ruby Krueger, and Thomas J. Meade*
ACS Chemical Biology
DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.9b00638