Synthetic biology: Playing favorites
June 20th, 2017 by Ross Cloney
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 693 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2425
Author: Ross Cloney
Circadian regulation: Switching periods
June 20th, 2017 by Grant Miura
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 693 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2426
Author: Grant Miura
Antimicrobials: Targeting fungal chromatin
June 20th, 2017 by Stéphane Larochelle
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 693 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2424
Author: Stéphane Larochelle
Metal homeostasis: Pumping iron
June 20th, 2017 by Grant Miura
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 693 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2423
Author: Grant Miura
Targeting the N terminus for site-selective protein modification
June 20th, 2017 by Christian B Rosen
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 697 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2416
Authors: Christian B Rosen & Matthew B Francis
A water-soluble DsbB variant that catalyzes disulfide-bond formation in vivo
June 19th, 2017 by Dario Mizrachi
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 1022 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2409
Authors: Dario Mizrachi, Michael-Paul Robinson, Guoping Ren, Na Ke, Mehmet Berkmen & Matthew P DeLisa
A scaffold protein that chaperones a cysteine-sulfenic acid in H2O2 signaling
June 19th, 2017 by Antoine Bersweiler
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 909 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2412
Authors: Antoine Bersweiler, Benoît D'Autréaux, Hortense Mazon, Alexandre Kriznik, Gemma Belli, Agnès Delaunay-Moisan, Michel B Toledano & Sophie Rahuel-Clermont
A heme-dependent enzyme forms the nitrogen–nitrogen bond in piperazate
June 19th, 2017 by Yi-Ling Du
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 836 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2411
Authors: Yi-Ling Du, Hai-Yan He, Melanie A Higgins & Katherine S Ryan
Molecules containing a nitrogen–nitrogen (N–N) linkage have a variety of structures and biological activities; however, no enzyme has yet been demonstrated to catalyze N–N bond formation in an organic molecule. Here we report that the heme-dependent enzyme KtzT from Kutzneria sp. 744 catalyzes N–N bond formation in the biosynthesis of piperazate, a building block for nonribosomal peptides.
Cpf1 proteins excise CRISPR RNAs from mRNA transcripts in mammalian cells
June 19th, 2017 by Guocai Zhong
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 839 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2410
Authors: Guocai Zhong, Haimin Wang, Yujun Li, Mai H Tran & Michael Farzan
Cpf1 is a CRISPR effector protein that has greater specificity than Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) in genome-editing applications. Here we show that Lachnospiraceae bacterium (Lb) and Acidaminococus sp. (As) Cpf1 orthologs have RNase activities that can excise multiple CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) from a single RNA polymerase II–driven RNA transcript expressed in mammalian cells. This property simplifies modification of multiple genomic targets and can be used to increase the efficiency of Cpf1-mediated editing.
Nucleation and growth of a bacterial functional amyloid at single-fiber resolution
June 19th, 2017 by Mike Sleutel
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 902 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2413
Authors: Mike Sleutel, Imke Van den Broeck, Nani Van Gerven, Cécile Feuillie, Wim Jonckheere, Claire Valotteau, Yves F Dufrêne & Han Remaut