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
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.
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.
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 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
Oxidation of phosphorothioate DNA modifications leads to lethal genomic instability
June 12th, 2017 by Stefanie Kellner
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 888 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2407
Authors: Stefanie Kellner, Michael S DeMott, Ching Pin Cheng, Brandon S Russell, Bo Cao, Delin You & Peter C Dedon
Genetically encoding phosphotyrosine and its nonhydrolyzable analog in bacteria
June 12th, 2017 by Xiaozhou Luo
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 845 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2405
Authors: Xiaozhou Luo, Guangsen Fu, Rongsheng E Wang, Xueyong Zhu, Claudio Zambaldo, Renhe Liu, Tao Liu, Xiaoxuan Lyu, Jintang Du, Weimin Xuan, Anzhi Yao, Sean A Reed, Mingchao Kang, Yuhan Zhang, Hui Guo, Chunhui Huang, Peng-Yu Yang, Ian A Wilson, Peter G Schultz & Feng Wang
A mutant O-GlcNAcase enriches Drosophila developmental regulators
June 12th, 2017 by Nithya Selvan
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 882 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2404
Authors: Nithya Selvan, Ritchie Williamson, Daniel Mariappa, David G Campbell, Robert Gourlay, Andrew T Ferenbach, Tonia Aristotelous, Iva Hopkins-Navratilova, Matthias Trost & Daan M F van Aalten
A front-face ‘SNi synthase’ engineered from a retaining ‘double-SN2’ hydrolase
June 12th, 2017 by Javier Iglesias-Fernández
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 874 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2394
Authors: Javier Iglesias-Fernández, Susan M Hancock, Seung Seo Lee, Maola Khan, Jo Kirkpatrick, Neil J Oldham, Katherine McAuley, Anthony Fordham-Skelton, Carme Rovira & Benjamin G Davis
A scalable platform to identify fungal secondary metabolites and their gene clusters
June 12th, 2017 by Kenneth D Clevenger
Nature Chemical Biology 13, 895 (2017). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2408
Authors: Kenneth D Clevenger, Jin Woo Bok, Rosa Ye, Galen P Miley, Maria H Verdan, Thomas Velk, Cynthia Chen, KaHoua Yang, Matthew T Robey, Peng Gao, Matthew Lamprecht, Paul M Thomas, Md Nurul Islam, Jonathan M Palmer, Chengcang C Wu, Nancy P Keller & Neil L Kelleher