Nature Chemical Biology Contents: October 2012 Volume 8 Number 10, pp 807 - 869

TABLE OF CONTENTS October 2012 Volume 8, Issue 10 Obituary Research Highlights News and Views Brief Communication Articles Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement The Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements 30 papers published simultaneously in Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology. Access videos, Features and the collected research papers, and explore the thematic threads that run through them via the Nature ENCODE explorer or the NatureENCODE app. Produced with support from Illumina   Obituary Top Ivano Bertini 1940-2012   p807 Lucia Banci and Claudio Luchinat doi:10.1038/nchembio.1072 Ivano Bertini left us on 7 July after a short illness. The chemical, biological and biomedical communities[mdash]indeed, society at large[mdash]have lost a unique and magnetic personality that will not be easily forgotten by those who have known him personally. Research Highlights Top Synthesis: When less yields more | Receptors: Location is everything | Chaperones: Steps to SOD1 | Lipids: PI4P takes charge | Metabolism: A GlcNAc switch | Epigenetics: Dealing with demethylases | Microbiology: Size control is Fab | Metals: Get the iron out News and Views Top Enzymes: Orchestrating hi-fi annotations   pp810 - 811 Patrick F Suthers and Costas D Maranas doi:10.1038/nchembio.1067 By incorporating sequence homology and context associations, global probabilistic approaches to annotate genome-scale metabolic networks can substantially improve the accuracy of biochemical predictions, revealing potential functionality and directing experimental validation. See also: Article by Plata et al. Lipids: Tafazzin senses curvature   pp811 - 812 Klaus Gawrisch doi:10.1038/nchembio.1068 The phospholipid-lysophospholipid transacylase tafazzin is responsible for enrichment of the cardiolipin fraction of mitochondria with tetralinoleoyl-cardiolipin. The specificity for linoleoyl hydrocarbon chains is now explained by the specific action of tafazzin on negatively curved lipid monolayers. See also: Article by Schlame et al. Microbiology: GhoSTly bacterial persisters   pp812 - 813 Laurence Van Melderen doi:10.1038/nchembio.1066 Bacterial persisters consist of a phenotypic subpopulation that survives antibiotic treatment, prolonging infection. The GhoT toxin from the newly discovered ghoS-ghoT toxin-antitoxin system contributes to persistence, most likely by interfering with bacterial inner membrane integrity. See also: Article by Wang et al. Chemical Biology JOBS of the week Postdoc Position in Chemical Biology / Microbiology / Biophysics Uppsala University, Department of Cell and Molecular biology Associate / Full Professor Chemical Biology (1,0 fte) University of Groningen, Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) Chemical Biology / Medicinal Chemistry Faculty Position UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Ramsay Memorial Trust Fellowships for Chemical Research (Postdoctoral) UCL Chemical Biology Boston University Department of Chemistry More Science jobs from Chemical Biology EVENT 13th Tetrahedron Symposium (Asia) – Challenges in Bioorganic & Organic Medicinal Chemistry 27-30 November 2012 UK More science events from Brief Communication Top Cytochrome P450–catalyzed L-tryptophan nitration in thaxtomin phytotoxin biosynthesis   pp814 - 816 Sarah M Barry, Johan A Kers, Evan G Johnson, Lijiang Song, Philip R Aston, Bhumit Patel, Stuart B Krasnoff, Brian R Crane, Donna M Gibson, Rosemary Loria and Gregory L Challis doi:10.1038/nchembio.1048 The mechanism for nitro group formation in the thaxtomin family of natural products is unknown. Genetic and biochemical studies now show the cytochrome P450 TxtE catalyzes this direct and regioselective nitration, using NO and O2 to modify a tryptophan indole ring. Chemical compounds Articles Top A quantitative assay for assessing the effects of DNA lesions on transcription   pp817 - 822 Changjun You, Xiaoxia Dai, Bifeng Yuan, Jin Wang, Jianshuang Wang, Philip J Brooks, Laura J Niedernhofer and Yinsheng Wang doi:10.1038/nchembio.1046 DNA damage products influence DNA replication but also may induce stalling or mutagenesis during transcription. A competitive transcription and adduct bypass assay provides a new approach for assessing the transcriptional effects of DNA lesions and links transcriptional arrest of several lesions to nucleotide excision repair pathways. Cyclization of fungal nonribosomal peptides by a terminal condensation-like domain   pp823 - 830 Xue Gao, Stuart W Haynes, Brian D Ames, Peng Wang, Linda P Vien, Christopher T Walsh and Yi Tang doi:10.1038/nchembio.1047 The reconstitution of two fungal NRPSs provides the first biochemical evidence that these assembly lines use a condensation-like domain to complete the synthesis of cyclic natural products instead of the thioesterase domain used in bacterial species. Ceramide targets autophagosomes to mitochondria and induces lethal mitophagy   pp831 - 838 R David Sentelle, Can E Senkal, Wenhui Jiang, Suriyan Ponnusamy, Salih Gencer, Shanmugam Panneer Selvam, Venkat K Ramshesh, Yuri K Peterson, John J Lemasters, Zdzislaw M Szulc, Jacek Bielawski and Besim Ogretmen doi:10.1038/nchembio.1059 C18-ceramide mediates lethal autophagy by anchoring LC3B-II (lipidated LC3) to mitochondrial membranes during mitochondrial fission and thereby recruiting autophagosomes. Pyruvate kinase M2 activators promote tetramer formation and suppress tumorigenesis   pp839 - 847 Dimitrios Anastasiou, Yimin Yu, William J Israelsen, Jian-Kang Jiang, Matthew B Boxer, Bum Soo Hong, Wolfram Tempel, Svetoslav Dimov, Min Shen, Abhishek Jha, Hua Yang, Katherine R Mattaini, Christian M Metallo, Brian P Fiske, Kevin D Courtney, Scott Malstrom, Tahsin M Khan, Charles Kung, Amanda P Skoumbourdis, Henrike Veith, Noel Southall, Martin J Walsh, Kyle R Brimacombe, William Leister, Sophia Y Lunt, Zachary R Johnson, Katharine E Yen, Kaiko Kunii, Shawn M Davidson, Heather R Christofk, Christopher P Austin, James Inglese, Marian H Harris, John M Asara, Gregory Stephanopoulos, Francesco G Salituro, Shengfang Jin, Lenny Dang, Douglas S Auld, Hee-Won Park, Lewis C Cantley, Craig J Thomas and Matthew G Vander Heiden doi:10.1038/nchembio.1060 A small-molecule activator specific for PKM2 binds to a site distinct from the endogenous activator fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, promoting tetramerization and constitutive activation of PKM2, to inhibit xenograft tumor growth in mice. Global probabilistic annotation of metabolic networks enables enzyme discovery   pp848 - 854 Germán Plata, Tobias Fuhrer, Tzu-Lin Hsiao, Uwe Sauer and Dennis Vitkup doi:10.1038/nchembio.1063 A new global annotation strategy combines sequence identity and genomic context to provide probabilities for all metabolic assignments in a given species. Application of this method leads to multiple new annotations and validation of three enzymatic activities in B. subtilis. See also: News and Views by Suthers & Maranas A new type V toxin-antitoxin system where mRNA for toxin GhoT is cleaved by antitoxin GhoS    pp855 - 861 Xiaoxue Wang, Dana M Lord, Hsin-Yao Cheng, Devon O Osbourne, Seok Hoon Hong, Viviana Sanchez-Torres, Cecilia Quiroga, Kevin Zheng, Torsten Herrmann, Wolfgang Peti, Michael J Benedik, Rebecca Page and Thomas K Wood doi:10.1038/nchembio.1062 Expanding the bacterial toxin-antitoxin system classes to a fifth class, GhoST was found to be involved in maintenance of persister cells, dormant cells that are tolerant of antibiotics. GhoS is the antitoxin, an endoribonuclease that cleaves the toxin mRNA ghoT, whose gene product is a membrane-lytic protein. See also: News and Views by Van Melderen The physical state of lipid substrates provides transacylation specificity for tafazzin    pp862 - 869 Michael Schlame, Devrim Acehan, Bob Berno, Yang Xu, Salvatore Valvo, Mindong Ren, David L Stokes and Richard M Epand doi:10.1038/nchembio.1064 Tafazzin, the mitochondrial transacylase that is deficient in Barth syndrome, selects lipid substrates in the inverted hexagonal phase but does not react with bilayer lipids. See also: News and Views by Gawrisch Top Advertisement Online-only personal subscriptions now available to Nature Chemistry and Nature Chemical Biology For only 49 USD/29 GBP/29 EUR Subscribe now!   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. 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