Nature Chemical Biology Contents: July 2012 Volume 8 Number 7, pp 597 - 668

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TABLE OF CONTENTS July 2012 Volume 8, Issue 7 Commentary Research Highlights News and Views Brief Communications Articles Advertisement Discover Wiley's latest books: Biochemical Pathways: An Atlas of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2nd Edition An information-packed resource featuring a unique summary of biochemical pathways Information Processing, 2 Volume Set - An excellent overview of the latest developments in this expanding area Natural Products in Chemical Biology - Based on the award winning Wiley Encyclopedia of Chemical Biology Click here for more titles Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement Scientific Reports publishes 457 open access papers in its first year Publishing technically sound research articles, Scientific Reports is Nature Publishing Group’s fastest growing journal. Given the speed and visibility offered, no wonder 93% of our authors said that they are "likely" or "very likely" to submit again. Keep your research moving. Submit to Scientific Reports   Commentary Top On the supertertiary structure of proteins   pp597 - 600 Peter Tompa doi:10.1038/nchembio.1009 Intrinsically disordered proteins and complex multidomain proteins are characterized by a dynamic ensemble of conformations that cannot be unequivocally described by traditional static terms of structural biology. The functional importance of this structural complexity necessitates new standards and protocols for the description and deposition of such 'supertertiary' structural ensembles into structural databases. Research Highlights Top Labeling: Click, quick | Drug discovery: Killing amoebas | Neurobiology: Metabolites tempt fate | Systems biology: Unmasking death pathways | Virology: HIV-1 gets attached | Stem cells: Sweetening pluripotency | Neurodegeneration: Aβ peptides go mad | Mechanism of action: Cyclins lost in translation News and Views Top Plants: Knitting a polyester skin   pp603 - 604 Fred Beisson and John Ohlrogge doi:10.1038/nchembio.1004 The aerial surfaces of land plants are surrounded by cutin, a strong, lipid-based polymer assembled from glycerol and oxidized fatty acids. The first extracellular enzyme forming polyester linkages that are central to the assembly of cutin is now identified. See also: Brief Communication by Yeats et al. Biosynthesis: Diversity between PKS and FAS   pp604 - 605 Kenji Arakawa doi:10.1038/nchembio.1007 Modular polyketide synthases are intensively studied as exquisite synthetic machines generating bioactive natural products. The enoylreductase, a common component of these machines, has been structurally and functionally characterized, revealing a new complex architecture. See also: Article by Zheng et al. Peptide inhibitors: Four of a kind beats a pair   pp606 - 607 Shawn B Bratton doi:10.1038/nchembio.1000 The proapoptotic cysteine protease caspase-6 participates in the neuropathology of several diseases. Unlike the active dimeric form, the caspase-6 zymogen forms a unique tetramer that can be stabilized by allosteric inhibitors, which prevents caspase-6 activation. See also: Article by Stanger et al. Protein evolution: The enzyme perfected   pp607 - 608 Wendy Ann Peer doi:10.1038/nchembio.1006 The origin of the flavonoid biosynthetic enzyme chalcone isomerase has remained a mystery. A combination of phylogenetic analysis, crystallography, biochemistry and genetics has uncovered how a stereospecific chalcone isomerase could have evolved from a nonenzymatic ancestral gene. Chemical Biology JOBS of the week PhD Scholarships in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology Technical University of Denmark, Department of Chemistry PhD student in Microfluidics and Miniaturized Chemical Systems. Queen's University at Kingston Research Assistant Professor / Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Biology Research The University of Hong Kong Department of Chemistry Computational Systems Chemical Biology Scientist Pfizer Tenure Track Faculty Positions in Chemical Biology University of California San Francisco More Science jobs from Chemical Biology EVENT International Conference on Bioinspired and Biobased Chemistry & Materials 3-5 October, 2012 Nice, France More science events from Brief Communications Top The identification of cutin synthase: formation of the plant polyester cutin   pp609 - 611 Trevor H Yeats, Laetitia B B Martin, Hélène M-F Viart, Tal Isaacson, Yonghua He, Lingxia Zhao, Antonio J Matas, Gregory J Buda, David S Domozych, Mads H Clausen and Jocelyn K C Rose doi:10.1038/nchembio.960 Mapping of a mutation in a tomato deficient in the plant cuticle component cutin yields the first cutin synthase, as shown via accumulation of polymer precursors and in vitro oligomerization of synthetic substrates. Chemical compounds See also: News and Views by Beisson & Ohlrogge KlenTaq polymerase replicates unnatural base pairs by inducing a Watson-Crick geometry   pp612 - 614 Karin Betz, Denis A Malyshev, Thomas Lavergne, Wolfram Welte, Kay Diederichs, Tammy J Dwyer, Phillip Ordoukhanian, Floyd E Romesberg and Andreas Marx doi:10.1038/nchembio.966 Many efforts to expand the genetic alphabet and reprogram the genetic code have relied on synthetic DNA nucleotides designed to have pairing properties orthogonal to those of natural base pairs. A structural study shows that DNA polymerases enhance the efficiency of non-natural base pair replication by enforcing a standard Watson-Crick geometry in the polymerase active site. Articles Top Divergence of multimodular polyketide synthases revealed by a didomain structure   pp615 - 621 Jianting Zheng, Darren C Gay, Borries Demeler, Mark A White and Adrian T Keatinge-Clay doi:10.1038/nchembio.964 The first crystal structure and in vitro biochemical characterization of an enoylreductase domain from a multimodular polyketide synthase indicates substantial architectural deviations from the mammalian fatty acid synthase and identifies an active site residue that controls catalytic activity. See also: News and Views by Arakawa Deciphering biased-agonism complexity reveals a new active AT1 receptor entity   pp622 - 630 Aude Saulière, Morgane Bellot, Hervé Paris, Colette Denis, Frédéric Finana, Jonas T Hansen, Marie-Françoise Altié, Marie-Hélène Seguelas, Atul Pathak, Jakob L Hansen, Jean-Michel Sénard and Céline Galés doi:10.1038/nchembio.961 BRET probes that monitor activation of multiple G protein isoforms reveal that angiotensin II and a biased agonist of the angiotensin II type 1A receptor stabilize distinct receptor conformations associated with different signaling outputs. A biased ligand for OXE-R uncouples Gα and Gβγ signaling within a heterotrimer   pp631 - 638 Stefanie Blättermann, Lucas Peters, Philipp Aaron Ottersbach, Andreas Bock, Viktoria Konya, C David Weaver, Angel Gonzalez, Ralf Schröder, Rahul Tyagi, Petra Luschnig, Jürgen Gäb, Stephanie Hennen, Trond Ulven, Leonardo Pardo, Klaus Mohr, Michael Gütschow, Akos Heinemann and Evi Kostenis doi:10.1038/nchembio.962 The first small-molecule inhibitor of chemoattractant GPCR OXE-R disrupts signaling downstream of Gβγ but not Gαi/o, providing evidence that signaling bias can occur between Gβγ and Gα subunits within a heterotrimer. Chemical compounds Direct and selective small-molecule activation of proapoptotic BAX    pp639 - 645 Evripidis Gavathiotis, Denis E Reyna, Joseph A Bellairs, Elizaveta S Leshchiner and Loren D Walensky doi:10.1038/nchembio.995 A computational screen identifies a small-molecule activator of proapoptotic BAX that selectively binds to the BAX trigger site, inducing characteristic conformational changes, oligomerization and BAX-dependent cell death. Chemical compounds ATM and MET kinases are synthetic lethal with nongenotoxic activation of p53    pp646 - 654 Kelly D Sullivan, Nuria Padilla-Just, Ryan E Henry, Christopher C Porter, Jihye Kim, John J Tentler, S Gail Eckhardt, Aik Choon Tan, James DeGregori and Joaquín M Espinosa doi:10.1038/nchembio.965 A genetic synthetic lethal screen reveals that ATM and MET kinases promote cell survival upon activation of p53 with Nutlin-3, and these survival pathways act in parallel to canonical cell cycle arrest and apoptotic genes induced by p53. Allosteric peptides bind a caspase zymogen and mediate caspase tetramerization   pp655 - 660 Karen Stanger, Micah Steffek, Lijuan Zhou, Christine D Pozniak, Clifford Quan, Yvonne Franke, Jeff Tom, Christine Tam, J Michael Elliott, Joseph W Lewcock, Yingnan Zhang, Jeremy Murray and Rami N Hannoush doi:10.1038/nchembio.967 Phage display reveals peptides that bind to the caspase-6 zymogen, inducing its tetramerization and specifically inhibiting its enzyme activity both in vitro and in neuronal cells. See also: News and Views by Bratton Global metabolic inhibitors of sialyl- and fucosyltransferases remodel the glycome   pp661 - 668 Cory D Rillahan, Aristotelis Antonopoulos, Craig T Lefort, Roberto Sonon, Parastoo Azadi, Klaus Ley, Anne Dell, Stuart M Haslam and James C Paulson doi:10.1038/nchembio.999 Fluorinated, cell-permeable analogs of sialic acid and fucose are processed by monosaccharide salvage pathways to generate sialyl- and fucosyltransferase inhibitors intracellularly. These compounds serve as important new tools to dissect the role of glycan modifications within complex biological systems. Chemical compounds Top Advertisement Nature Structural & Molecular Biology FOCUS ON TRANSLATIONAL CONTROL Translational control has become a major focus of attention and research activity. The identification of a myriad of new factors and genome-wide targets as well as recent insights into eukaryotic ribosomes, translation initiation and control mechanisms will be discussed in four Reviews and one Perspective by leaders in the field. Access the Focus online: www.nature.com/nsmb/focus/translation   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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