Nature Chemical Biology - Current Issue : December 2009 - Vol 5 No 12
- Keys to translation
- Keys to translation
- Mapping microbial interactions
- Primosome mechanisms unraveled
Latest Highlights
Current issue
Substrate selection by the ribosome is a complex and subtle process. New research offers insights into both basic questions about the mechanism of selection as well as how to manipulate this process for the construction of novel materials.
Focus issue
This special issue contains a collection of articles that discuss our current understanding of protein dynamics and the methods used to study the dynamics individual proteins and their interactions with the larger biological systems where they function.
Current issue
Culture conditions
Brief Communication by YangBacteria interact with their environment and other species in part by excreting chemical compounds. New research uses thin layer agar culturing of bacterial colonies combined with imaging mass spectrometry to provide spatial and temporal resolution to these chemical interchanges.
Current issue
Bacteriophage in its prime
Article by ManosasThe bacteriophage T4 primosome complex has DNA helicase and RNA priming activities. Single molecule experiments show that these activities are coordinated during lagging strand synthesis without pausing through a primosome disassembly mechanism and a looped priming and unwinding event.
Current issue
Metalloenzyme by design
Brief Communication by FaiellaDe novo design of enzymes remains a significant challenge. Introducing two glycines in a helix near a di-iron site and compensating for the substantial loss of protein stability by optimizing a loop sequence successfully converted an iron binding protein to a phenol oxidase.
Current issue
Mixing up metabolism
Article by RuizCoenzyme A biosynthesis requires phosphopantethenoylcysteine decarboxylase activity, a function which normally resides in a homotrimeric protein. New research shows that yeast use a heteromeric assembly in which different proteins contribute necessary active site residues.
Current issue
Predator and prey on the move
Article by SongA connection between long-range chemical signals and short-range motile events in modulating biodiversity is evident as motility affected biodiversity differently depending on the spatiotemporal locations of the predator and prey in an engineered model of a microbial ecosystem.
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