Volume 17 Issue 8, August 2021

N-Ras lipidation cycling is known to regulate its trafficking and function. A new S-depalmitoylation inhibitor induces N-Ras membrane mislocalization, providing insights into N-Ras function and laying the foundation for a new cancer therapeutic strategy.

Extracellular peptidoglycan-linked polysaccharide modifications mediate cell morphology, division, and autolysis in some Gram-positive bacterial pathogens. A new study shows that the degree and location of a specific modification controls peptidoglycan hydrolysis and placement of the axis of cell division.

Different ubiquitin chain types serve as distinct cellular signals. A new synthetic antigen-binding fragment, sAB-K29, specifically recognizes K29-linked diubiquitin and links K29 chains to proteotoxic stress and their accumulation in midbodies during mitosis.

A survey of natural metabolic pathways for C1 substrates (methane, methanol, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide) highlights past efforts and recent progress, and informs future opportunities to create synthetic C1-utilizing microbes.

ABD957 is a potent and selective inhibitor of the ABHD17 family of depalmitoylases that disrupts N-Ras signaling in human acute myeloid leukemia cells and can synergize with MEK inhibition.

Collagen cross-linking, mediated by lysyl oxidases (LOX), is critical for the stability of the extracellular matrix. Aldehyde-reactive sensors and collagen peptide probes for monitoring LOX activity enable direct in vivo imaging of collagen maturation.

Combined use of microcrystal electron diffraction and genome mining for biosynthetic gene clusters enables the rapid structural elucidation of natural products, including a newly discovered 2-pyridone compound and a revised structure of fischerin.

Glycerol phosphate modifications of cell wall carbohydrates localize regulators of cell division in Streptococcus mutans.

A chemically inducible technique for trapping cytosolic proteins in microtubules (MTs) in cells reveals that soluble proteins can enter the MT lumen by diffusion, while proteins forming a complex with tubulins can be incorporated at MT plus ends.

A linkage-specific tool for K29-linked polyubiquitin was developed, enabling the discovery that K29-linked ubiquitination participates in multiple cellular pathways, including the proteotoxic stress response and cell cycle regulation.

Structural biology, computational biology and biochemical analysis revealed the molecular mechanism of transcriptional processing of unnatural base pairs selectively recognized by cellular RNA polymerase.

A set of LOV2 circular permutants (cpLOV2) have been engineered to expand the existing optogenetic toolbox. cpLOV2 enables the design of both ON- and OFF-switches to control cell signaling, gene expression, cell fate and cancer immunotherapy.