Biopolymers articles within Nature Chemistry

Featured

  • Research Briefing |

    Ribonucleoprotein granules are ubiquitous in living organisms with the protein and RNA components having distinct roles. In the absence of proteins, RNAs are shown to undergo phase separation upon heating. This transition is driven by desolvation entropy and ion-mediated crosslinking and is tuned by the chemical specificity of the RNA nucleobases.

  • News & Views |

    Complexity is a hallmark of biological systems, but scientific experiments are typically conducted in simplified conditions. Now, diverse polymers that mimic the local environments of complex biological mixtures have been shown to improve protein folding, stability and function.

    • Alana P. Gudinas
    •  & Danielle J. Mai

  • News & Views |

    A grand challenge for bio-based plastics is the ability to cost-effectively manufacture high-performance polymers directly from renewable resources that are also recyclable-by-design. A one-step conversion of xylose to polyesters has been reported, combining a sustainable lifecycle with impressive materials performance.

    • Robin M. Cywar
    •  & Gregg T. Beckham

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cytoskeletons are essential components of cells that perform a variety of tasks, and artificial cytoskeletons that perform these functions are required for the bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells. Now, a multi-functional cytoskeleton mimic has been engineered from DNA, consisting of confined DNA filaments that are capable of reversible self-assembly and transport of gold nanoparticles and vesicular cargo.

    • Pengfei Zhan
    • , Kevin Jahnke
    •  & Kerstin Göpfrich

  • Article |

    Histone H1 binds to nucleosomes with ultrahigh affinity, implying residence times incompatible with efficient biological regulation. Now it has been shown that the disordered regions of H1 retain their large-amplitude dynamics on the nucleosome, which enables a charged disordered histone chaperone to invade the H1–nucleosome complex and vastly accelerate H1 dissociation.

    • Pétur O. Heidarsson
    • , Davide Mercadante
    •  & Benjamin Schuler

  • News & Views |

    Membraneless coacervate droplets have been widely investigated as potential candidates for early cells or protocells. Now, they are shown to grow, divide and differentiate into two populations in a rock pore model that mimics an early Earth environment.

    • Hadi M. Fares

  • Article |

    The complex link between protein sequence and phase behaviour for a family of prion-like low-complexity domains (PLCDs) has now been revealed. The results have uncovered a set of rules—which are interpreted using a stickers-and-spacers model—that govern the sequence-encoded phase behaviour of such PLCDs and enable physicochemical rationalizations that are connected to the underlying sequence composition.

    • Anne Bremer
    • , Mina Farag
    •  & Tanja Mittag

  • Article |

    Stimuli-responsive control of drug activation can mitigate issues caused by poor drug selectivity. Now, it has been shown that mechanical force—induced by ultrasound—can be used to activate drugs in three different systems. This approach has enabled the activation of antibiotics or a cytotoxic anticancer agent from synthetic polymers, polyaptamers and nanoparticle assemblies.

    • Shuaidong Huo
    • , Pengkun Zhao
    •  & Andreas Herrmann

  • News & Views |

    Monoclonal antibodies have shown tremendous success in cancer treatment; however, humanization for clinical applications is expensive and not straightforward. Now, molecularly imprinted polymer nanogels have been developed that can block cell-surface proteins and disrupt tumour spheroids.

    • Alessandra Maria Bossi

  • News & Views |

    The longstanding ‘polyelectrolyte theory of the gene’ proposes that a multiply charged backbone is the universal signature of all genetic polymer systems that support life. Now, the first tenable challenge to this theory has been mounted, through the successful engineering of enzymes which can synthesize and reverse-transcribe from an artificial, uncharged nucleic acid analogue.

    • Asha Brown
    •  & Tom Brown

  • Article |

    A method to produce sequence-defined, diversely functionalized nucleic acid polymers that bind to proteins of biomedical interest has been developed. The method is based on a ligase-mediated, DNA-templated polymerization system and in vitro selection. The selected polymers are shown to bind their targets in a manner that is strongly dependent on specific side chains at certain polymer positions.

    • Zhen Chen
    • , Phillip A. Lichtor
    •  & David R. Liu

  • Article |

    Ultrafast-scanning fluorescence correlation spectroscopy has now been used to measure the molecular interactions underlying the phase behaviour of disordered proteins. Sequence-encoded conformational fluctuations of these proteins are shown to give rise to phase-separated droplets of surprisingly low concentrations. These results provide insight into how the structural features of the droplets affect the properties of liquid-phase intracellular organelles.

    • Ming-Tzo Wei
    • , Shana Elbaum-Garfinkle
    •  & Clifford P. Brangwynne

  • Article |

    The secondary and tertiary structure of a protein has profound implications on function and catalysis. Now, both the secondary and tertiary structures of a synthetic polymer have been utilized to catalyse the polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides. Both the folding of the resulting polypeptides into α-helices and their macromolecular organization dramatically enhance the polymerization rate.

    • Ryan Baumgartner
    • , Hailin Fu
    •  & Jianjun Cheng

  • Review Article |

    Biological drugs can offer high potency and selectivity; however, this class of therapeutics often shows poor stability upon oral administration and during subsequent circulation. This Review highlights the materials and methods used to deliver biological drugs, and discusses how these approaches can improve their pharmacokinetics.

    • Alexander N. Zelikin
    • , Carsten Ehrhardt
    •  & Anne Marie Healy

  • Article |

    Membraneless organelles form as liquid droplets inside cells. These bodies are effectively a separate organic phase, with unique biochemical properties. Now, the solvent interior of membraneless organelles has been shown to have a significant effect on the properties and structure of biomolecules. In addition to selectively partitioning and trafficking proteins, they can melt DNA without using ATP.

    • Timothy J. Nott
    • , Timothy D. Craggs
    •  & Andrew J. Baldwin

  • Article |

    Macrocyclic oligomers are a unique structural class of compounds in which the ring size and structure can be tuned through the precise control of the primary sequence. Now, it has been shown that oligothioetheramide (oligoTEA) macrocycles can be synthesized using a one-pot acid-catalysed cascade reaction. Preliminary results indicate that cationic oligoTEAs are promising bactericidal agents.

    • Mintu Porel
    • , Dana N. Thornlow
    •  & Christopher A. Alabi

  • Review Article |

    Vinyl polymers are appealing materials owing to their ease of synthesis and broad diversity. Their carbon–carbon backbones resist degradation, however, which limits the applications for which they can be used. This Review Article considers the most promising approaches to the design of degradable vinyl polymers and discusses the potential of these materials for biomedical applications.

    • Vianney Delplace
    •  & Julien Nicolas

  • Article |

    Using ab initio simulations external mechanical forces are shown to trigger structural changes to disulfide bridges that result in conformations that are less susceptible to nucleophilic attack. This finding is crucial for the interpretation of recent force microscopy experiments, and could be important for understanding protein regulation.

    • Przemyslaw Dopieralski
    • , Jordi Ribas-Arino
    •  & Dominik Marx

  • News & Views |

    Strategies for making sequence-controlled polymers in the laboratory are really quite primitive in comparison with those used in nature. By combining concepts from natural systems and synthetic polymer chemistry, it has now been shown that DNA codes can be translated into non-nucleic-acid polymers with defined sequences.

    • Rachel K. O'Reilly

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