Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Formation of the dauer diapause stage in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been the subject of intensive study over the past few decades. Recent work has established the chemical structure of three components of the secreted dauer pheromone mixture, thereby ushering in a new era in which the functions of the pheromones can be studied in detail.
A combination of structural and functional data provides insight into the mechanism used by the blue light photosensory protein Vivid to convert the light-driven formation of a protein-flavin bond into a conformational change in the surrounding protein.
Oxygenases have long been thought to require a cofactor for catalysis. The structure of a vancomycin biosynthetic enzyme in complex with a substrate analog, and with molecular oxygen bound in its active site, supports the idea that cofactor-independent oxygenases act by mediating direct single-electron transfer from a substrate anion to dioxygen.
Natural products research focuses on the chemical properties, biosynthesis and biological functions of secondary metabolites. As our scientific understanding of all things 'natural' is rapidly expanding, we should also make time to communicate the subtleties of chemical distinctions to the public.
Biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites usually make many products, not just one. In this Commentary, we consider why molecular promiscuity might be an evolutionarily advantageous feature of these pathways.
Project ownership is an essential but sometimes overlooked ingredient for a successful undergraduate research experience. We have embarked on an experiment in undergraduate education that targets isolation of microbes from rainforest plants and characterization of natural products as objectives for discovery-based undergraduate research.
Mixtures of interacting compounds produced by plants may provide important combination therapies that simultaneously affect multiple pharmacological targets and provide clinical efficacy beyond the reach of single compound–based drugs. Developing innovative scientific methods for discovery, validation, characterization and standardization of these multicomponent botanical therapeutics is essential to their acceptance into mainstream medicine.
Mammalian olfactory receptor genes have been engineered into a yeast expression system. The resulting cells provide a high-throughput screening system for studying receptor specificity and may find use as biosensors.
In addition to expanding the chemical tools for exploring O-GlcNAc protein modifications, an innovative chemical biology approach has yielded new insights into the dynamic nature of this post-translational modification in the rodent brain.