Articles in 2016

Orthogonal cholesterol sensors that are useful for imaging cholesterol in the plasma membrane leaflets reveal an asymmetry in which a high outer leaflet concentration is important for signaling processes and is potentially actively maintained.

The synergistic effect of the GPCR β₂AR on signaling through another GPCR, PTHR, is explained by the release of Gβγ from the heterotrimeric Gα_iβγ protein, activating adenylate cyclase AC2 and subsequent prolonged cAMP signaling in internal compartments

The development of small-molecule fluorescent probes through addition of a lipidated cysteine residue next to a caged fluorophore enables detection of endogenous cysteine depalmitoylation by acyl–protein thioesterases in vitro and in live cells.

The ‘CoINPocket’ approach identifies pharmacological similarities between G protein–coupled receptors. On the basis of predicted pharmacological similarity to a few phylogenetically unrelated receptors, the approach identified surrogate ligands for the orphan receptor GPR37L1.

A high-throughput screen identifies inhibitors of the M. tuberculosis dormancy regulation system, DosRST, including compounds that inhibit autophosphorylation of the DosS and DosT sensor kinases and those that inhibit the catalytic heme of these kinases.

Structural and functional characterization of an aromatic prenyltransferase reveals a unique spacious hydrophobic pocket with conformational fluctuation and multiple acceptor binding sites that endow it with uncommon enzymatic promiscuity.

The role of RAS dimerization in tumor biology is an emerging area of preclinical cancer research. Characterization of a RAS monobody indicates that dimer formation is required for RAS signaling, revealing the dimer interface as a potential drug target.

The Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) resource and the DEREPLICATOR algorithm provide new tools for analyzing mass spectral data and enabling natural products discovery.

Dimeric bis-benzimidazole compounds that bind selectively to toxic expanded r(CUG) RNA repeat sequences were identified and used as a scaffold for covalent modification, site-specific cleavage and on-target assembly of imaging reagents at expanded r(CUG) sequences in cells.

Synthetic biology enables re-engineering of cellular functions by introduction of modular, orthogonal signaling pathways, as illustrated by the reprogramming of human T cells to produce IL-2 in response to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

Single-molecule force spectroscopy and thermodynamics studies reveal six conformational states in the formation of a guanine aptamer, with a ‘kissing loop’ playing a key role in the conformational switching.

A mycobacterial phosphodiesterase, CdnP, hydrolyzes bacteria-derived 3′,5′-c-di-AMP as well as host-generated 2′,3′-cGAMP, which activates the host cytosolic surveillance pathway, to dampen host responses.

Metabolic labeling of the Drosophila proteome using a chemical ligation approach identifies proteins modified by O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) including Polycomb proteins at homeotic gene loci and at unexpected sites, implicating OGT in gene-expression regulation.

Mass-spectrometry-based proteomics led to the identification of NoBody, a microprotein translated from LINC01420 RNA, which interacts with enhancer of decapping 4 (EDC4) and negatively regulates 5′-to-3′ mRNA decay.

Saturation mutagenesis, molecular modeling and biochemical analysis revealed that active site interactions involving Thr1372 of TET2 are responsible for controlling its proficiency for stepwise oxidation of 5-methylcytosine residues within DNA.

The use of fluorescence-polarized microscopy, combined with competitive binding with matched fluorescence companion imaging probes, enable target engagement measurements of covalent and reversible small molecule inhibitors in a single cell.