Acetyltransferases articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of human Porcupine in complex with palmitoleoyl-coenzyme A, the inhibitor LGK974 and its peptide substrate suggest a mechanism for Wnt acylation.

How is acetyl-CoA produced in the context of the endogenous, eukaryotic pyruvate dehydrogenase complex metabolon? Here the authors dissect the embedded transacetylase reaction through biochemical, cryo-EM, HADDOCKing and molecular dynamics methods.

An increase in glycine decarboxylase (GLDC) activity, a key enzyme for glycine catabolism, has been associated to tumourigenesis. Here, the authors show that mTORC1 activation induces GLDC deacetylation which impairs its ubiquitin-associated degradation leading to increased GLDC activity and tumourigenesis.

Acetylation of histone H3K23 has emerged as an essential posttranslational modification, yet this epigenetic mark remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify the native MORF complex as a histone H3K23-specific acetyltransferase and show that interaction of the MORF subunit with acylated H3K14 promotes acetylation of H3K23 by this complex to activate transcription.

Yanjian Li and Hailong Li, et al. report interspecific comparisons of the acetylomes of yeast and three human fungal pathogens. Through evolutionary analysis and experimental validation, they show that pathogen-specific aceylation motifs and deacetylase genes are required for normal virulence in an animal infection model.