Biotechnology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Protein switches have a number of potential biotechnological applications. Here, the authors present fusions of maltose-binding protein with TEM1 β-lactamase as multi-input allosteric protein switches that can be controlled by temperature and pH in the presence of the effector.

    • Jay H. Choi
    • , Abigail H. Laurent
    •  & Marc Ostermeier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Algae hold great promise for biofuel and chemical production but their use as model systems is hampered by the absence of suitable genetic tools. Here Karas et al. present a nuclear episomal vector for diatoms that is maintained in the absence of antibiotics, and a plasmid delivery method via conjugation with E. coli.

    • Bogumil J. Karas
    • , Rachel E. Diner
    •  & Philip D. Weyman

  • Article |

    Characterizing mammalian gene expression regulation by enhancer elements is complicated by the size and complexity of the genome. Here Vanhille et al.demonstrate CapStarr-Seq, a novel high-throughput method for assessing potential enhancers and deciphering the mechanisms regulating transcription

    • Laurent Vanhille
    • , Aurélien Griffon
    •  & Salvatore Spicuglia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antibody–drug conjugates are a class of therapeutic combining the directing ability of antibodies with the cell-killing ability of cytotoxic drugs. Here the authors describe an approach based on click chemistry that enables the rapid assembly of dual-modified antibodies with potential for new therapeutic modalities.

    • Antoine Maruani
    • , Mark E.B. Smith
    •  & Stephen Caddick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is known that skin has a large tear resistance, but little is known of the mechanism behind this. Here, the authors carry out a structural analysis of rabbit skin to show how the deformation of collagen fibrils in the skin results in a strong resistance to tear propagation.

    • Wen Yang
    • , Vincent R. Sherman
    •  & Marc A. Meyers

  • Article |

    Electrospinning is a useful method of biomaterial fabrication, but a lack of bioactivity in the final construct can limit their application as mimics for biological matrices. Here, the authors fabricate a degradable electrospun scaffold as an in vitro and in vivomimic of the extracellular matrix.

    • Ryan J. Wade
    • , Ethan J. Bassin
    •  & Jason A. Burdick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some oligomers exhibit liquid-crystal-like ordering in concentrated aqueous solutions. Here, Fraccia et al. show that this kind of ordering can further facilitate DNA ligation in a way similar to a catalytic process that arises from a hierarchical self-assembly, namely liquid crystal autocatalysis.

    • Tommaso P. Fraccia
    • , Gregory P. Smith
    •  & Tommaso Bellini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosynthetic reaction centres have been proposed for applications in bioelectronics. Here, the authors examine electron transport through the reaction centre from R. sphaeroidesusing conductive AFM, observing asymmetric conductance along only one cofactor wire under an applied bias.

    • Muhammad Kamran
    • , Vincent M. Friebe
    •  & Michael R. Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficacy of anticancer treatments vary across patients, imposing a need for personalized approaches. Here the authors show that responsiveness to chemotherapy can be predicted using tumour explant cultures in a patient-matched microenvironment, coupled with a machine-learning algorithm.

    • Biswanath Majumder
    • , Ulaganathan Baraneedharan
    •  & Pradip K. Majumder

  • Article |

    Recombination-based tools for generating targeted mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosislack efficiency. Here the authors present a CRISPR interference approach that is able to efficiently repress the expression of target genes in mycobacteria, in a rapid and cost-effective manner.

    • Eira Choudhary
    • , Preeti Thakur
    •  & Nisheeth Agarwal

  • Article |

    Photoreceptor-based photoswitches have proved to be powerful tools for the specific control of protein activity in live cells. Here the authors describe Magnets, a new set of photoswitches based on the Vivid photoreceptor with enhanced hetero-dimerization specificity and variable activation kinetics.

    • Fuun Kawano
    • , Hideyuki Suzuki
    •  & Moritoshi Sato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Epigenetic changes associated with post-natal differentiation have been characterized. Here the authors generate epigenomic and transcriptional profiles from primary human breast cells, providing insights into the transcriptional and epigenetic events that define post-natal cell differentiation in vivo.

    • Philippe Gascard
    • , Misha Bilenky
    •  & Martin Hirst

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protein phosphorylation is known to play an important role in cell adhesion signalling. Robertson et al. present a proteomic resource mapping the phosphorylation states of proteins isolated from adhesion complexes and, taking advantage of this data set, show that the cell cycle kinase CDK1 may influence cell adhesion.

    • Joseph Robertson
    • , Guillaume Jacquemet
    •  & Martin J. Humphries

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The degradation of materials used in biological applications has an important bearing on their long term performance. Here, the authors show how porous silicon nanoparticle degradation can be accelerated in vivothrough the influence of local tissue pathology, likely influencing drug delivery performance.

    • Adi Tzur-Balter
    • , Zohar Shatsberg
    •  & Natalie Artzi

  • Article |

    The clinical use of adeno-associated virus vectors (AAVs) has been limited by the lack of transduction specificity. Here the authors show that receptor-targeted, affinity-tagged, and purified AVVs reach tumours in mouse models with high selectivity and efficiency, outperforming therapeutic antibodies.

    • Robert C. Münch
    • , Anke Muth
    •  & Christian J. Buchholz

  • Article |

    Microbial formate dehydrogenases (FDH) are molybdenum-containing enzymes that can catalyse the reduction of CO2 into formate. Here, the authors suggest a structural and functional basis for sulphuration of the molybdenum cofactor in E. coliFDH, a key step in the production of active formate dehydrogenase.

    • Pascal Arnoux
    • , Christian Ruppelt
    •  & Anne Walburger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A metallofullerenol nanomaterial, Gd@C82(OH)22, was shown to inhibit growth of several solid cancers in preclinical models and yet exhibit low toxicity. Herein the authors show that Gd@C82(OH)22functions as an inhibitor of breast cancer stem cell function via blocking TGF-β and HIF-1α signalling, while sparing normal tissue.

    • Ying Liu
    • , Chunying Chen
    •  & Yuliang Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rd1 mouse is the most widely used model to study retinal degeneration. Here, the authors identify a wide-spread mutation in these mice that may explain the failure of previous gene therapeutic approaches and show that long-lasting restoration of vision is possible in rd1 mice without this mutation.

    • Koji M. Nishiguchi
    • , Livia S. Carvalho
    •  & Robin R. Ali

  • Article |

    Follicular helper T cells promote antibody production by B cells, and regulatory B cells, in turn, can restrain T cell activation. Here, Khan et al. show that PD-L1 plays a critical role in regulatory B cell function, curbing excessive immune responses by engaging the PD-1 receptor on follicular helper T cells.

    • Adnan R. Khan
    • , Emily Hams
    •  & Padraic G. Fallon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are industrially important enzymes that oxidatively deconstruct polysaccharides. Here, Lo Leggio et al. report the activity, spectroscopy and three-dimensional structure of a LPMO of the new CAZy AA13 family active on recalcitrant-retrograded starch.

    • Leila Lo Leggio
    • , Thomas J. Simmons
    •  & Paul H. Walton

  • Article |

    Strand-specific RNA-seq (ssRNA-seq) data often lack information on 5′ and 3′ ends of transcripts. Here the authors present a novel method for ssRNA-seq that enables the simultaneous profiling of gene expression, TSSs and polyadenylation sites at near-base resolution with a single library.

    • Saurabh Agarwal
    • , Todd S. Macfarlan
    •  & Shigeki Iwase

  • Article |

    Direct cell–cell interactions form the basis of the adaptive immune response. Here, Dura et al.present an advanced microfluidic platform that enables highly parallel pairing of primary immune cells and multiparametric and dynamic measurements of lymphocyte interactions and activation processes.

    • Burak Dura
    • , Stephanie K. Dougan
    •  & Joel Voldman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The correct assembly of genomes from sequencing data remains a challenge due to difficulties in correctly assigning the location of repeated DNA elements. Here the authors describe GRAAL, an algorithm that utilizes genome-wide chromosome contact data within a probabilistic framework to produce accurate genome assemblies.

    • Hervé Marie-Nelly
    • , Martial Marbouty
    •  & Romain Koszul

  • Article |

    Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins bind RNA and control diverse aspects of RNA metabolism in eukaryotic cells. Here, Coquille et al.present the crystal structures of several engineered PPR domains, elucidate their RNA binding mode and suggest paths to the design of modular, sequence-specific PPR domains.

    • Sandrine Coquille
    • , Aleksandra Filipovska
    •  & Oliver Rackham

  • Article |

    Molecular and functional differences between induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from distinct cell types have been described. Here the authors show, by comparing human iPSCs derived from fibroblasts or cord blood, that the competence in activating developmental genes upon differentiation is influenced by the donor cell of origin.

    • Jong-Hee Lee
    • , Jung Bok Lee
    •  & Mickie Bhatia

  • Article |

    Genome editing has yet to be performed in non-bilaterian phyla. Here, Ikmi et al. develop techniques to use both TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 in the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, and further leverage a locus expressing an endogenous fluorescent protein as a landing site for homologous recombination-mediated transgenesis.

    • Aissam Ikmi
    • , Sean A. McKinney
    •  & Matthew C. Gibson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Brain–machine interfaces offer the possibility of controlling prosthetic devices using changes in brain activity. Folcher et al.couple such a system wirelessly to an optogenetic implant in mice to control expression of a transgene, demonstrating its potential for mind-controlled drug delivery.

    • Marc Folcher
    • , Sabine Oesterle
    •  & Martin Fussenegger

  • Article |

    The death receptor CD95/Fas induces apoptosis of many normal cells but prevents necrotic death of cancer cells. Here the authors demonstrate that CD95 activation promotes a cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype, and that CSCs but not differentiated cancer cells are resistant to CD95-mediated apoptosis and depend on CD95 signalling to prevent necrosis.

    • Paolo Ceppi
    • , Abbas Hadji
    •  & Marcus E. Peter

  • Article |

    The development of software tools to analyse large mass spectrometry data sets lags behind the increase in diversity of the data. Here the authors develop MS-GF+, a database search tool that outperforms other popular tools in identifying peptides from a variety of data sets.

    • Sangtae Kim
    •  & Pavel A. Pevzner

  • Article |

    The availability of tracers to track the health of cells over long periods of time will be of value to optimize cell-based therapy. Here, Lee et al.design a nanoparticle that fluoresces red in living cells, but fluoresces green when cells begin to die from apoptosis or necrosis.

    • Seung Koo Lee
    • , Luke J. Mortensen
    •  & Ching-Hsuan Tung

  • Article |

    Engineering gene expression systems that can be programmed to respond to specific environmental conditions is challenging. Here, the authors develop a synthetic bow-tie circuit that is able to sense signals from microRNA molecules and affect a change in protein dynamics in mammalian cells.

    • Laura Prochazka
    • , Bartolomeo Angelici
    •  & Yaakov Benenson

  • Article |

    Magneto-fluorescent nanoparticles hold promise for bioimaging applications, but synthesizing uniform particles with tunable sizes remains challenging. Chen et al. propose an approach for co-assembling magnetic particles with fluorescent quantum dots, leading to well-defined core-shell structures.

    • Ou Chen
    • , Lars Riedemann
    •  & Moungi G. Bawendi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Next-generation sequencing technology has made the generation of huge amounts of genetic data possible, but phenotype characterization remains slow and difficult. Here the authors develop a high-throughput phenotyping facility for rice that is able to accurately identify and characterize traits related to morphology, biomass and yield.

    • Wanneng Yang
    • , Zilong Guo
    •  & Lizhong Xiong

  • Article |

    Toggle switches can be engineered using pairs of transcriptional repressors; however, their bistability depends on nonlinear DNA-binding properties. Lebar et al. design a circuit that ensures bistability by artificially generating nonlinearity and use it to construct a toggle from programmable DNA-binding domains.

    • Tina Lebar
    • , Urban Bezeljak
    •  & Roman Jerala

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