Although our knowledge of photosystem II has expanded to include time-resolved atomic details, the diversity of experimental structures of the enzyme remains limited. Recent advances in protein struc...

University of Queensland scientists have helped to construct a detailed timeline for bacterial evolutio

A microbe from the Dead Sea switches to a tissue-like form when compressed

Database and pipeline for protein structure-guided annotations of ecologically relevant functions at the metagenome scale. - timghaly/EcoFoldDB

AbstractMotivation. The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, BLAST, is an indispensable tool for genomic research. BLAST has established itself as the canoni

One potential approach to improve the productivity of cyanobacteria and microalgae is to enhance photosynthetic efficiency by introducing far-red absorbing pigment molecules (such as chlorophylls f a...

Imagine standing on a vast, dark plain. Without light, you cannot see dips and rolls in the grass or make out hills and valleys. Even if there’s a city

Colab Notebooks covering deep learning tools for biomolecular structure prediction and design - Graylab/DL4Proteins-notebooks

ConspectusA holistic description of biopolymers and their evolutionary origins will contribute to our understanding of biochemistry, biology, the origins of life, and signatures of life outside our pl...

While our knowledge of photosystem II has expanded to time-resolved atomic details, the diversity of experimental structures of the enzyme remains limited. Recent advances in protein structure predict...

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) can modulate gene expression at the mRNA level, providing the ability to tackle conventionally undruggable targets and usher in an era of personalized medicine. A key...

Dynamic control of biosynthetic pathways improves the bioproduction efficiency. One common approach is to use genetic sensors that control pathway expression in response to a nutrient molecule in the ...

The transcription and mRNA structures of the alkane biosynthesis genes ado/aar were analysed in the representative cyanobacteria PCC 6803 and SK1-2-1, which produce C17H36 and C15H32, respectively. P...

Cyanobacteria can produce alkanes equivalent to diesel fuels through a two-step enzymatic process involving acyl-(acyl carrier protein) reductase (AAR …

The increasing prevalence of toxic elements such as nickel (Ni) in the environment poses a significant threat to human health due to its carcinogenic effect. The study investigates the Ni biosorption ...

Eukaryotes are theorized to have originated from an archaeal phylum Promethearchaeota (formerly 'Asgard' archaea)1,2. The first cultured representatives revealed valuable insight3,4 but are distantly ...

YouTube video by Research Institute of Molecular Pathology

This study shows that only those dual-targeting antibiotics limit resistance in Gram-negative pathogens that also target the membrane of the bacteria. This mechanism provides a basis for designing fut...

More than 3 billion years of evolution have produced an image of biology encoded into the space of natural proteins. Here, we show that language models trained at scale on evolutionary data can genera...

This Review summarizes advances in mass-spectrometry-based proteomics and explores the potential applications of these technologies in the clinic.

A study describes the design of de novo ligand-binding transmembrane proteins, demonstrating their specific binding and activation of fluorogenic ligands.

Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Ahmad et al. examine how antibiotics influence bacterial metabolism and how metabolism, in turn, affects drug efficacy and the emergence and evolution...

It is widely believed that due to nutrient limitations in natural environments, bacteria spend most of their life in non-growing states. However, very little is known about how bacteria change their p...

The discovery by UC Santa Cruz researchers of a new organelle within single-celled algae that converts nitrogen gas into ammonia continues to be celebrated by the science community, this time by winni...

Skatole is a pungent heterocyclic compound derived from the essential amino acid l-tryptophan by bacteria in the mammalian digestive tract. The four-step anaerobic conversion of tryptophan to skatole is well-established; though, to date, no aerobic counterpart has been reported. Herein, we report the discovery of the oxygen-dependent skatole synthase SktA that single-handedly converts 5-bromo-l-tryptophan to 5-bromoskatole, obviating the need for a multienzyme process. SktA is part of a three-gene biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) in the cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme NIES-2108 and functions as a nonheme diiron enzyme belonging to the heme oxygenase-like domain-containing oxidase (HDO) superfamily. Our detailed biochemical analyses revealed cyanide and bicarbonate as biosynthetic coproducts, while stopped-flow experiments showed the hallmark formation of a substrate-triggered peroxo Fe2(III) intermediate. Overall, this work unravels an alternative pathway for converting tryptophan to skatole while also expanding the functional repertoire of HDO enzymes.

Abstract The Spirulina maxima algae is a phototrophic, multicellular, filamentous cyanobacteria...