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Hypothesis on the Synchronistic Evolution of Autotrophy and Heterotrophy
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.03.008 2018-04-11 All life on earth requires a source of energy and organic carbon. There has been a continuous debate on whether autotrophic or heterotrophic metabolism came first. A very similar discussion exists concerning the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis and aerobic r... |
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Unraveling the Structure and Mechanism of the MST(ery) Enzymes
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.011 2018-03-21 The menaquinone, siderophore, and tryptophan (MST) enzymes transform chorismate to generate precursor molecules for the biosynthetic pathways defined in their name. Kinetic data, both steady-state and transient-state, and X-ray crystal structures indicate tha... |
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A Lethal Channel between the ATP Synthase Monomers
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.013 2018-03-16 The molecular structure of the transmembrane domain of ATP synthases is responsible for the inner mitochondrial membrane bending. According to the hypothesized mechanism, ATP synthase dissociation from dimers to monomers, triggered by Ca2+ binding to F1, allo... |
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Affimer Proteins: Theranostics of the Future?
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.03.001 2018-03-14 Affimer proteins can bind to a wide variety of target molecules. They can complement and represent a promising alternative to conventional antibodies as they can target molecules with high affinity, specificity, and stability. In addition, they can be selecte... |
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Evolving Linear Chromosomes and Telomeres: A C-Strand-Centric View
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.008 2018-03-14 Recent studies have resulted in deeper understanding of a variety of telomere maintenance mechanisms as well as plausible models of telomere evolution. Often overlooked in the discussion of telomere regulation and evolution is the synthesis of the DNA strand ... |
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Homing in: Mechanisms of Substrate Targeting by Protein Kinases
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.009 2018-03-12 Protein phosphorylation is the most common reversible post-translational modification in eukaryotes. Humans have over 500 protein kinases, of which more than a dozen are established targets for anticancer drugs. All kinases share a structurally similar cataly... |
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The Cytokinin-Activating LOG-Family Proteins Are Not Lysine Decarboxylases
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.01.002 2018-03-07 A conserved PGGxGTxxE motif misleads the cytokinin (CK) converting LONELY GUY enzymes to be wrongly annotated as lysine decarboxylases (LDCs). However, so far PGGxGTxxE motif-containing LDCs do not show any LDC activity. Instead, they show phosphoribohydrolas... |
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Fine-Tuning Limited Proteolysis: A Major Role for Regulated Site-Specific O-Glycosylation
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.005 2018-03-02 Limited proteolytic processing is an essential and ubiquitous post-translational modification (PTM) affecting secreted proteins; failure to regulate the process is often associated with disease. Glycosylation is also a ubiquitous protein PTM and site-specific... |
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Native RNA-Sequencing Throws its Hat into the Transcriptomics Ring
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.007 2018-03-01 De novo sequence-level surveys of transcriptomes have previously relied on sequencing via a DNA intermediate. While such methods can yield massive data sets, various problems mean that these do not always accurately reflect the true innate composition of tran... |
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Protein Disaggregation in Multicellular Organisms
10.1016/j.tibs.2018.02.003 2018-02-28 Protein aggregates are formed in cells with profoundly perturbed proteostasis, where the generation of misfolded proteins exceeds the cellular refolding and degradative capacity. They are a hallmark of protein conformational disorders and aged and/or environm... |