Sesquiterpene Cyclase BcBOT2 Promotes the Unprecedented Wagner-Meerwein Rearrangement of the Methoxy Group.

Presilphiperfolan-8β-ol synthase (BcBOT2), a substrate-promiscuous sesquiterpene cyclase (STC) of fungal origin, is capable of converting two new farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) derivatives modified at C7 of farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) bearing either a hydroxymethyl group or a methoxymethyl group. These substrates were chosen based on a computationally generated model. Biotransformations yielded five new oxygenated terpenoids.

Epigenetic aging of human blood cells is influenced by the age of the host body.

Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a therapeutic procedure performed over a wide range of donor and recipient age combinations, representing natural experiments of how the age of the recipient affects aging in transplanted donor cells in vivo. We measured DNA methylation and epigenetic aging in donors and recipients and found that biological epigenetic clocks are accelerated in cells transplanted into an older body and decelerated in a younger body. This is the first evidence that the age of the circulating environment influences human epigenetic aging in vivo.

Cri du chat syndrome patients have DNA methylation changes in genes linked to symptoms of the disease.

Background: Cri du chat (also called 5p deletion, or monosomy 5p) syndrome is a genetic disease caused by deletions of various lengths in the short (p) arm of chromosome 5. Genetic analysis and phenotyping have been used to suggest dose-sensitive genes in this region that may cause symptoms when a gene copy is lost, but the heterogeneity of symptoms for patients with similar deletions complicates the picture. The epigenetics of the syndrome has only recently been looked at with DNA methylation measurements of blood from a single patient, suggesting epigenetic changes in these patients.

The sequenced genomes of nonflowering land plants reveal the innovative evolutionary history of peptide signaling.

An understanding of land plant evolution is a prerequisite for in-depth knowledge of plant biology. Here we extract and explore information hidden in the increasing number of sequenced plant genomes, from bryophytes to angiosperms, to elucidate a specific biological question-how peptide signaling evolved. To conquer land and cope with changing environmental conditions, plants have gone through transformations that must have required innovations in cell-to-cell communication.

The dynamics of root cap sloughing in Arabidopsis is regulated by peptide signalling.

The root cap protects the stem cell niche of angiosperm roots from damage. In Arabidopsis, lateral root cap (LRC) cells covering the meristematic zone are regularly lost through programmed cell death, while the outermost layer of the root cap covering the tip is repeatedly sloughed. Efficient coordination with stem cells producing new layers is needed to maintain a constant size of the cap.