An engineered enzyme embedded into PLA to make self-biodegradable plastic.

Plastic production reached 400 million tons in 2022 (ref. ), with packaging and single-use plastics accounting for a substantial amount of this. The resulting waste ends up in landfills, incineration or the environment, contributing to environmental pollution.

Transmembrane Peptides as a New Strategy to Inhibit Neuraminidase-1 Activation.

Sialidases, or neuraminidases, are involved in several human disorders such as neurodegenerative, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. Accumulative data have shown that inhibition of neuraminidases, such as NEU1 sialidase, may be a promising pharmacological target, and selective inhibitors of NEU1 are therefore needed to better understand the biological functions of this sialidase. In the present study, we designed interfering peptides (IntPep) that target a transmembrane dimerization interface previously identified in human NEU1 that controls its membrane dimerization and sialidase activity.

Correction to "A 3D Model of Human Lysyl Oxidase, A Cross-Linking Enzyme".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.9b00317.

A Three-Dimensional Model of Human Lysyl Oxidase, a Cross-Linking Enzyme.

Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is a cross-linking enzyme identified 50 years ago, but its 3D structure is still unknown. We have thus built a 3D model of human LOX by homology modeling using the X-ray structure of human lysyl oxidase-like 2 as a template. This model is the first one to recapitulate all known biochemical features of LOX, namely, the coordination of the copper ion and the formation of the lysine tyrosylquinone cofactor and the disulfide bridges.

Identification of a crucial amino acid implicated in the hydroxylation/desaturation ratio of CpFAH12 bifunctional hydroxylase.

Claviceps purpurea bifunctional Δ12-hydroxylase/desaturase, CpFAH12, and monofunctional desaturase CpFAD2, share 86% of sequence identity. To identify the underlying determinants of the hydroxylation/desaturation specificity, chimeras of these two enzymes were tested for their fatty acid production in an engineered Yarrowia lipolytica strain. It reveals that transmembrane helices are not involved in the hydroxylation/desaturation specificity whereas all cytosolic domains have an impact on it.