Epigenetic chromatin modification by amber suppression technology.

The genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids (UAAs) into proteins by amber suppression technology provides unique avenues to study protein structure, function and interactions both in vitro and in living cells and organisms. This approach has been particularly useful for studying mechanisms of epigenetic chromatin regulation, since these extensively involve dynamic changes in structure, complex formation and posttranslational modifications that are difficult to access by traditional approaches. Here, we review recent achievements in this field, emphasizing UAAs that help to unravel protein-protein interactions in cells by photo-crosslinking or that allow the biosynthesis of proteins with defined posttranslational modifications for studying their function and turnover in vitro and in cells.

Dynarrestin, a Novel Inhibitor of Cytoplasmic Dynein.

Aberrant hedgehog (Hh) signaling contributes to the pathogenesis of multiple cancers. Available inhibitors target Smoothened (Smo), which can acquire mutations causing drug resistance. Thus, compounds that inhibit Hh signaling downstream of Smo are urgently needed.

Mobility-induced persistent chimera states.

We study the dynamics of mobile, locally coupled identical oscillators in the presence of coupling delays. We find different kinds of chimera states in which coherent in-phase and antiphase domains coexist with incoherent domains. These chimera states are dynamic and can persist for long times for intermediate mobility values.

Target Identification and Mechanism of Action of Picolinamide and Benzamide Chemotypes with Antifungal Properties.

Invasive fungal infections are accompanied by high mortality rates that range up to 90%. At present, only three different compound classes are available for use in the clinic, and these often suffer from low bioavailability, toxicity, and drug resistance. These issues emphasize an urgent need for novel antifungal agents.

Domain topology of human Rasal.

Rasal is a modular multi-domain protein of the GTPase-activating protein 1 (GAP1) family; its four known members, GAP1m, Rasal, GAP1IP4BP and Capri, have a Ras GTPase-activating domain (RasGAP). This domain supports the intrinsically slow GTPase activity of Ras by actively participating in the catalytic reaction. In the case of Rasal, GAP1IP4BP and Capri, their remaining domains are responsible for converting the RasGAP domains into dual Ras- and Rap-GAPs, via an incompletely understood mechanism.

Targeting of the protein CG2254/Ldsdh1 to a subset of lipid droplets.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are the principal organelles of lipid storage. They consist of a hydrophobic core of storage lipids, surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer with proteins attached. While some of these proteins are known to be essential for the regulation of cellular and organismic lipid metabolism, key questions concerning LD protein function, such as their targeting to LDs, are still unanswered.

A framework for quantification and physical modeling of cell mixing applied to oscillator synchronization in vertebrate somitogenesis.

In development and disease, cells move as they exchange signals. One example is found in vertebrate development, during which the timing of segment formation is set by a 'segmentation clock', in which oscillating gene expression is synchronized across a population of cells by Delta-Notch signaling. Delta-Notch signaling requires local cell-cell contact, but in the zebrafish embryonic tailbud, oscillating cells move rapidly, exchanging neighbors.

Determining the impact of cell mixing on signaling during development.

Cell movement and intercellular signaling occur simultaneously to organize morphogenesis during embryonic development. Cell movement can cause relative positional changes between neighboring cells. When intercellular signals are local such cell mixing may affect signaling, changing the flow of information in developing tissues.

Multiple binding sites for transcriptional repressors can produce regular bursting and enhance noise suppression.

Cells may control fluctuations in protein levels by means of negative autoregulation, where transcription factors bind DNA sites to repress their own production. Theoretical studies have assumed a single binding site for the repressor, while in most species it is found that multiple binding sites are arranged in clusters. We study a stochastic description of negative autoregulation with multiple binding sites for the repressor.

A PDE6δ-KRas Inhibitor Chemotype with up to Seven H-Bonds and Picomolar Affinity that Prevents Efficient Inhibitor Release by Arl2.

Small-molecule inhibition of the interaction between the KRas oncoprotein and the chaperone PDE6δ impairs KRas spatial organization and signaling in cells. However, despite potent binding in vitro (K <10 nm), interference with Ras signaling and growth inhibition require 5-20 μm compound concentrations. We demonstrate that these findings can be explained by fast release of high-affinity inhibitors from PDE6δ by the release factor Arl2.

Reconstitution of Synaptic SNAREs into Large Liposomes with Reduced Curvature Stress.

Liposomes constitute a convenient biochemical model system to investigate mechanistic aspects of the membrane fusion of synaptic vesicles. The proteins responsible for mediating fusion are the SNAREs that belong to a highly conserved family of transmembrane proteins. Reconstituting SNAREs into liposomes using detergents has become a common approach not only to understand how SNAREs work, but also how fusion is regulated by the vast array of accessory proteins present at the presynapse.

In Situ Proximity Ligation Assay (In Situ PLA) to Assess PTP-Protein Interactions.

Spatiotemporal aspects of protein-tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) activity and interaction partners for many PTPs are elusive. We describe here an elegant and relatively simple method, in situ proximity ligation assay (in situ PLA), which can be used to address these issues. The possibility to detect endogenous unmodified proteins in situ and to visualize individual interactions with spatial resolution is the major advantage of this technique.

Designing and Applying Proximity-Dependent Hybridization Chain Reaction.

Proximity-dependent hybridization chain reaction (proxHCR) is a novel technique for detection of protein interaction, post-translational modifications (PTMs), or protein expression. The method is based upon antibodies targeting the proteins of interest that are covalently conjugated to DNA oligonucleotides, which enables the induction of a hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to generate a fluorescent signal visible under a microscope. In contrast to the in situ proximity ligation assay (in situ PLA), which is another method that utilizes antibody-DNA conjugates to detect protein interactions, proxHCR does not require enzymatic steps.

The use of unnatural amino acids to study and engineer protein function.

The expansion of the genetic code for the incorporation of unnatural amino acids (UAAs) in proteins of bacteria, yeasts, mammalian cells or whole animals provides molecular and structural biologists with an amazing kit of novel tools. UAAs can be used to investigate the structure and dynamics of proteins, to study their interactions or to control their activity in living cells. Incorporation of UAAs with bioorthogonal reactivity facilitates the site-specific installation of labels for spectroscopy and microscopy.

Distinct Signaling Requirements for the Establishment of ESC Pluripotency in Late-Stage EpiSCs.

It has previously been reported that mouse epiblast stem cell (EpiSC) lines comprise heterogeneous cell populations that are functionally equivalent to cells of either early- or late-stage postimplantation development. So far, the establishment of the embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency gene regulatory network through the widely known chemical inhibition of MEK and GSK3beta has been impractical in late-stage EpiSCs. Here, we show that chemical inhibition of casein kinase 1alpha (CK1alpha) induces the conversion of recalcitrant late-stage EpiSCs into ESC pluripotency.

Quest for the chemical synthesis of proteins.

The chemical synthesis of proteins has been the wish of chemists since the early 19th century. There were decisive methodological steps necessary to accomplish this aim. Cornerstones were the introduction of the Z-protecting group of Bergmann and Zervas, the development of Solid-phase Peptide Synthesis of Merrifield, and the establishment of Native Chemical Ligation by Kent.

Identification of pyrazolopyridazinones as PDEδ inhibitors.

The prenyl-binding protein PDEδ is crucial for the plasma membrane localization of prenylated Ras. Recently, we have reported that the small-molecule Deltarasin binds to the prenyl-binding pocket of PDEδ, and impairs Ras enrichment at the plasma membrane, thereby affecting the proliferation of KRas-dependent human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell lines. Here, using structure-based compound design, we have now identified pyrazolopyridazinones as a novel, unrelated chemotype that binds to the prenyl-binding pocket of PDEδ with high affinity, thereby displacing prenylated Ras proteins in cells.

Galectin-1 dimers can scaffold Raf-effectors to increase H-ras nanoclustering.

Galectin-1 (Gal-1) dimers crosslink carbohydrates on cell surface receptors. Carbohydrate-derived inhibitors have been developed for cancer treatment. Intracellularly, Gal-1 was suggested to interact with the farnesylated C-terminus of Ras thus specifically stabilizing GTP-H-ras nanoscale signalling hubs in the membrane, termed nanoclusters.

Signaling and Adaptation Modulate the Dynamics of the Photosensoric Complex of Natronomonas pharaonis.

Motile bacteria and archaea respond to chemical and physical stimuli seeking optimal conditions for survival. To this end transmembrane chemo- and photoreceptors organized in large arrays initiate signaling cascades and ultimately regulate the rotation of flagellar motors. To unravel the molecular mechanism of signaling in an archaeal phototaxis complex we performed coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of a trimer of receptor/transducer dimers, namely NpSRII/NpHtrII from Natronomonas pharaonis.

Structural basis for the relaxed substrate selectivity of Leishmania mexicana broad specificity aminotransferase.

Leishmania species are early branching eukaryotic parasites that cause difficult-to-treat tissue-damaging diseases known as leishmaniases. As a hallmark of their parasitic lifestyle, Leishmaniae express a number of aminotransferases that are involved in important cellular processes and exhibit broader substrate specificity than their mammalian host's counterparts. Here, we have determined the crystal structure of the broad specificity aminotransferase from Leishmania mexicana (LmexBSAT) at 1.

Chemical labeling of intracellular proteins via affinity conjugation and strain-promoted cycloadditions in live cells.

A versatile chemical labeling approach was developed, where intracellular proteins were first incorporated with a bioorthogonal group via affinity conjugation, and subsequently labeled via strain-promoted cycloaddition reactions in live cells.

Conformational heterogeneity of the Roc domains in C. tepidum Roc-COR and implications for human LRRK2 Parkinson mutations.

Ras of complex proteins (Roc) is a Ras-like GTP-binding domain that always occurs in tandem with the C-terminal of Roc (COR) domain and is found in bacteria, plants and animals. Recently, it has been shown that Roco proteins belong to the family of G-proteins activated by nucleotide (nt)-dependent dimerization (GADs). We investigated the RocCOR tandem from the bacteria Chlorobium tepidum with site-directed spin labelling and pulse EPR distance measurements to follow conformational changes during the Roco G-protein cycle.

Oxidative Heterocycle Formation Using Hypervalent Iodine(III) Reagents.

Hypervalent iodine(III) reagents have been widely exploited in a diverse array of synthetic transformations. This chapter focuses on the general application of hypervalent iodine(III) reagents in the de novo synthesis and in the late stage functionalization of heterocyclic compounds.