316 papers
Biochemistry explores the intricate chemical processes that power life, bridging the gap between biology and chemistry to explain how molecules like proteins and DNA function within living cells. This field reveals the molecular machinery behind everything from metabolism to genetic inheritance, turning complex biological mysteries into understandable chemical interactions.
On Gist.Science, we bring you the freshest discoveries in this dynamic area directly from bioRxiv. Our team processes every new preprint uploaded to the server, transforming dense academic findings into both clear, plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries. This dual approach ensures that whether you are a curious beginner or a seasoned researcher, you can grasp the significance of these breakthroughs immediately.
Below are the latest papers in biochemistry, complete with our curated summaries to help you navigate the cutting edge of molecular science.
This study reveals that S-palmitoylation of OGT at Cys-472 and Cys-477, mediated by zDHHC14 and reversed by APT2, stabilizes the enzyme by inhibiting its lysosomal degradation via the HSC70-mediated CMA pathway while simultaneously enhancing its interaction with PPP1CC and YAP to modulate substrate selectivity and O-GlcNAcylation.
The study characterizes a riboflavin-biotin chimera (C6-Rf-biotin-tag) that retains riboflavin-like spectroscopic properties and exhibits micromolar binding affinities to both riboflavin-binding protein and streptavidin, suggesting its utility as a probe for diagnostic assays and labeling flavin-binding proteins.
This study demonstrates that pharmacological inhibition of the mitochondrial fission protein DNM1L using Mdivi-1 effectively mitigates nitrogen mustard-induced corneal injury by preserving mitochondrial function and promoting tissue repair, thereby identifying mitochondrial dysfunction as a key therapeutic target for mustard keratopathy.
This study identifies and characterizes two novel oxygen-dependent flavin amine oxidoreductases, Ncox and Pnox, from *Peribacillus frigoritolerans* NIC8 that efficiently metabolize nicotine and pseudooxynicotine, offering promising candidates for improved smoking-cessation therapeutics and nicotine bioconversion.
This study combines structural biology and computational methods to reveal that arylsulfamate inhibitors form stable covalent adducts with aryl sulfatases by accommodating a specific tetrahedral intermediate in a permissive hydrophobic pocket, whereas carbohydrate sulfatases reject this warhead due to restrictive active sites that displace the inhibitor from a reactive pose.
This study identifies TMPRSS6 as a novel protease that cleaves and sheds the FGF19 co-receptor -klotho, thereby attenuating FGF19 signaling and providing a mechanistic basis for targeting TMPRSS6 in the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
This study elucidates the molecular mechanisms of kinesin-1 holoenzyme assembly, demonstrating how the specific 2:2 interaction between heavy and light chains regulates cargo-adaptor recognition and releases a stalk-mediated autoinhibitory latch to coordinate motor activation with cargo engagement.
This study utilizes NMR spectroscopy and enzyme kinetics to demonstrate that mutations at residue P94 and its interacting partner Y187 in the β7-β8 loop of *Staphylococcus aureus* sortase A induce structural heterogeneity in the active apo state, thereby modulating substrate binding affinity and catalytic efficiency.
This paper presents an optimized FRET-based ligation assay using mTurquoise2 and SYFP2 fluorescent proteins to directly monitor and screen bacterial sortase-mediated ligation reactions, offering a versatile high-throughput tool for developing improved sortase enzymes and substrates.
By employing ancestral sequence reconstruction, researchers engineered arylmalonate decarboxylase ancestors that exhibit significantly enhanced thermal stability, catalytic activity, and stereoselectivity compared to the extant enzyme, overcoming key limitations in the production of chiral carboxylic acids.