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Expansion of the Borosin RiPP Family of α-N-Methylated Peptide Natural Products
In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Künzler group (IMB) expands on the recently discovered family of borosins, ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products featuring α-N-methylation.
ETHics@Lunch event on the topic of "Computer-generated genome"
On 27 May, the first event of the newly launched ETHics@Lunch series took place at noon in the Audimax of ETH Zurich. The subject of this first event was a paper by Prof. Beat Christen's research group on the production of an artificial bacterial genome recently published in PNAS .
Martin Pilhofer appointed Associate Professor of Cryo-Electron Microscopy
On the recommendation of ETH President Joël Mesot, the ETH Board appointed several new ETH professors in its meeting of last week. One of these is Martin Pilhofer, Associate Professor of Cryo-Electron Microscopy at the D-BIOL Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics.
Bacteria-induced production of an antibacterial sesquiterpene in Coprinopsis cinerea
In a recent Molecular Microbiology paper, the Künzler group (IMB) shows that the vegetative mycelium of the ink cap mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea is able to sense bacteria by not yet identified secreted bacterial compounds and respond by the production of an antibiotic.
The structure of a membrane adenylyl cyclase bound to an activated stimulatory G protein
Membrane adenylyl cyclases (ACs) are the key enzymes in cellular signaling, producing second messenger cAMP in response to a variety cues. A recent paper in Science by the Korkhov group (IBC & PSI) describes the first structure of a full-length membrane AC, providing new insights into its mechanism.