Researcher Norman Wagner speaks to Interesting Engineering about the complex chemistry of extraterrestrial cement.
For the survival of life on Earth, the process where plants perform photosynthesis to generate oxygen and chemical energy using sunlight is crucial. Scientists from Göttingen and Hannover have now achieved a breakthrough by creating a high-resolution 3D visualization of the chloroplasts’ copying mechanism, the RNA polymerase PEP, for the first time. This intricate structure offers fresh perspectives on the operation and evolutionary history of this vital cellular apparatus, instrumental in interpreting the genetic blueprints for proteins involved in photosynthesis.
Without photosynthesis, there would be no air to breathe – it is the basis of all life on Earth. This complex process allows plants to convert carbon dioxide and water into chemical energy and oxygen using light energy from the sun. The conversion takes place in the chloroplasts, the heart of photosynthesis. Chloroplasts developed in the course of evolution when the ancestors of today’s plant cells absorbed a photosynthetic cyanobacterium. Over time, the bacterium became increasingly dependent on its “host cell”, but maintained some significant functions such as photosynthesis and parts of the bacterial genome. The chloroplast therefore still has its own DNA, which contains the blueprints for crucial proteins of the “photosynthesis machinery”
The perplexing phenomenon of homochirality in life, where biomolecules exist in only one of two mirror-image forms, remains unexplained despite historical attention from scientific figures like Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, and Pierre Curie. Recent research suggests the combination of electric and magnetic fields might influence this preference through experiments showing enantioselective effects on chiral molecules interacting with magnetized surfaces, offering indirect evidence towards understanding this mystery.
The phenomenon known as homochirality of life, which refers to the exclusive presence of biomolecules in one of their two possible mirror-image configurations within living organisms, has intrigued several prominent figures in science. This includes Louis Pasteur, who first identified molecular chirality, William Thomson (also known as Lord Kelvin), and Pierre Curie, a Nobel Laureate.
A conclusive explanation is still lacking, as both forms have, for instance, the same chemical stability and do not differ from each other in their physicochemical properties. The hypothesis, however, that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields could explain the preference for one or the other mirror-image form of a molecule – so-called enantiomers – emerged early on.
MIT ’s breakthrough in integrating 2D materials into devices paves the way for next-generation devices with unique optical and electronic properties.
Two-dimensional materials, which are only a few atoms thick, can exhibit some incredible properties, such as the ability to carry electric charge extremely efficiently, which could boost the performance of next-generation electronic devices.
But integrating 2D materials into devices and systems like computer chips is notoriously difficult. These ultrathin structures can be damaged by conventional fabrication techniques, which often rely on the use of chemicals, high temperatures, or destructive processes like etching.
How much oxygen does Jupiter’s moon, Europa, produce, and what can this teach us about its subsurface liquid water ocean? This is what a study published today in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how charged particles break apart the surface ice resulting in hydrogen and oxygen that feed Europa’s extremely thin atmosphere. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the geologic and biochemical processes on Europa, along with gaining greater insight into the conditions necessary for finding life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers used the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument onboard NASA’s June spacecraft to collect data on the amount of oxygen being discharged from Europa’s icy surface due to charge particles emanating from Jupiter’s massive magnetic field. In the end, the researchers found that oxygen production resulting from these charged particles interacting with the icy surface was approximately 26 pounds per second (12 kilograms per second), which is a much more focused number compared to previous estimates which ranged from a few pounds per second to over 2,000 pounds per second.
“Europa is like an ice ball slowly losing its water in a flowing stream. Except, in this case, the stream is a fluid of ionized particles swept around Jupiter by its extraordinary magnetic field,” said Dr. Jamey Szalay, who is a research scholar at Princeton University, a scientist on JADE, and lead author of the study. “When these ionized particles impact Europa, they break up the water-ice molecule by molecule on the surface to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In a way, the entire ice shell is being continuously eroded by waves of charged particles washing up upon it.”
“If you look at the brain chemically, it’s like a soup with a bunch of ingredients,” said Dr. Fan Lam.
Can we map the brain to show its behavior patterns when a patient is healthy and sick? This is what a recent study published in Nature Methods hopes to address as a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used a $3 million grant obtained from the National Institute of Aging to develop a novel approach to mapping brain behavior when a patient is both healthy and sick. This study holds the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, and patients better understand how to treat diseases.
“If you look at the brain chemically, it’s like a soup with a bunch of ingredients,” said Dr. Fan Lam, who is an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a co-author on the study. “Understanding the biochemistry of the brain, how it organizes spatiotemporally, and how those chemical reactions support computing is critical to having a better idea of how the brain functions in health as well as during disease.”
Continue reading “3D Molecular Maps of the Brain: Unveiling Complexity with Spatial Omics” »
Water and electronics don’t usually mix, but as it turns out, batteries could benefit from some H2O.
By replacing the hazardous chemical electrolytes used in commercial batteries with water, scientists have developed a recyclable ‘water battery’ – and solved key issues with the emerging technology, which could be a safer and greener alternative.
Continue reading “New ‘Water Batteries’ Are Cheaper, Recyclable, And Won’t Explode” »
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K-Ras mutations are all too familiar as drivers of cancer. And until recently, they were considered all but undruggable. But ever since the arrival of sotorasib and adagrasib—two FDA-approved K-Ras-G12C inhibitors—K-Ras mutations have had the distinction of being somewhat druggable. Even better, K-Ras mutations may soon become yet more druggable. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, have found a way to target K-Ras-G12D mutations, which are especially prevalent in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
The scientists were led by Kevan Shokat, PhD, a professor in the department of cellular and molecular pharmacology. Back in 2013, Shokat and colleagues developed the first K-Ras-G12C inhibitors. And today, in Nature Chemical Biology, they present a paper (“Strain-release alkylation of Asp12 enables mutant selective targeting of K-Ras-G12D”) describing how they designed a candidate drug that could help make pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, a treatable and perhaps even curable condition.
“[Covalent] inhibition of G12D, the most frequent K-Ras mutation particularly prevalent in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, has remained elusive due to the lack of aspartate-targeting chemistry,” the article’s authors wrote. “Here we present a set of malolactone-based electrophiles that exploit ring strain to crosslink K-Ras-G12D at the mutant aspartate to form stable covalent complexes.”
Every time a cell divides, its DNA is duplicated so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic material as their parent. This means that, millions of times a day, a biochemical wonder takes place in the body: the copying of the DNA molecule. It is a high-precision job carried out by specific proteins and includes systems to protect against potential errors that could lead to diseases such as cancer.
One of these anti-failure systems has just been discovered by researchers in the DNA Replication Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Juan Méndez. It is based on a protein that ensures that DNA is copied only once, as it should be, and not twice or more.
The work is published in The EMBO Journal.
