A team led by Feng Zhang of the Broad and MIT and Eugene Koonin of the NIH has revealed that C2c2 helps protect bacteria against viral infection by targeting RNA. Photo composite by Lauren Solomon, Broad communications. Images courtesy of Broad communications and NIH.
In a study published today in Science, Feng Zhang and colleagues at the Broad Institute and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, along with co-authors Eugene Koonin and his colleagues at the NIH, and Konstantin Severinov of Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Skoltech, report the identification and functional characterization of C2c2, an RNA-guided enzyme capable of targeting and degrading RNA.
Abudayyeh, Omar O., et al. "C2c2 is a single-component programmable RNA-guided RNA-targeting CRISPR effector." bioRxiv (2016): 054742.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR, pronounced crisper) are segments of prokaryotic DNA containing short repetitions of base sequences. Each repetition is followed by short segments of "spacer DNA" from previous exposures to a bacteriophage virus or plasmid. The CRISPR/Cas system is a prokaryotic immune system that confers resistance to foreign genetic elements such as those present within plasmids and phages, and provides a form of acquired immunity. CRISPR spacers recognize and cut these exogenous genetic elements in a manner analogous to RNA interference in eukaryotic organisms. CRISPRs are found in approximately 40% of sequenced bacterial genomes and 90% of sequenced archaea.
The Methotraxate's "chemicalized" page on Wikipedia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chemicalize.org can help you to explore web and instantly see the structure as well as information and prediction of various bio-chemical properties of the molecules.
Interesting idea, but they have to make this tool more accessible to the people (for example - to make an extension to browser).
Chemicalize.org is a free chemical structure miner and web search engine developed and owned by ChemAxon. The main purpose of chemicalize.org is to identify chemical names (SMILES, traditional and IUPAC names) on websites and convert them to chemical structures. chemicalize.org provides other services such as structure based predictions, chemical search, and a “chemicalized” web search.
Protein image from OPM database (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
UniProte is an open protein database that contain almost all known information about protein structures and activity. Actually it is a unite database of protein databases.
UniProt is a comprehensive, high-quality and freely accessible database of protein sequence and functional information, many entries being derived from genome sequencing projects. It contains a large amount of information about the biological function of proteins derived from the research literature.
Cyanine is a non-systematic name of a synthetic dye family belonging topolymethine group. The word cyanin is from the English word “cyan", which conventionally means a shade of blue-green (close to "aqua") and is derived from the Greek “kyanos" which means a somewhat different color: "dark blue".
Squaraine derivatives and ring-substituted squaraines, including Seta, SeTau, and Square dyes
Squaraine dyes are a class of organic dyes showing intense fluorescence, typically in the red and near infrared region (absorption maxima are found between 630 and 670 nm and their emission maxima are between 650–700 nm). They are characterized by their unique aromatic four membered ring system derived from squaric acid. Most squaraines areencumbered by nucleophilic attack of the central four membered ring, which is highly electron deficient. This encumbrance can be attenuated by the formation of arotaxane around the dye to protect it from nucleophiles. They are currently used as sensors for ions and have recently, with the advent of protected squanaine derivatives, been exploited in biomedical imaging.
Coumarin (/ˈkuːmərɪn/; 2H-chromen-2-one) is a fragrant organic chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, which is a colorless crystalline substance in its standard state. It is a natural substance found in many plants.
oxadiazole derivatives: pyridyloxazole, nitrobenzoxadiazole and benzoxadiazole
Furazan, or 1,2,5-oxadiazole, is anheterocyclicaromaticorganic compoundconsisting of a five-atom ring containing 1 oxygen and 2 nitrogen atoms. The furazan ring system is also found in the steroid furazabol. Furazan and its derivatives are obtained from the oximederivatives of 1,2-diketones.
Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) consisting of four fused benzene rings, resulting in a flataromatic system. The chemical formula is C16H10. This colorless solid is the smallest peri-fused PAH (one where the rings are fused through more than one face). Pyrene forms during incomplete combustion of organic compounds.
Acridine is an organic compound and anitrogen heterocycle with the formula C13H9N. Acridines are substituted derivatives of the parent ring. It is a planar molecule that is structurally related to anthracene with one of the central CH groups replaced by nitrogen. Like the related molecule pyridine and quinoline, acridine is mildly basic. It is an almost colorless solid. There are no commercial applications of acridines but at one time acridine dyes were popular. It crystallizes in needles.
Auramine O is a diarylmethane dyeused as a fluorescent stain. In its pure form, Auramine O appears as yellow needle crystals. It is very soluble in water and soluble in ethanol.
Tetrapyrroles are a class of chemical compounds whose molecules contain four pyrrole rings held together by directcovalent bonds or by one-carbon bridges (=(CH)- or -CH2-units), in either a linear or a cyclic fashion. A pyrrole ring in a molecule is a five-atom ring where four of the ring atoms are carbon and one is nitrogen. In cyclic tetrapyrroles, lone electron pairs on nitrogen atoms facing the center of the macrocycle ring can bond or chelate with a metal ion such as iron,cobalt, or magnesium.
This second edition of the well-established bestseller is completely updated and revised with approximately 30% additional material, including two new chapters on applications,which has seen the most significant developments. The comprehensive overview written ...
A copper wire is cleaned and heated in a Bunsen burner flame to form a coating ofcopper(II) oxide. It is then dipped in the sample to be tested and once again heated in a flame. A positive test is indicated by a green flame caused by the formation of a copper halide. The test does not detect fluorine/fluorides.
This test is no longer frequently used. One reason why it is not widely used is that it is possible to generate the highly toxic chloro-dioxins if the test material is apolychloroarene.
An alternative wet test for halide is the sodium fusion test — this test converts organic material to inorganic salts include the sodium halide. Addition of silver nitrate solution causes any halides to precipitate as the respective silver halide.
A Bunsen burner, named after Robert Bunsen, is a common piece of laboratory equipment that produces a single open gas flame, which is used for heating, sterilization, and combustion.
Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (17 February 1838 – 18 October 1906), Russian name "Бейльштейн, Фёдор Фёдорович", was a chemist and founder of the famous Handbuch der organischen Chemie (Handbook of Organic Chemistry). The first edition of this work, published in 1881, covered 1,500 compounds in 2,200 pages. This handbook is now known as the Beilstein database.
