Unlike the tightly controlled replication of DNA in living cells, PCR amplification, a “workhorse” of molecular biology, balances between simplicity and accuracy. Conventional “bulk” PCR often yields inefficient and nonuniform amplification of complex templates in DNA libraries, introducing unwanted biases.

Researchers from Laboratory of bioinformatics approaches in combinatorial chemistry and biology and Laboratory of high-performance screening of biological objects together with colleagues from Moscow State University and University College Cork (Ireland) discovered novel protein POLGARF, which is encoded in alternative reading frame of mitochondrial DNA polymerase POLG mRNA. The results of this study are published in PNAS.

The scientists from the Laboratory of biocatalysis, the Laboratory of proteolytic enzyme chemistry, the Laboratory of bioinformatics approaches in combinatorial chemistry and biology and the Laboratory of hormonal regulation proteins, together with colleagues from EMBL-Hamburg, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, the Sheffield Institute and the Scripps Research Institute have developed a universal algorithm that makes it possible to create biological antidotes based on biocatalysts, directionally increasing their reactivity, and to predict stereoselectivity.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis, together with a colleague from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, described for the first time four genes of the Noggin family in the oldest representatives of vertebrates - lampreys, and compared their structure, expression and some functional features with those of the known genes of this family in other vertebrates.

Scientists from the IBCh RAS, Federal Scientific Research Centre “Crystallography and Photonics”, FSBSI “N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center”, Lomonosov Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University developed a method for the UCNP surface functionalization with endogenous colominic acid conferring “stealth” properties, which led to effective accumulation in the area of inflammation, as well as micro- and macro-blood vessels visualization.

Gliomas are fast growing and highly invasive brain tumors, characterized by tumor microenvironment acidification that drives glioma cell growth and migration. Channels containing Acid-sensing Ion Channel 1a subunit (ASIC1a) mediate amiloride-sensitive cation influx in late stage glioma cells, but not in normal astrocytes. Thus, selective targeting of ASIC1a can be a perspective strategy for glioma treatment.

Researchers from IBCh RAS together with their international collаborators discovered an evolutionary link between efficiency of start codons and the probability of AUG codon occurrence in the 5'-end parts of protein-coding sequences. When start codons are inefficient the next AUG codon is more likely to be found in the same reading frame. At the same time in case of highly efficient start codons, the next AUG codon is more likely to be found in alternative frames. They also have shown that weak initiation at the first starts is associated with the synthesis of shortened proteoforms as a result of initiation at the second starts.

A collaboration of scientists from the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a breakthrough technology to resolve a key problem that has prevented the introduction of novel drugs into clinical practice for decades. The study was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering and featured in the journal’s News & Views section.

Kinase-mediated phosphorylation represents one of the general strategies for the emergence of antibiotic resistance. A new subfamily of AmiN-like kinases, isolated from the Siberian bear microbiome, inactivates antibiotic amicoumacin by phosphorylation. The nanomolar substrate affinity defines AmiN as a phosphotransferase with a unique catalytic efficiency proximal to the diffusion limit. Crystallographic analysis and multiscale simulations revealed a catalytically perfect mechanism providing phosphorylation exclusively in the case of a closed active site that counteracts substrate promiscuity. AmiN kinase is a member of the previously unknown subfamily representing the first evidence of a specialized phosphotransferase bioscavenger.

Scientists from the Group of Forest Biotechnology IBCh RAS obtained the transgenic aspen with acceletated growth, a modified carbohydrate composition and a slower rate of decomposition of wood.

Lipids 2021 Conference, October 19-21, 2021, IBCH RAS, Moscow