| 1. |
- Martiel, Isabelle, et al.
(författare)
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Versatile microporous polymer-based supports for serial macromolecular crystallography
- 2021
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Ingår i: Acta Crystallographica Section D. - 2059-7983. ; 77, s. 1153-1167
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Serial data collection has emerged as a major tool for data collection at state-of-the-art light sources, such as microfocus beamlines at synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers. Challenging targets, characterized by small crystal sizes, weak diffraction and stringent dose limits, benefit most from these methods. Here, the use of a thin support made of a polymer-based membrane for performing serial data collection or screening experiments is demonstrated. It is shown that these supports are suitable for a wide range of protein crystals suspended in liquids. The supports have also proved to be applicable to challenging cases such as membrane proteins growing in the sponge phase. The sample-deposition method is simple and robust, as well as flexible and adaptable to a variety of cases. It results in an optimally thin specimen providing low background while maintaining minute amounts of mother liquor around the crystals. The 2 × 2 mm area enables the deposition of up to several microlitres of liquid. Imaging and visualization of the crystals are straightforward on the highly transparent membrane. Thanks to their affordable fabrication, these supports have the potential to become an attractive option for serial experiments at synchrotrons and free-electron lasers.
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| 2. |
- Mohammed Taha, Hiba, et al.
(författare)
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The NORMAN Suspect List Exchange (NORMAN-SLE) : facilitating European and worldwide collaboration on suspect screening in high resolution mass spectrometry
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Sciences Europe. - : Springer. - 2190-4707 .- 2190-4715. ; 34:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The NORMAN Association (https://www.norman-network.com/) initiated the NORMAN Suspect List Exchange (NORMAN-SLE; https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/) in 2015, following the NORMAN collaborative trial on non-target screening of environmental water samples by mass spectrometry. Since then, this exchange of information on chemicals that are expected to occur in the environment, along with the accompanying expert knowledge and references, has become a valuable knowledge base for “suspect screening” lists. The NORMAN-SLE now serves as a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) chemical information resource worldwide.Results: The NORMAN-SLE contains 99 separate suspect list collections (as of May 2022) from over 70 contributors around the world, totalling over 100,000 unique substances. The substance classes include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, pesticides, natural toxins, high production volume substances covered under the European REACH regulation (EC: 1272/2008), priority contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and regulatory lists from NORMAN partners. Several lists focus on transformation products (TPs) and complex features detected in the environment with various levels of provenance and structural information. Each list is available for separate download. The merged, curated collection is also available as the NORMAN Substance Database (NORMAN SusDat). Both the NORMAN-SLE and NORMAN SusDat are integrated within the NORMAN Database System (NDS). The individual NORMAN-SLE lists receive digital object identifiers (DOIs) and traceable versioning via a Zenodo community (https://zenodo.org/communities/norman-sle), with a total of > 40,000 unique views, > 50,000 unique downloads and 40 citations (May 2022). NORMAN-SLE content is progressively integrated into large open chemical databases such as PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and the US EPA’s CompTox Chemicals Dashboard (https://comptox.epa.gov/dashboard/), enabling further access to these lists, along with the additional functionality and calculated properties these resources offer. PubChem has also integrated significant annotation content from the NORMAN-SLE, including a classification browser (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/classification/#hid=101).Conclusions: The NORMAN-SLE offers a specialized service for hosting suspect screening lists of relevance for the environmental community in an open, FAIR manner that allows integration with other major chemical resources. These efforts foster the exchange of information between scientists and regulators, supporting the paradigm shift to the “one substance, one assessment” approach. New submissions are welcome via the contacts provided on the NORMAN-SLE website (https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/).
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| 3. |
- Srinivas, Vivek, et al.
(författare)
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High-Resolution XFEL Structure of the Soluble Methane Monooxygenase Hydroxylase Complex with its Regulatory Component at Ambient Temperature in Two Oxidation States
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 142:33, s. 14249-14266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO)is a multicomponent metalloenzyme that catalyzes the conversion of methane to methanol at ambient temperature using a nonheme, oxygen-bridged dinuclear iron cluster in the active site. Structural changes in the hydroxylase component (sMMOH) containing the diiron cluster caused by complex formation with a regulatory component (MMOB) and by iron reduction are important for the regulation of O-2 activation and substrate hydroxylation. Structural studies of metalloenzymes using traditional synchrotron-based X-ray crystallography are often complicated by partial X-ray-induced photoreduction of the metal center, thereby obviating determination of the structure of the enzyme in pure oxidation states. Here, microcrystals of the sMMOH:MMOB complex from Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b were serially exposed to X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulses, where the <= 35 fs duration of exposure of an individual crystal yields diffraction data before photoreduction-induced structural changes can manifest. Merging diffraction patterns obtained from thousands of crystals generates radiation damage-free, 1.95 angstrom resolution crystal structures for the fully oxidized and fully reduced states of the sMMOH:MMOB complex for the first time. The results provide new insight into the manner by which the diiron cluster and the active site environment are reorganized by the regulatory protein component in order to enhance the steps of oxygen activation and methane oxidation. This study also emphasizes the value of XFEL and serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) methods for investigating the structures of metalloenzymes with radiation sensitive metal active sites.
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| 4. |
- Bartsch, Yannic C, et al.
(författare)
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IgG Fc sialylation is regulated during the germinal center reaction upon immunization with different adjuvants
- 2020
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Ingår i: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1097-6825 .- 0091-6749. ; 146:3, s. 652-666
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Effector functions of IgG antibodies (Abs) are regulated by their Fc N-glycosylation pattern. IgG Fc glycans that lack galactose and terminal sialic acid residues correlate with the severity of inflammatory (auto)immune disorders and have also been linked to the protection against viral infection and discussed in the context of vaccine-induced protection. In contrast, sialylated IgG Abs have shown immunosuppressive effects.OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate IgG glycosylation programming during the germinal center (GC) reaction upon immunization of mice with a foreign protein antigen and different adjuvants.METHODS: Mice were analyzed for GC T, B cell and plasma cell responses as well as antigen-specific serum IgG subclass titers and Fc glycosylation patterns.RESULTS: Different adjuvants induce distinct IgG+ GC B cell responses with specific transcriptomes and expression levels of the α2,6-sialyltransferase responsible for IgG sialylation that correspond to distinct serum IgG Fc glycosylation patterns. Low IgG Fc sialylation programming in GC B cells was overall highly dependent on the T follicular helper (TFH) cell-inducing cytokine IL-6, especially induced by water-in-oil adjuvants and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Furthermore, low IgG Fc sialylation programming was dependent on adjuvants that induced IL-27R-dependent IFNγ+ TFH1 cells, IL-6/IL-23-dependent IL-17A+ TFH17 cells and high TFH/T follicular regulatory (TFR) cell ratios. The two latter were here dependent on Mtb and its cord factor.CONCLUSION: These findings on adjuvant-dependent GC responses and IgG glycosylation programming may aid the development of novel vaccination strategies to induce IgG Abs with both high affinity and defined Fc glycosylation patterns.
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| 5. |
- Brem, Jürgen, et al.
(författare)
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Imitation of β-lactam binding enables broad-spectrum metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Chemistry. - : Springer Nature. - 1755-4330 .- 1755-4349. ; 14:1, s. 15-24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbapenems are vital antibiotics, but their efficacy is increasingly compromised by metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs). Here we report the discovery and optimization of potent broad-spectrum MBL inhibitors. A high-throughput screen for NDM-1 inhibitors identified indole-2-carboxylates (InCs) as potential β-lactamase stable β-lactam mimics. Subsequent structure-activity relationship studies revealed InCs as a new class of potent MBL inhibitor, active against all MBL classes of major clinical relevance. Crystallographic studies revealed a binding mode of the InCs to MBLs that, in some regards, mimics that predicted for intact carbapenems, including with respect to maintenance of the Zn(II)-bound hydroxyl, and in other regards mimics binding observed in MBL-carbapenem product complexes. InCs restore carbapenem activity against multiple drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and have a low frequency of resistance. InCs also have a good in vivo safety profile, and when combined with meropenem show a strong in vivo efficacy in peritonitis and thigh mouse infection models.
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| 6. |
- Dulio, Valeria, et al.
(författare)
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The NORMAN Association and the European Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) : let’s cooperate!
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Sciences Europe. - : Springer. - 2190-4707 .- 2190-4715. ; 32:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development as a joint research and innovation programme to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment in the EU. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge, and to facilitate the transition to next-generation evidence-based risk assessment, a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The NORMAN Network is an independent, well-established and competent network of more than 80 organisations in the field of emerging substances and has enormous potential to contribute to the implementation of the PARC partnership. NORMAN stands ready to provide expert advice to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and in support of a European Early Warning System to unravel the risks of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes. In this commentary we highlight the tools developed by NORMAN that we consider most relevant to supporting the PARC initiative: (i) joint data space and cutting-edge research tools for risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern; (ii) collaborative European framework to improve data quality and comparability; (iii) advanced data analysis tools for a European early warning system and (iv) support to national and European chemical risk assessment thanks to harnessing, combining and sharing evidence and expertise on CECs. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of the NORMAN network with the financial and policy-related strengths of the PARC initiative, a large step towards the goal of a non-toxic environment can be taken.
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| 7. |
- John, Juliane, 1987-
(författare)
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High (valent) on O2 : Ribonucleotide Reductase and Methane Monooxygenase
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Macromolecular X-ray crystallography (MX) is a powerful method to investigate protein structures. However, proteins with redox-active centres and radicals are very susceptible to photoreduction. It is therefore challenging to acquire structural details of redox-active centres in defined oxidation states or protein radicals using synchrotron radiation. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) radiation mitigates this problem. XFELs produce intense pulses of femtosecond length that give rise to diffraction before photoinduced movement can occur in the illuminated protein. Additionally, SFX allows experiments at room temperature and induction of reactions in crystallo. In this thesis two different redox-active enzyme systems were investigated with MX and SFX. The first part examines ribonucleotide reductase (RNR). RNR is the only known enzyme to synthesize de novo deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. Class I RNR consists of a small subunit R2 and a large subunit R1. R2 generates a radical in an oxygen dependent way and delivers it to R1 for ribonucleotide reduction. After catalysis the radical is transferred back to R2 until further use. Class I RNR is divided in five subclasses, mostly based on their mechanism of radical generation. In Paper I class Ib R2 is investigated. R2b binds two manganese ions that react with superoxide to produce a radical. The superoxide is provided by a small flavoprotein, NrdI, bound to R2. When exposed to molecular oxygen, reduced NrdI generates superoxide that is transferred to the R2 active site. Here two SFX structures of reduced and oxidized NrdI in complex with R2 are presented and it is suggested how the binding and NrdI oxidation state could influence the superoxide production. In Paper II the SFX structure of a R2e protein radical is presented. Class Ie R2 contains a metal-free active site. The comparison of the radical structure with a ground state structure highlights the changes induced by radical formation. A mechanism for the initiation of the radical transfer to R1 is proposed based on the structural details observed. In Paper III light is shed on a new variant of R2e. Three of the typically conserved active site residues are mutated in R2e; from three glutamates to valine, proline and lysine (VPK) or to glutamine, serine and lysine (QSK). Other publications, including Paper II, describe the VPK mutation but as of now the QSK variant has not been examined. Here, crystal structures of a R2e QSK protein are shown. A tyrosine close to the active site is post-translationally modified to a dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA). The amount of modified protein is shown to scale with the coexpression of other proteins of the RNR operon. The second redox-active enzyme investigated is soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO). sMMO oxidizes methane to methanol and is produced by methanotrophs; bacteria that use methane as their sole carbon source. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and can be found in ever increasing concentrations in the atmosphere due to human activities; sMMO is thus a compelling target for biotechnological development. Paper IV presents SFX structures of the catalytic subunit MMOH in complex with its small regulatory subunit MMOB in the oxidized and reduced resting state. It is also demonstrated that the complex can undergo the catalytic cycle in crystallo, allowing investigation of reaction cycle intermediates in the future.
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| 8. |
- John, Juliane, et al.
(författare)
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Redox-controlled reorganization and flavin strain within the ribonucleotide reductase R2b–NrdI complex monitored by serial femtosecond crystallography
- 2022
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Redox reactions are central to biochemistry and are both controlled by and induce protein structural changes. Here, we describe structural rearrangements and crosstalk within the Bacillus cereus ribonucleotide reductase R2b–NrdI complex, a di-metal carboxylate-flavoprotein system, as part of the mechanism generating the essential catalytic free radical of the enzyme. Femtosecond crystallography at an X-ray free electron laser was utilized to obtain structures at room temperature in defined redox states without suffering photoreduction. Together with density functional theory calculations, we show that the flavin is under steric strain in the R2b–NrdI protein complex, likely tuning its redox properties to promote superoxide generation. Moreover, a binding site in close vicinity to the expected flavin O2 interaction site is observed to be controlled by the redox state of the flavin and linked to the channel proposed to funnel the produced superoxide species from NrdI to the di-manganese site in protein R2b. These specific features are coupled to further structural changes around the R2b–NrdI interaction surface. The mechanistic implications for the control of reactive oxygen species and radical generation in protein R2b are discussed.
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| 9. |
- John, Juliane, et al.
(författare)
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Redox-controlled reorganization and flavin strain within the ribonucleotide reductase R2b–NrdI complex monitored by serial femtosecond crystallography
- 2022
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Ingår i: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Redox reactions are central to biochemistry and are both controlled by and induce protein structural changes. Here, we describe structural rearrangements and crosstalk within the Bacillus cereus ribonucleotide reductase R2b–NrdI complex, a di-metal carboxylate-flavoprotein system, as part of the mechanism generating the essential catalytic free radical of the enzyme. Femtosecond crystallography at an X-ray free electron laser was utilized to obtain structures at room temperature in defined redox states without suffering photoreduction. Together with density functional theory calculations, we show that the flavin is under steric strain in the R2b–NrdI protein complex, likely tuning its redox properties to promote superoxide generation. Moreover, a binding site in close vicinity to the expected flavin O2 interaction site is observed to be controlled by the redox state of the flavin and linked to the channel proposed to funnel the produced superoxide species from NrdI to the di-manganese site in protein R2b. These specific features are coupled to further structural changes around the R2b–NrdI interaction surface. The mechanistic implications for the control of reactive oxygen species and radical generation in protein R2b are discussed.
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| 10. |
- Lebrette, Hugo, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Structure of a ribonucleotide reductase R2 protein radical
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 382:6666, s. 109-113
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aerobic ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) initiate synthesis of DNA building blocks by generating a free radical within the R2 subunit; the radical is subsequently shuttled to the catalytic R1 subunit through proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET). We present a high-resolution room temperature structure of the class Ie R2 protein radical captured by x-ray free electron laser serial femtosecond crystallography. The structure reveals conformational reorganization to shield the radical and connect it to the translocation path, with structural changes propagating to the surface where the protein interacts with the catalytic R1 subunit. Restructuring of the hydrogen bond network, including a notably short O-O interaction of 2.41 angstroms, likely tunes and gates the radical during PCET. These structural results help explain radical handling and mobilization in RNR and have general implications for radical transfer in proteins.
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