Reduction of the pincer nickel(ii) complex [(PNP)NiBr] with sodium amalgam (Na/Hg) forms the mercury-bridged dimer [{(PNP)Ni}2{μ-Hg}], which homolytically cleaves dihydrogen to form [(PNP)NiH]. Reversible CO2 insertion into the Ni-H bond is observed for [(PNP)NiH], forming the monodentate κ(1)O-formate complex [(PNP)NiOC(O)H].

Under certain conditions, the phosphonocarboxylate analogue (3) of the bisphosphonate drug minodronate (4) in contact with borosilicate glassware reversibly forms an isolable dimer complex of boron, as revealed by the X-ray crystallographic structure of the (R,R/S,S) complex and supported by NMR and HRMS data.

without the cell sediment/clot) at 4 °C for 24 h (n ϭ 14). The correlation for the detection of D-dimer concentration from the two different materials was calculated by linear regression analysis, and testing for differences was performed using the Mann–Whitney rank-sum test (Sig-maStat; SPSS). No significant differences between median plasma and serum D-dimer concentrations were detected (Tabl...

Protein p6 from Bacillus subtilis phage phi29 (Mr = 11 800) binds in vitro to DNA forming a large nucleoprotein complex in which the DNA wraps a multimeric protein core. The high intracellular abundance of protein p6 together with its ability to bind the whole phi29 DNA in vitro strongly suggests that it plays a role in viral genome organization. We have determined by sedimentation equilibrium ...

Biotin carboxylase (BC) activity is shared among biotin-dependent carboxylases and catalyzes the Mg-ATP-dependent carboxylation of biotin using bicarbonate as the CO(2) donor. BC has been studied extensively over the years by structural, kinetic, and mutagenesis analyses. Here we report three new crystal structures of Escherichia coli BC at up to 1.9 Å resolution, complexed with different ligan...

The Atg1/ULK complex plays a key role in the early stages of autophagosome assembly. In this issue, Ragusa et al. reveal the molecular basis for some interactions within this complex, finding that the crescent-shaped Atg17 dimer is critical for autophagy, whereas Atg1 may have the ability to cluster membranes.

A simple, high yield, two-step synthesis yields a porphyrin dimer linked by a flexible dithiol tether that preferentially binds fullerene C(70) over C(60) in toluene solution. The complex forms stable aggregates when cast on glass.

The novel dinuclear Zn(ii) complex (1) containing a beta-CD dimer could accelerate BNPP (a DNA substitute) hydrolysis more efficiently than catalyze HPNP (a RNA substitute) transesterification with different mechanisms involved; the beta-CDs played remarkably different roles.

The transcription factor FOXP3 is essential for the suppressive function of regulatory T cells that are required for maintaining self-tolerance. We have solved the crystal structure of the FOXP3 forkhead domain as a ternary complex with the DNA-binding domain of the transcription factor NFAT1 and a DNA oligonucleotide from the interleukin-2 promoter. A striking feature of this structure is that...

The well-studied benzene dimer radical cation, which is prototypical for this class of species, has been reinvestigated computationally. Thereby it turned out that both the σ-hemibonded and the half-shifted sandwich structures of the benzene dimer cation, which had been independently proposed, represent stationary points on the B2PLYP-D potential energy surfaces. However, these structures belon...