The synthesis of four new peptidyl nucleosides is reported. The kinetic data obtained for the transesterification of 2'/3'-O-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-p-nitrophenylalanyl 5'-O-trityl ribonucleosides which contain different substituents at C position of the purine residue indicates for different mechanisms of the transesterification reaction. The peptidyl nucleosides with an amino group at C position ...

It will come as no surprise to the readers of this journal that the chemical biology community draws from a diverse pool of scientists. Although the next generation of chemical biologists may truly be schooled in two (or even many) disciplines, many ‘current’ chemical biologists were still formally trained primarily in one subject. As a result, researchers in this multidisciplinary field often ...

I am still impressed that the textbook language of organic chemistry is so successful in explaining the reactions that we find in nature. Thismight not have been anticipated because we find that biological reactions are invariably stereospecific whereas nonbiological reactions are invariably not. This realization came to light about 150 years ago when Pasteur found that only half of chemically ...

BACKGROUND Hypoglycaemia has been associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) risk and mortality in a number of recent multicentre trials, but the mechanistic links driving this association remain ill defined. This review aims to summarize the available data on how hypoglycaemia may affect CV risk in patients with diabetes. METHODS This was a systematic review of available mechanistic and c...

Quorum sensing (QS) enables bacterial communication and collective behavior in response to self-secreted signaling molecules. Unlocking its genetic regulation will provide insight towards understanding its influence on pathogenesis, formation of biofilms, and many other phenotypes. There are few datasets available that link QS-mediated gene expression to its regulatory components and even fewer...

Recent findings in mice with targeted deletion of the GABA-metabolic enzyme succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase revealed a new role for supraphysiological GABA (4-aminobutyric acid) in the activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) that results in disruption of endogenous mitophagy. Employing biochemical and electron microscopic methodology, we examined the hypothesis that similar...

Biological systems have recently been shown to share many of the properties of reactive systems. This observation has led to the idea of using methods devised for the construction (engineering) of complex reactive systems to the modeling (reverse-engineering) of biological systems, in order to enhance biological comprehension. Here we suggest to combine the two formal approaches used in our gro...

We modeled the expected range of seasonal and annual N2O flux from temperate, grain agroecosystems using Monte Carlo sampling of N2O flux field observations. This analysis is complimentary to mechanistic biogeochemical model outcomes and provides an alternative method of estimating N2O flux. Our analysis produced a range of annual N2O gas flux estimates with mean values overlapping with results...

Not all models are explanatory. Some models are data summaries. Some models sketch explanations but leave crucial details unspecified or hidden behind filler terms. Some models are used to conjecture a how-possibly explanation without regard to whether it is a how-actually explanation. I use the Hodgkin and Huxley model of the action potential to illustrate these ways thatmodels can be useful w...

After introducing a range of mechanistic theories of causality and some of the problems they face, I argue that while there is a decisive case against a purely mechanistic analysis, a viable theory of causality must incorporate mechanisms as an ingredient. I describe one way of providing an analysis of causality which reaps the rewards of the mechanistic approach without succumbing to its pitfa...