Celebrating the First Impact Factor of Biomolecules

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 11664

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Medicine, USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Research Institute, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, MDC07, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
Interests: intrinsically disordered proteins; protein folding; protein misfolding; partially folded proteins; protein aggregation; protein structure; protein function; protein stability; protein biophysics; protein bioinformatics; conformational diseases; protein–ligand interactions; protein–protein interactions; liquid-liquid phase transitions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to celebration of the first impact factor (4.694) of the open-access journal Biomolecules. Biomolecules has entered the ranking in the ‘Biochemistry & Molecular Biology’ category at 58 of 298 (80.70%, Q1). This achievement is a great one, and we are very thankful to everyone who has supported and contributed to Biomolecules over the past eight and a half years and who has brought us to this success. In fact, this accomplishment is a reflection of the great efforts of the journal’s managing team, Editors, Associate Editors, Editors-in-Chief of our Sections, Editorial Board Members, and, of course, reviewers, who have provided timely and high-quality feedback to authors. We have seen a steady increase in the number of great articles that has caused a steady increase in and broadening of our readership. Therefore, we would like to thank all authors for their confidence and trust in the journal, their belief in the journal’s sustainability and forthcoming success, their inspirational and exciting manuscripts, and for all their help, efforts, and contributions to Biomolecules, which have established our journal as an international interdisciplinary forum for biological molecules research.

This Special Issue covers all topics related to biogenic substances and their biological functions, structures, interactions with other molecules, and microenvironment and biological systems.

We look forward to receiving research papers and reviews from scientists in academia, biotech, and pharma who are focused on unravelling the mechanisms underlying the functions of biological molecules.

Dr. Vladimir N. Uversky
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • lipids
  • phospholipids
  • glycolipids
  • sterols
  • glycerolipids
  • carbohydrates
  • sugars
  • vitamins
  • hormones
  • neurotransmitters
  • metabolites
  • amino acids
  • nucleotides
  • monosaccharides
  • peptides
  • oligopeptides
  • polypeptides
  • proteins
  • nucleic acids
  • DNA
  • RNA
  • oligosaccharides
  • polysaccharides
  • glycoprotein
  • glycoconjugate
  • proteoglycan

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Editorial

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5 pages, 500 KiB  
Editorial
Driving Forces of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation in Biological Systems
by Boris Y. Zaslavsky, Luisa A. Ferreira and Vladimir N. Uversky
Biomolecules 2019, 9(9), 473; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom9090473 - 10 Sep 2019
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4982
Abstract
Analysis of liquid–liquid phase separation in biological systems shows that this process is similar to the phase separation observed in aqueous two-phase systems formed by nonionic polymers, proteins, and polysaccharides. The emergence of interfacial tension is a necessary condition of phase separation. The [...] Read more.
Analysis of liquid–liquid phase separation in biological systems shows that this process is similar to the phase separation observed in aqueous two-phase systems formed by nonionic polymers, proteins, and polysaccharides. The emergence of interfacial tension is a necessary condition of phase separation. The situation in this regard is similar to that of phase separation in mixtures of partially miscible solvents. It is suggested that the evaluation of the effects of biological macromolecules on the solvent properties of aqueous media and the measurement of the interfacial tension as a function of these solvent properties may be more productive for gaining insights into the mechanism of liquid–liquid phase separation than the study of structural details of proteins and RNAs engaged in the process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Celebrating the First Impact Factor of Biomolecules)
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Research

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22 pages, 4972 KiB  
Article
Structural and Functional Analyses of Human ChaC2 in Glutathione Metabolism
by Yen T. K. Nguyen, Joon Sung Park, Jun Young Jang, Kyung Rok Kim, Tam T. L. Vo, Kyu-Won Kim and Byung Woo Han
Biomolecules 2020, 10(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10010031 - 24 Dec 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4236
Abstract
Glutathione (GSH) degradation plays an essential role in GSH homeostasis, which regulates cell survival, especially in cancer cells. Among human GSH degradation enzymes, the ChaC2 enzyme acts on GSH to form 5-l-oxoproline and Cys-Gly specifically in the cytosol. Here, we report [...] Read more.
Glutathione (GSH) degradation plays an essential role in GSH homeostasis, which regulates cell survival, especially in cancer cells. Among human GSH degradation enzymes, the ChaC2 enzyme acts on GSH to form 5-l-oxoproline and Cys-Gly specifically in the cytosol. Here, we report the crystal structures of ChaC2 in two different conformations and compare the structural features with other known γ-glutamylcyclotransferase enzymes. The unique flexible loop of ChaC2 seems to function as a gate to achieve specificity for GSH binding and regulate the constant GSH degradation rate. Structural and biochemical analyses of ChaC2 revealed that Glu74 and Glu83 play crucial roles in directing the conformation of the enzyme and in modulating the enzyme activity. Based on a docking study of GSH to ChaC2 and binding assays, we propose a substrate-binding mode and catalytic mechanism. We also found that overexpression of ChaC2, but not mutants that inhibit activity of ChaC2, significantly promoted breast cancer cell proliferation, suggesting that the GSH degradation by ChaC2 affects the growth of breast cancer cells. Our structural and functional analyses of ChaC2 will contribute to the development of inhibitors for the ChaC family, which could effectively regulate the progression of GSH degradation-related cancers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Celebrating the First Impact Factor of Biomolecules)
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