CHEMISTRY: Water Lends a Hand

A MAPK Scaffold Lends a Helping Hand

The scaffold proteins of signaling pathways are thought to act as passive tethering devices bringing together catalytic components of signaling cascades. Good et al. (2009) now reveal that in the budding yeast the scaffold protein Ste5 acts as an allosteric activator of the mitogen-activated protein kinase Fus3, rendering it competent to be a kinase substrate for signal transmission.

During tangential migration, SDF1 lends the cytoskeleton a guiding hand.

Eye development: Notch lends a handedness

The arrangement of photoreceptors in the ommatidia of the Drosophila compound eye is polarized, having a handedness or chirality. Notch signalling helps determine this handedness, first by establishing a signalling center at the eye equator, and second by mediating a choice between two photoreceptor fates

Water and health, hand-in-hand for a day.

To raise awareness of the connection between water and health, WHOwas chosen as lead agency for World Water Day on 22 March. Scores of events, ranging from Internet-based discussions among students to ice-hockey games, music video releases, and the more traditional seminars and awards, took place in countries around the world. WorldWater Day has been celebrated annually since it was first conce...

Organic chemistry in water.

Water has emerged as a versatile solvent for organic chemistry in recent years. Water as a solvent is not only inexpensive and environmentally benign, but also gives completely new reactivity. The types of organic reactions in water are broad including pericyclic reactions, reactions of carbanion equivalent, reactions of carbocation equivalent, reactions of radicals and carbenes, transition-met...