In this issue, Lin et al. report the discovery of P12, a 14 amino acid peptide from the first fibronectin (FN) type III domain of FN, which has the capability of enhancing cell survival in culture and improving wound healing in rat skin. P12 belongs to a new class of bioactive peptides that they have named epiviosamines. Epiviosamines may have clinical applications.

A bioactive peptide that combines glucagon with the thyroid hormone T3 lowers lipid levels, improves glucose tolerance, and promotes energy expenditure to treat symptoms and underlying causes of metabolic disease. The two active components both maximize their combined benefits and mitigate the negative consequences of treatment with each alone.

Gouveia, R. M., Castelletto, V., Alcock, S. G., Hamley, I. W. and Connon, C. J. (2013) Bioactive films produced from self­ assembling peptide amphiphiles as versatile substrates for tuning cell adhesion and tissue architecture in serum­free conditions. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 1 (44). pp. 6157­ 6169. ISSN 0959­9428 doi: https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TB21031F Available at http://centaur.rea...

A convenient method to prepare supramolecular bioconjugates in a facile and scalable manner is by a modular approach, whereby self-assembling units and peptides are coupled using oxime chemistry. We here report syntheses of bioactive ureidopyrimidinone-based peptide conjugates, and their resultant self-assembly into fibrous structures.

Photoaffinity labeling followed by tandem mass spectrometry is an often used strategy to identify protein targets of small-molecule drugs or drug candidates, which, under ideal conditions, enables the identification actual binding site. In case bioactive peptides, however, identifying distinct site hampered because complex fragmentation patterns during spectrometry. We here report development a...

Cyanobacteria are considered a promising source for new ‎pharmaceutical lead compounds and a large number of chemically diverse and ‎bioactive metabolites have been obtained from cyanobacteria. Despite of ‎several worldwide studies on prevalence of NRPSs and PKSs among the ‎cyanobacteria, none of them included Iranian cyanobacteria of Kermanshah ‎province. Therefore, the aim of this study was t...

The de novo evolution of proteins is now considered a frequented route for biological innovation, but the genetic and biochemical processes that lead to each newly created protein are often poorly documented. The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) contains the unusual gene PawS1 (Preproalbumin with SFTI-1) that encodes a precursor for seed storage albumin; however, in a region usually discard...

With a large number of DNA and protein sequences already known, the crucial question is to find out how the biological function of these macromolecules is "written" in the sequence of nucleotides or amino acids. Biological processes in any living organism are based on selective interactions between particular bio-molecules, mostly proteins. The rules governing the coding of a protein's biologic...

Recently, we found that Streptomyces olivochromogenes NBRC 3561 produced a bioactive peptide, so we sequenced its genome to clarify its biosynthesis. We report here the draft genome sequence of S. olivochromogenes NBRC 3561, in which 40 potential secondary metabolite gene clusters were predicted by antiSMASH.

The pathways controlling cilium biogenesis in different cell types have not been fully elucidated. We recently identified peptidylglycine α-amidating monooxygenase (PAM), an enzyme required for generating amidated bioactive signaling peptides, in Chlamydomonas and mammalian cilia. Here, we show that PAM is required for the normal assembly of motile and primary cilia in Chlamydomonas, planaria a...