{"title":"Cover Picture: (Isr. J. Chem. 5/2024)","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202480501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202480501","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Chemical Biology of Nucleic Acid Modifications II Issue editor: Chun-Xiao Song, Guifang Jia, Seraphine Wegner, and Chengqi Yi. The cover picture highlights Chuan He's wide-ranging research contributions across chemical biology, nucleic acid chemistry, biology, and epigenetics. His work focused on understanding DNA and RNA modifications in gene regulation. His groundbreaking discovery of reversible RNA modification revealed a new mode of gene regulation by RNA alongside DNA — and protein-based epigenetic mechanisms, leading to the emergence of the epitranscriptomics field.\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure>\u0000 </p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202480501","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The 87th Annual Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society: April 3, 2024, Smolarz Auditorium, Tel Aviv University","authors":"Ehud Keinan","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202400041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To what Extent could Solid-State Chemistry and Nanotechnology Impact Sustainable Lifestyle of Human Being on Earth in the Years to Come","authors":"Reshef Tenne","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202300069","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ijch.202300069","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The lifestyle of mankind has improved significantly since the start of the industrial revolution and the establishment of a science (engineering)-based society, some 250 years ago. Notwithstanding, the outcome of these advances, a major threat is looming on the future of humanity due to the greenhouse effect produced by fossil fuel effluents and the degradation of the environment on earth. Chemistry and chemical engineering are key players in confronting these challenges and establishing sustainable lifestyle on earth. In particular, the interplay between materials research; solid-state chemistry and nanoscience (nanotechnology) will be crucial for the future of sustainable life on earth. Education of the population-at-large to shift from a consumer-based society into sustainability-concerned lifestyle, is mandatory for realization of this paradigm shift. Harmonizing the interplay between entrepreneurs, financing bodies, public agencies, international organizations, legal bodies and research institutes should also play an integral part of this new equation.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202300069","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141512431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regulatory Role of RNA N6-Methyladenosine Modification in Plants","authors":"Subiding Tayier, Enlin Tian, Guifang Jia","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202400029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><i>N</i><sup>6</sup>-methyladenosine (m<sup>6</sup>A), as the most abundant and well-studied RNA modification, can be reversibly added or removed by m<sup>6</sup>A methyltransferase and demethylase. The further molecular and biological function of m<sup>6</sup>A is achieved by the recognition of its binding protein. m<sup>6</sup>A functions in the diverse progress of RNA processing, including transcription regulation, splicing, nuclear export, stability, and translation, to regulate the fate of cells. Although been extensively studied in various animal cell systems, research on m<sup>6</sup>A's regulatory functions in plant cells lags. In recent years, with a deepening understanding of the functions of m<sup>6</sup>A and the development of various sequencing technologies, researches on m<sup>6</sup>A in plant cells have gradually increased. In this review, we focused on discussing the molecular functions of m<sup>6</sup>A in the nucleus and cytoplasm, aiming to elucidate the specific molecular mechanisms by which m<sup>6</sup>A regulates the fate of RNAs in plants. Finally, we provide some perspectives on future investigations of the detailed molecular mechanism of m<sup>6</sup>A-mediated regulation in plants, which might provide insights into future strategies for achieving multiple growth regulatory processes in crops.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Discovery and Accurate Detection of Rare Nucleic Acid Modifications","authors":"Ru-Jia Luo, Hong-Xuan Chen, Jin-Wen Kong, Zhang Zhang, Nabieh Ayoub, Guan-Zheng Luo","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202400024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Nucleic acid modifications play essential roles in diverse biological processes, ranging from gene expression regulation to stress response. While traditional research focused on common modifications like methylation, recent discoveries are unveiling a wide range of rare modifications with potentially crucial functions. However, accurately detecting and mapping these modifications pose significant challenges due to their low abundance and diverse chemical properties. This article summarizes the recent discoveries of rare DNA and RNA modifications across various organisms, highlighting their potential biological significance. Furthermore, it critically evaluates the limitations of current mapping techniques, including potential sources of false positives and negatives. Finally, the article discusses emerging strategies for overcoming these challenges and future opportunities in the field of rare nucleic acid modification detection.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141488673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Namjin Cho, Haneul Jin, Hyewon Jeon, Kanghun Lee, Joongoo Lee
{"title":"Expanding the Scope of Ribosome-Mediated Biosynthesis in vitro using tRNA-Aminoacylating Ribozyme","authors":"Namjin Cho, Haneul Jin, Hyewon Jeon, Kanghun Lee, Joongoo Lee","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202300174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202300174","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Proteins are synthesized within ribosomes through the polymerization of amino acids (AAs). This process requires prior activation of AAs through aminoacylation that attaches them to their corresponding transfer RNAs (tRNAs). Within cells, this attachment is facilitated by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase, resulting in a tRNA:AA conjugate. A set of ribozymes developed to acylate tRNA with non-canonical substrates enables this process outside the confines of living cells, thereby facilitating the synthesis of novel bio-based products. In modern biotechnology, aminoacylating ribozymes contribute to the production of innovative bio-based materials bearing functional non-canonical chemical substrates (NCSs) and fill the gaps in synthesizing unique polymeric backbones, extending the scope beyond traditional peptide bonds. This review summarizes current understanding of flexizymes at the molecular level and their application in generating exceptional polymeric backbones through ribosome-mediated synthesis <i>in vitro</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 8-9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202300174","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142328506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anionic Calixarenes in Biomembrane Transport of Peptides","authors":"Justin Neumann, Andreas Hennig","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202400023","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biomembranes function as hydrophobic barriers for hydrophilic substances enabling compartmentalization in biological systems. This poses, however, a problem for the targeted introduction of cargo into cells. The result is a high demand for delivery pathways into cells with the goal to investigate biological processes or to treat diseases by improved delivery. Polycationic cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are interesting as they can cross cell membranes and transport attached cargos directly into the cytosol. Their efficiency can be improved by anionic amphiphilic counterion activators, which bind to the CPPs to form charge-neutralized counterion-CPP complexes with sufficient hydrophobicity to cross the lipid bilayer membrane. This review summarizes recent results, which establish amphiphilic calixarenes as a new class of biocompatible and non-cytotoxic counterion activators with very high transport activities at nanomolar concentrations. We also include a brief summary of fluorescence-based assays with large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) to investigate counterion-activated transport. Current methods use liposome-encapsulated, supramolecular host-dye reporter pairs including calixarenes, which provide new mechanistic insights and enable rapid in vitro identification of suitable activators. Taken together, amphiphilic calixarenes are currently emerging as prime candidates for counterion activation of membrane transport, which are highly modifiable and can be specifically tailored towards different cargoes and membrane types.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 6-7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202400023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141967954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Practical Applications of Supramolecular Macrocyclic Hosts in the Field of Herbal Medicines","authors":"Huijuan Yu, Kejing Niu, Yuting Zhao, Yuefei Wang","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202300179","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ijch.202300179","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Herbal medicines (HMs) are gaining increasing popularity and recognition worldwide due to their eco-friendliness and efficacy. With their multi-compounds, multi-targets, and multi-pathways characteristics, HMs have been used in treatment of various diseases. However, the clinical applications of preparations containing HMs have been limited due to their inherent physicochemical properties, including low water solubility, poor stability, and unsatisfactory bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Supramolecular macrocyclic hosts, like cyclodextrins, calixarenes, cucurbiturils, and pillararenes, are important objects of researches in supramolecular chemistry. These hosts have been utilized to encapsulate the ingredients, improve the solubility of poorly water-soluble components, enhance the stability of the tested compounds, increase the bioavailability of bioactive compounds, and ensure the safety of HMs. Herein, we provide a brief introduction to the theories of supramolecular chemistry and summarize the extensive applications of supramolecular macrocyclic hosts in the field of HMs. These applications encompass the screening of bioactive compounds in HMs and the enhancement of druggability for HMs. We hope this review can provide a strategy for dealing with the challenges of HMs, thereby enabling their better applications and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 6-7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141343353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonius J. P. Hopstaken, Enno Große Wichtrup, Dr. Seino A. K. Jongkees
{"title":"The Great Codon Escape: Vacating Codons for Genetic Code Expansion and Ribosome Stalling","authors":"Antonius J. P. Hopstaken, Enno Große Wichtrup, Dr. Seino A. K. Jongkees","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400012","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ijch.202400012","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In ribosomal synthesis of peptides and proteins, genetic information is translated into an amino acid polymer according to the genetic code, which describes the translational command encoded by each codon. However, parts of the genetic code can be adjusted to customize translations. One option is to remove decoding for a specific codon, resulting in a vacant codon. Such vacant codons can be used to stall the ribosome for mechanistic studies and display techniques. Alternatively, the liberated codon can be assigned to encode for incorporation of a noncanonical building block for expansion of the genetic code. In this review we provide an overview of the methods currently available for vacating codons in prokaryotic translation (agnostic of how these are later applied), targeting factors such as amino-acyl tRNA synthetases, tRNA, release factors, and the initiation machinery. Moreover, we assess applicability and compatibility of the currently available techniques and discuss which have the potential to develop into even more powerful approaches in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 8-9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202400012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141352039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supramolecular Approaches to the Detoxification of Nerve Agents","authors":"Prof. Dr. Stefan Kubik","doi":"10.1002/ijch.202400019","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ijch.202400019","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A promising, but not yet practiced, approach to the treatment of neurotoxic organophosphate poisoning is the administration of a scavenger that rapidly deactivates the nerve agent before it can exert its toxic effects. The detoxification rates required for successful use of this therapy can currently only be achieved with enzymes, but synthetic scavengers, whose mode of action is based on key concepts of supramolecular chemistry, are an attractive alternative. Considerable progress has recently been made in the development of such scavengers, and compounds from several receptor classes are now available that not only bind nerve agents but also degrade them at promising rates. This review provides an overview of the field and highlights recent developments.</p>","PeriodicalId":14686,"journal":{"name":"Israel Journal of Chemistry","volume":"64 6-7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijch.202400019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141357892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}