This week’s articles explain why broad-leaved plants are susceptible to a microbial toxin that does not affect monocots; identify the enzymes that detyrosinate tubulin; and present synthetic biological systems for recording environmental signals and for translating a biochemical reaction into dynamic cellular behavior.
PLANT BIOLOGY
An extra sugar protects
Lenarčič et al. showed that plant sensitivity to a microbial cytotoxin is mediated through the sugar head groups of an abundant plant sphingolipid (see also Van den Ackerveken).
CYTOSKELETON
Tubulin carboxypeptidase identity revealed
Aillaud et al. and Nieuwenhuis et al. have identified the long-sought tubulin carboxypeptidases responsible for microtubule detyrosination (see also Akhmanova and Maiato).
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
A CRISPR device to record time
Sheth et al. developed a scalable strategy that can record temporal biological signals into the genomes of a bacterial population.
A rationally designed DNA-based oscillator
Srinivas et al. generated a compiler that specifies dynamic response behaviors in DNA strand displacement reactions.
