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Celebrating the First Impact Factor of Biomolecules

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Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 9918

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Vladimir N. Uversky

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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
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Editorial

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5 pages, 500 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

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://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom9090473 - 10 Sep 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4442

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 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

Open AccessArticle

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://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom10010031 - 24 Dec 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3559

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 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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