Category Archives: Uncategorized

New Nature Comms Paper

The deazaflavin cofactor F420 is involved in a range of important redox reactions in bacteria and archaea. However, there are aspects of the F420 biosynthetic pathway that remain unclear. This work presents a revised biosynthetic pathway for F420, showing that phosphoenolpyruvate, rather than 2-phospho-L-lactate, is the key intermediate during the biosynthesis of F420. A rangeContinue reading “New Nature Comms Paper”

New review article – the potential of remote mutations in protein engineering

Rational protein engineering efforts normally focus on altering parts of proteins that are directly involved in function – e.g. active sites or ligand binding sites. But changes to residues that are remote from these sites can have a large impact on protein structure, dynamics and function. In this review, we discuss recent literature that reports,Continue reading “New review article – the potential of remote mutations in protein engineering”

Drosophila melanogaster nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony encodes an atypical condensation domain – new paper

We recently collaborated on this piece of work from members of Max Cryle’s group (Monash/EMBL Australia). Using a range of techniques including protein X-ray crystallography, isothermal titration calorimetry and activity assays, this work characterises the structure and function of the C-terminal domain of the nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony. Results show that this C-terminal region encodesContinue reading “Drosophila melanogaster nonribosomal peptide synthetase Ebony encodes an atypical condensation domain – new paper”

“Cryptic genetic variation shapes the adaptive evolutionary potential of enzymes” – new paper

New eLIFE paper available online now! https://elifesciences.org/articles/40789 In this work, a collaboration with members of the Tokuriki (UBC) and Kamerlin (Upsalla University) groups, we performed directed evolution of four orthogous metallo-beta-lactamases towards a new function and found that different starting genotypes led to distinct evolutionary outcomes. We used a range of techniques, including directed evolution, enzymeContinue reading ““Cryptic genetic variation shapes the adaptive evolutionary potential of enzymes” – new paper”

“Structural and evolutionary approaches to the design and optimization of fluorescence-based small molecule biosensors” – new review paper

Our latest Current Opinion in Structural Biology review on the structural and evolutionary approaches to the design of fluorescence-based small-molecule biosensors is available online now (https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YeAO_,2BdUwRJk). In this paper, we outline current and emerging approaches for designing and optimizing genetically encoded small-molecule biosensors: using naturally-occurring sensory proteins as scaffolds for building sensors recognition domains, strategiesContinue reading ““Structural and evolutionary approaches to the design and optimization of fluorescence-based small molecule biosensors” – new review paper”

Jackson Group PhD Graduations

A massive congratulations to Dr Brendon Lee and Dr Eleanor Campbell, who celebrated their graduations at the end of 2018. They looked very nice and happy in their floppy hats. Smiles all around! Brendon has taken up a post-doctoral position in the Jackson group and Eleanor has been working as a post-doc in the HollfelderContinue reading “Jackson Group PhD Graduations”

FAD sequestering proteins protect mycobacteria – new paper!

In this work, recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, we use a number of biochemical and structural analyses to show that a previously uncharacterised protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis acts as a flavin-sequestering protein that is required for survival during hypoxia. We show that this protein is a member of the flavin- and deazaflavin-dependent oxidoreductases (FDORs) and isContinue reading “FAD sequestering proteins protect mycobacteria – new paper!”

Neofunctionalisation of two Drosophila esterases – new paper!

Understanding how proteins gain new functions following gene duplication (i.e. neofunctionalisation) via structural changes is a key research theme in the Jackson group. In this paper, published recently in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, we use phylogenetic analysis, biochemical comparisons, and structural analysis to explore the evolutionary trajectories that link two Drosophila esterases. This work was doneContinue reading “Neofunctionalisation of two Drosophila esterases – new paper!”