The Oguri & Tanifuji group (A03), with the Tanaka group (Tohoku Univ.), has solved the cryo-EM structure of SacC, the NRPS building the pentacyclic core of safracin B. An MbtH-like protein and a covalent probe were key to imaging the monomer. In @J_A_C_S! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac…

The Kuzuyama group (A01) identified KpbH, a native PLP-dependent enzyme that builds kaitocephalin’s nonpeptidic scaffold via a decarboxylative Mannich reaction, expanding routes to noncanonical proline-derived amino acids. doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6c12964 @J_A_C_S

The Ogasawara (A03) and Maruyama (A01) groups have revealed that the vicinal disulfide bond in jiangxilassin A enhances the rigidity of the lasso peptide ring and contributes to efficient biosynthesis. doi.org/10.1093/bbb/zbag135

A new review by Kudo (A01) in Natural Product Reports highlights the biosynthetic stages and significance of C-methylation in natural product biosynthesis. doi.org/10.1039/d6np00056h

Profs. Abe & Mori's group, in collaboration with the Awakawa (A01), Kudo (A01), & Terada (A02) groups, elucidated the catalytic mechanism of a bacterial 2-methyl-ACC synthase, now out in @J_A_C_S! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac…

The Terada group (A02) has developed pdb2reaction, an open-source workflow for automated reaction-path elucidation directly from enzyme PDB structures. pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/…

The Ogasawara (A03), Uchiyama (A02), and Maruyama (A01) groups have uncovered a 60-year-old biosynthetic mystery! We revealed a novel enzymatic skeletal editing reaction that constructs the unique 1,3,5-triazine core during 5-azacytidine biosynthesis. doi.org/10.1038/s41929-026-0…

The cover art for the JACS Au paper by the Shinada, Sato, and Kuzuyama groups! 🎉Read the paper here: doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.6c008… @JACS_Au

Congratulations to Dr. Ushimaru (A01) on receiving the Hamada Award from the Society for Actinomycetes Japan (SAJ) for a series of studies on metalloenzyme-mediated radical chemistry! 🎉

The Ozaki (A01) and Asai groups have identified the biosynthetic gene cluster for PF1451A, a promising agrochemical lead, and uncovered a new family of tailoring enzymes in fungal RiPP biosynthesis. @BBB_journal academic.oup.com/bbb/advance…

The Ozaki (A01) and Asai groups have elucidated the biosynthetic pathway of chlorflavonin. Precise control of isomerization between 6- and 8-methoxyflavonoids is key to the biosynthesis of this fungal flavonoid. @J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/jacsat/article/…

The Ushimaru (A01) and Abe groups uncovered a repurposed SAM synthetase that catalyzes an unusual nucleoside transfer in cytidyl–cyclitol biosynthesis. This work highlights how primary metabolic enzyme scaffolds evolve new functions. @J_A_C_S pubs.acs.org/jacsat/article/…

UNKAI facilitates identifying the functions of previously uncharacterized enzymes in biosynthetic pathways with greater accuracy than methods based solely on sequence similarity.

The Terada Group (A02) has published "UNKAI", a new AI model for predicting the functional identity of protein pairs using ESM-C latent representations and attention mechanisms. spj.science.org/doi/10.34133…

The Katsuyama (A03) group identified a promiscuous ATP-dependent diazotase using genome mining and SSN analysis, providing a useful tool for the chemoenzymatic synthesis of diverse N–N bond-containing compounds. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac… @J_A_C_S

The Shinada (A03) group, in collaboration with Prof. Kuzuyama (A01) and Prof. Sato (A02) achieved the formal chemoenzymatic skeletal editing of fusicoccane core to access 6-aza-fusicoccanes. @JACS_Au pubs.acs.org/jaaucr/article/…

The Shinada (A03) group, in collaboration with Prof. Kuzuyama (A01) and Prof. Sato (A02) achieved the integrated chemoenzymatic synthesis of four dolabellane-type natural products using the diterpene cyclase, CotB2. @JOC_OL . pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs…