Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34315871›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

An enzymatic activation of formaldehyde for nucleotide methylation.

Charles Bou-Nader, Frederick W Stull, Ludovic Pecqueur, Philippe Simon, Vincent Guérineau, Antoine Royant, Marc Fontecave, Murielle Lombard, Bruce A Palfey, Djemel Hamdane

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 35% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. A Riboflavin-Derived Flavinium Salt Mediates Chemoselective Methylation Reactions.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Charles Bou-Nader *Laboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0003-0955-0204
Frederick W Stull *Programs in Chemical Biology and the Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2969-4224
Ludovic Pecqueur *Laboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0002-0396-699X
Philippe SimonLaboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Vincent GuérineauCNRS, Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles UPR 2301, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Antoine RoyantCEA, CNRS, Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France.
Marc FontecaveLaboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0002-8016-4747
Murielle LombardLaboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Bruce A PalfeyPrograms in Chemical Biology and the Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Djemel HamdaneLaboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS-UMR 8229, Collège De France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. djemel.hamdane@college-de-france.fr.ORCID 0000-0002-1737-8320
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FRUniversity of Michigan · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Folate enzyme cofactors and their derivatives have the unique ability to provide a single carbon unit at different oxidation levels for the de novo synthesis of amino-acids, purines, or thymidylate, an essential DNA nucleotide. How these cofactors mediate methylene transfer is not fully settled yet, particularly with regard to how the methylene is transferred to the methylene acceptor. Here, we uncovered that the bacterial thymidylate synthase ThyX, which relies on both folate and flavin for activity, can also use a formaldehyde-shunt to directly synthesize thymidylate. Combining biochemical, spectroscopic and anaerobic crystallographic analyses, we showed that formaldehyde reacts with the reduced flavin coenzyme to form a carbinolamine intermediate used by ThyX for dUMP methylation. The crystallographic structure of this intermediate reveals how ThyX activates formaldehyde and uses it, with the assistance of active site residues, to methylate dUMP. Our results reveal that carbinolamine species promote methylene transfer and suggest that the use of a CH

Indexed as

BiocatalysisCarbon-13 Magnetic Resonance SpectroscopyCatalytic DomainEnzyme ActivationFlavinsFormaldehydeMethylationNucleotidesStatic ElectricityThermotoga maritimaThymidylate SynthaseFlavinsFormaldehydeNucleotidesThymidylate Synthase

Identifiers

PMID34315871
PMCPMC8316439
OpenAlexW3185914333

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.