Congratulations to Dr. Zimmer, Jacob Morgan and Joshua McNamara for their recent publication in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. In this paper they describe how the bacterial signaling molecule cyclic di-GMP stimulates the biosynthesis of bacterial cellulose. Zimmer and colleagues crystallized a complex of c-di-GMP with membrane-bound cellulose synthase and by comparison with their previously published apo-enzyme (Nature 493:181) found an allosteric mechanism of catalysis. This work represents the first molecular description any c-di-GMP-activated enzyme.
For the new NSMB paper see: http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nsmb.2803.html