Chemically reactive metabolites such as formaldehyde are often toxic and are proposed to react promiscuously with biomolecules. New work shows that some reactive sites on proteins are uniquely sensitive to formaldehyde, leading to functionally important regulation of protein and cell functions.
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Emms, V.L., Chothia, S.Y. & Hopkinson, R.J. Friend or foe-maldehyde. Nat Chem Biol 20, 268–270 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-024-01558-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-024-01558-9