title: Building unique bonds to fight misplaced DNA.
abstract: A cyclic dinucleotide comprised of GMP and AMP was previously shown to be a key intermediate during activation of innate immune responses to cytosolic DNA. A report by Patel and Tuschl groups published in Cell reveals the structure of the enzyme involved in the synthesis of this second messenger and identifies this cyclic dinucleotide as a unique compound in metazoan cell signaling.
authors.affiliation: School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Caio T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Fagundes
authors.forename: Luke A J
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: O'Neill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009712:Nucleotides, Cyclic / Q000378:metabolism*; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry*; D015290:Second Messenger Systems
chemical_list: D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates; D009712:Nucleotides, Cyclic; D009713:Nucleotidyltransferases