Members of the diverse bacterial phylum Bacteroidetes have colonized virtually all types of habitats on Earth. They are among the major members of the microbiota of animals, especially in the gastrointestinal tract, can act as pathogens and are frequently found in soils, oceans and freshwater. In these contrasting ecological niches, Bacteroidetes are increasingly regarded as specialists for the degradation of high molecular weight organic matter, i.e., proteins and carbohydrates. This review presents the current knowledge on the role and mechanisms of polysaccharide degradation by Bacteroidetes in their respective habitats. The recent sequencing of Bacteroidetes genomes confirms the presence of numerous carbohydrate-active enzymes covering a large spectrum of substrates from plant, algal, and animal origin. Comparative genomics reveal specific Polysaccharide Utilization Loci shared between distantly related members of the phylum, either in environmental or gut-associated species. Moreover, Bacteroidetes genomes appear to be highly plastic and frequently reorganized through genetic rearrangements, gene duplications and lateral gene transfers (LGT), a feature that could have driven their adaptation to distinct ecological niches. Evidence is accumulating that the nature of the diet shapes the composition of the intestinal microbiota. We address the potential links between gut and environmental bacteria through food consumption. LGT can provide gut bacteria with original sets of utensils to degrade otherwise refractory substrates found in the diet. A more complete understanding of the genetic gateways between food-associated environmental species and intestinal microbial communities sheds new light on the origin and evolution of Bacteroidetes as animals’ symbionts. It also raises the question as to how the consumption of increasingly hygienic and processed food deprives our microbiota from useful environmental genes and possibly affects our health.

In the environment, vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases (VHPO) are likely to play a key role in the production of biogenic organo-halogens. These enzymes contain vanadate as a prosthetic group, and catalyze, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the oxidation of halide ions (Cl -, Br -or I -). They are classified according to the most electronegative halide that they can oxidize. Since the first discovery of a vanadium bromoperoxidase in the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum thirty years ago, structural and mechanistic studies have been mainly conducted on two types of VHPO, chloro-and bromoperoxidases, and more recently on a vanadium-dependent iodoperoxidase. In this review, we highlight the main progress obtained on the structure-function relation of these proteins, based on biochemistry, crystallography and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The comparison of 3D protein structures of the different VHPO helped identify the residues that govern the molecular mechanisms of catalysis and specificity of VHPO. Vanadium K-edge XAS gave further important insight to understand the fine changes around the vanadium cofactor during the catalytic cycle. The combination of different structural approaches, at different scales of resolution, shed new light on biological vanadium coordination in the active site, and its importance for the catalytic cycle and halide specificity of vanadium haloperoxidases. Keywords (max 6)Vanadium-dependent haloperoxidase, vanadium coordination, crystallographic structure, structural evolution, oligomeric state, X-ray absorption spectroscopy on biological vanadium

A midthroughput screening follow-up program targeting the first bromodomain of the human BRD4 protein, BRD4(BD1), identified an acetylated-mimic xanthine derivative inhibitor. This compound binds with an affinity in the low micromolar range yet exerts suitable unexpected selectivity in vitro against the other members of the bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) family. A structure-based program pinpointed a role of the ZA loop, paving the way for the development of potent and selective BET-BRDi probes.