Economical production of isomaltulose from agricultural residues in a system with sucrose isomerase displayed on Bacillus subtilis spores

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering - A safe, efficient, environmentally friendly process for producing isomaltulose is needed. Here, the biocatalyst, sucrose isomerase (SIase) from Erwinia...     

Clinical Features and Treatment of 2019-nCov Pneumonia Patients in Wuhan: Report of A Couple Cases

正Dear Editor,Till January 20, 2020, the 2019-new coronavirus(2019-nCoV) has caused more than one hundred cases in Wuhan(WMHC 2020). During a retrospective study of recent pneumonia patients in our department, we found two patients who are likely being infected with the 2019-nCoV.     

Antibody response and therapy in COVID-19 patients: what can be learned for vaccine development?

Science China Life Sciences - The newly emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected millions of people and caused tremendous morbidity and mortality worldwide....     

Chromosome‐level genome assembly of an important pine defoliator,Dendrolimus punctatus (Lepidoptera; Lasiocampidae)

Dendrolimus spp. are important destructive pests of conifer forests, and Dendrolimus punctatus Walker (Lepidoptera; Lasiocampidae) is the most widely distributed Dendrolimus species. During periodic outbreaks, this species is said to make “fire without smoke” because large areas of pine forest can be quickly and heavily damaged. Yet, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that underlie the unique ecological characteristics of this forest insect. Here, we combined Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) RSII single‐molecule long reads and high‐throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi‐C) genomics‐linked reads to produce a high‐quality, chromosome‐level reference genome for D. punctatus. The final assembly was 614 Mb with contig and scaffold N50 values of 1.39 and 22.15 Mb, respectively, and 96.96% of the contigs anchored onto 30 chromosomes. Based on the prediction, this genome contained 17,593 protein‐coding genes and 56.16% repetitive sequences. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that D. punctatus diverged from the common ancestor of Hyphantria cunea, Spodoptera litura and Thaumetopoea pityocampa ~ 108.91 million years ago. Many gene families that were expanded in the D. punctatus genome were significantly enriched for the xenobiotic biodegradation system, especially the cytochrome P450 gene family. This high‐quality, chromosome‐level reference genome will be a valuable resource for understanding mechanisms of D. punctatus outbreak and host resistance adaption. Because this is the first Lasiocampidae insect genome to be sequenced, it also will serve as a reference for further comparative genomics.     

汉江中下游浮游植物群落结构及水质评价

南水北调中线工程调水后,汉江中下游水华频发引起社会关注。为掌握调水后汉江中下游浮游植物的群落结构特征,于2017年11月、2018年2月、4月和8月在汉江中下游的8个断面对浮游植物进行了定量调查。调查结果显示:共鉴定浮游植物163种,群落组成以硅藻门(Bacillariophyta)、绿藻门(Chlorophyta)为主,其次是蓝藻门(Cyanophyta)。浮游植物优势种主要为硅藻门的梅尼小环藻(Cyclotella meneghiniana)、颗粒直链藻最窄变种(Melosira granulata var.)、变异直链藻(Melosira varians)、颗粒直链藻(Melosira granulata),隐藻门的卵形隐藻(Cryptomonas ovata),蓝藻门的弯曲颤藻(Oscillatoria sp.)和伪鱼腥藻(Pseudoanabaena sp.),且都有较高的优势度。浮游植物密度和生物量的季节变化范围分别为0. 33×106cells/L～1. 82×106cells/L和0. 49 mg/L～7. 38 mg/L。基于Shannon-Weaver多样性指数和Pielou均匀度指数以及优势种评价法对汉江中下游的水质进行评价,判断汉江中下游水质整体处于中污状态。     

Maximizing antibody production in a targeted integration host by optimization of subunit gene dosage and position

Historically, therapeutic protein production in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells has been accomplished by random integration (RI) of expression plasmids into the host cell genome. More recently, the development of targeted integration (TI) host cells has allowed for recombination of plasmid DNA into a predetermined genomic locus, eliminating one contributor to clone-to-clone variability. In this study, a TI host capable of simultaneously integrating two plasmids at the same genomic site was used to assess the effect of antibody heavy chain and light chain gene dosage on antibody productivity. Our results showed that increasing antibody gene copy number can increase specific productivity, but with diminishing returns as more antibody genes are added to the same TI locus. Random integration of additional antibody DNA copies in to a targeted integration cell line showed a further increase in specific productivity, suggesting that targeting additional genomic sites for gene integration may be beneficial. Additionally, the position of antibody genes in the two plasmids was observed to have a strong effect on antibody expression level. These findings shed light on vector design to maximize production of conventional antibodies or tune expression for proper assembly of complex or bispecific antibodies in a TI system.