Marine microorganisms as an untapped source of bioactive compounds

The search for novel biologically active molecules has extended to the screening of organisms associated with less explored environments. In this sense, Oceans, which cover nearly the 67% of the globe, are interesting ecosystems characterized by a high biodiversity that is worth being explored. As such, marine microorganisms are highly interesting as promising sources of new bioactive compounds of potential value to humans. Some of these microorganisms are able to survive in extreme marine environments and, as a result, they produce complex molecules with unique biological interesting properties for a wide variety of industrial and biotechnological applications. Thus, different marine microorganisms (fungi, myxomycetes, bacteria, and microalgae) producing compounds with antioxidant, antibacterial, apoptotic, antitumoral and antiviral activities have been already isolated. This review compiles and discusses the discovery of bioactive molecules from marine microorganisms reported from 2018 onwards. Moreover, it highlights the huge potential of marine microorganisms for obtaining highly valuable bioactive compounds.     

微生物脂肪酶稳定性研究进展

脂肪酶广泛应用于食品、药物、生物燃料、诊断、生物修复、化学品、化妆品、清洁剂、饲料、皮革和生物传感器等工业领域,微生物脂肪酶是商品化脂肪酶的重要来源。高温、酸性、碱性和有机溶剂等恶劣的工业生产环境使得脂肪酶的进一步工业应用受到限制,获取稳定性好的脂肪酶成为打破这一限制的关键环节。本文重点对提高微生物脂肪酶稳定性的策略进行了综述:挖掘极端微生物脂肪酶资源;利用定向进化、理性设计和半理性设计等蛋白质工程策略改造脂肪酶;利用物理吸附、封装、共价结合和交联等酶的固定化技术提高脂肪酶的稳定性;利用物理/化学修饰、表面展示以及多种改良策略相结合提高脂肪酶的稳定性。结合作者前期对酶工程的研究发现,新型酶催化剂的获得应该基于明确的设计思路,结合多种改造方法,基于定向进化-理性设计、定向进化-半理性设计、蛋白质工程-酶的固定化、蛋白质工程-物理/化学修饰、酶的固定化-物理/化学修饰等组合改造,比单一的改造方法具有更高的效率。     

Timing alters how a heat shock affects a host-parasitoid interaction

Abiotic factors' effects on species are now well-studied, yet they are still often difficult to predict, especially for strongly interacting species. If these altered abiotic factors and species interactions occur as discrete events in time, such complications may occur because of the events’ relative timing. One such discrete abiotic factor is the short-duration, large magnitude increase in temperature called a heat shock. This study investigates how the timing of heat shocks affects the successful attack and reproduction of a parasitoid wasp (Aphidius ervi) attacking its host, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum). We tested three relative timings: 1) heat shock before the wasp attacks hosts, 2) heat shock while the wasp is foraging, and 3) heat shock after the wasp has attacked hosts. In each scenario we compared wasp mummy production (pupal stage) with and without a heat shock. Our results showed that a heat shock had the largest effect when it occurred while wasps actively foraged, with fewer mummies produced when exposed to a heat shock compared to the no heat shock control. Follow-up behavioral tests suggest this was caused by wasps becoming inactive during heat shocks. In contrast, when heat shocks were applied three days before or after foraging, we found no difference in mummy production between the heat shock treatment and no heat shock control. These results show the potential importance of timing when considering the ramifications of an altered abiotic factor, especially with relatively discrete abiotic events and interactions.     

A novel algorithm with differential evolution and coral reef optimization for extreme learning machine training

Extreme learning machine (ELM) is a novel and fast learning method to train single layer feed-forward networks. However due to the demand for larger number of hidden neurons, the prediction speed of ELM is not fast enough. An evolutionary based ELM with differential evolution (DE) has been proposed to reduce the prediction time of original ELM. But it may still get stuck at local optima. In this paper, a novel algorithm hybridizing DE and metaheuristic coral reef optimization (CRO), which is called differential evolution coral reef optimization (DECRO), is proposed to balance the explorative power and exploitive power to reach better performance. The thought and the implement of DECRO algorithm are discussed in this article with detail. DE, CRO and DECRO are applied to ELM training respectively. Experimental results show that DECRO-ELM can reduce the prediction time of original ELM, and obtain better performance for training ELM than both DE and CRO.     

The effects of weather on beef carcass and growth traits

To predict the impact of climate change on our beef animals and systems, we need a better understanding of how beef cattle traits are affected by varying weather and frequency of extreme events. We analysed the effect of minimum and maximum temperatures and average daily precipitation on a range of important carcass traits, including age at slaughter, cold carcass weight, carcass growth rate and conformation and fat score (N = >1.6 million), as well as calf 200-day live weight and growth rate (N = >270 000), using data from abattoirs across Britain (carcass traits) and calves in Scottish suckler beef herds (live weights and growth). Animals which experienced higher daily maximum and minimum temperatures had slower carcass and calf growth rates. Increased precipitation also led to poorer cold carcass weights, conformation scores, calf 200-day weights and calf growth. We also analysed the effect of frequency of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, cold waves, and dry and wet days. The frequency of heatwaves, dry and wet days were shown to have significant negative effects on almost all traits considered, for example, predicting that an increase in the frequency of heatwaves by 1 day per 100 days of life would reduce cold carcass weights by about 200 g and increase age at slaughter by about 3 days. Results show that varying weather and frequency of extreme weather, across the lifetime of a beef animal, influences traits which affect the potential profit for a beef farmer. These effects may be due to several factors, including direct effects on the animal, as well as feed availability and management decisions made by the farmer. However, there is potential to mitigate negative effects through a range of animal management strategies.     

No need for speed: slow development of fungi in extreme environments

Microbial growth under extreme conditions is often slow. This is partly because large amounts of energy are diverted into cellular mechanisms that allow survival under hostile conditions. Because this challenge is universal and diversity in extreme environments is low compared to non-extreme environments, slow-growing microorganisms are not overgrown by other species. In some cases, especially when nutrients are scarce, slow growth was even shown to increase stress tolerance. And in at least some species of extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi, growth rate appears to be coupled with their very unusual morphologies, which in turn may be an adaptation to extreme conditions. However, there is more than one strategy of survival in extreme environments. Fungi that thrive in extremes can be divided into (i) ubiquitous and polyextremotolerant generalists and (ii) rarely isolated specialists with narrow ecological amplitudes. While generalists can compete with mesophilic species, specialists cannot. When adapting to extreme conditions, the risk of an evolutionary trade-off in the form of reduced fitness under mesophilic conditions may limit the maximum stress tolerance achievable by polyextremotolerant generalists. At the same time, specialists are rarely found in mesophilic environments, which allows them to evolve to ever greater extremotolerance, since a reduction of mesophilic fitness is likely to have little impact on their evolutionary success.     

Exploration of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake: a concept paper on the development, organisation and execution of an experiment to explore, measure and sample the environment of a West Antarctic subglacial lake

Antarctic subglacial lakes have, over the past few years, been hypothesised to house unique forms of life and hold detailed sedimentary records of past climate change. Testing this hypothesis requires in situ examinations. The direct measurement of subglacial lakes has been considered ever since the largest and best-known lake, named Lake Vostok, was identified as having a deep water-column. The Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) programme, set up by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to oversee subglacial lakes research, state that prior exploration of smaller lakes would be a “prudent way forward”. Over 145 subglacial lakes are known to exist in Antarctica, but one lake in West Antarctica, officially named Ellsworth Subglacial Lake (referred to hereafter as Lake Ellsworth), stands out as a candidate for early exploration. A consortium of over 20 scientists from seven countries and 14 institutions has been assembled to plan the exploration of Lake Ellsworth. An eight-year programme is envisaged: 3 years for a geophysical survey, 2 years for equipment development and testing, 1 year for field planning and operation, and 2 years for sample analysis and data interpretation. The science experiment is simple in concept but complex in execution. Lake Ellsworth will be accessed using hot water drilling. Once lake access is achieved, a probe will be lowered down the borehole and into the lake. The probe will contain a series of instruments to measure biological, chemical and physical characteristics of the lake water and sediments, and will utilise a tether to the ice surface through which power, communication and data will be transmitted. The probe will pass through the water column to the lake floor. The probe will then be pulled up and out of the lake, measuring its environment continually as this is done. Once at the ice surface, any water samples collected will be taken from the probe for laboratory analysis (to take place over subsequent years). The duration of the science mission, from deployment of the probe to its retrieval, is likely to take between 24 and 36 h. Measurements to be taken by the probe will provide data about the following: depth, pressure, conductivity and temperature; pH levels; biomolecules (using life marker chips); anions (using a chemical analyzer); visualisation of the environment (using cameras and light sources); dissolved gases (using chromatography); and morphology of the lake floor and sediment structures (using sonar). After the probe has been retrieved, a sediment corer may be dropped into the lake to recover material from the lake floor. Finally, if time permits, a thermistor string may be left in the lake water to take time-dependent measurements of the lake’s water column over subsequent years. Given that the comprehensive geophysical survey of the lake will take place in two seasons during 2007–2009, a two-year instrument and logistic development phase from 2008 (after the lake’s bathymetry has been assessed) makes it possible that the exploration of Lake Ellsworth could take place at the beginning of the next decade.     

Identification of novel loci influencing refractive error in East Asian populations using an extreme phenotype design

The global “myopia boom” has raised significant international concerns. Despite a higher myopia prevalence in Asia, previous large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) were mostly based on European descendants. Here, we report a GWAS of spherical equivalent (SE) in 1852 Chinese Han individuals with extreme SE from Guangzhou (631 < ?6.00D and 574 > 0.00D) and Wenzhou (593 < ?6.00D and 54 > ?1.75D), followed by a replication study in two independent cohorts with totaling 3538 East Asian individuals. The discovery GWAS and meta-analysis identify three novel loci, which show genome-wide significant associations with SE, including 1q25.2 FAM163A, 10p11.22 NRP1/PRAD3, and 10p11.21 ANKRD30A/MTRNR2L7, together explaining 3.34% of SE variance. 10p11.21 is successfully replicated. The allele frequencies of all three loci show significant differences between major continental groups (P < 0.001). The SE reducing (more myopic) allele of rs10913877 (1q25.2 FAM163A) demonstrates the highest frequency in East Asians and much lower frequencies in Europeans and Africans (EAS = 0.60, EUR = 0.20, and AFR = 0.18). The gene-based analysis additionally identifies three novel genes associated with SE, including EI24, LHX5, and ARPP19. These results provide new insights into myopia pathogenesis and indicate the role of genetic heterogeneity in myopia epidemiology among different ethnicities.     

Evolved psychology in a novel environment

The human “environment of evolutionary adaptedness” can only be inferred indirectly. In contrast, the behavior of some nonhuman animals can be compared among “natural” and various altered environments. As an example, male immigration tactics in unprovisioned versus provisioned macaque (Macaca) populations are compared using Tooby and Cosmides’s (1992) framework for evolutionary functional analysis. In unprovisioned populations, social groups contain few males, and immigrant male takeovers of alpha rank occur frequently. In provisioned populations, groups contain many males, and males almost invariably enter social groups at very low rank and rise in rank only as more dominant males emigrate or die. Male conformity to the “seniority rule” is hypothesized to represent the behavioral output of an evolved decision-making algorithm (psychological mechanism) that takes into account (1) the net payoff of each rank in the dominance hierarchy and (2) the power of male group size as a predictor of the likelihood of successful immigrant takeover. Joseph H. Manson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests are social relationships in nonhuman primates and humans, with particular emphases on mate choice, courtship tactics, intrasexual competition, and (currently) mother-infant relationships and infant handling. He has conducted fieldwork on rhesus macaques at Cayo Santiago and white-faced capuchins in Costa Rica.     

Gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase from Haloferax sp. D1227

Gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase from the extreme halophile Haloferax sp. D1227 (Hf. D1227) was purified using a three-step procedure. The enzyme was found to be a homotetramer of 42 000 ± 1000 Da subunits, with a native molecular weight of 174 000 ± 6000 Da. The optimal salt concentration, temperature, and pH for enzyme activity were 2 M KCl or NaCl, 45°C, and pH 7.2, respectively. The gene encoding Hf. D1227 gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase was cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Haloferax volcanii. The deduced amino acid sequence exhibited a 9.2% excess acidic over basic amino acids typical of halophilic enzymes. Four novel histidine clusters and a possible extradiol dioxygenase fingerprint region were identified. Received: November 19, 1997 / Accepted: May 12, 1998