Different utilizable substrates have different effects on cometabolic fate of imidacloprid in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Imidacloprid, the largest selling insecticide in the world, is more stable in soil, and its environmental residue and effects are attracting people's close attention. One of imidacloprid metabolism pathways was degraded to CO₂ through olefin imidacloprid pathway. Here, we report that sucrose as a utilizable substrate enhanced the cometabolism of imidacloprid by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia CGMCC 1.1788 to produce 5-hydroxy imidacloprid, whereas when succinate was used as a utilizable substrate, 5-hydroxy imidacloprid from imidacloprid was transformed to olefin imidacloprid, and the latter was further degraded. The hydroxylation of imidacloprid required NAD(P)H, whereas the dehydration of 5-hydroxy imidacloprid to form olefin imidacloprid required succinate rather than NAD(P)H. NADPH greatly favored the hydroxylation of imidacloprid more than NADH, and NADPH inhibited the dehydration of 5-hydroxy imidacloprid to olefin imidacloprid, but NADH did not. Therefore, sucrose may be metabolized through hexose monophosphate pathway to produce mainly NADPH which participated in the hydroxylation of imidacloprid to 5-hydroxy imidacloprid and meanwhile inhibited the dehydration of 5-hydroxy imidacloprid to olefin imidacloprid, whereas succinate may be metabolized mainly through the tricarboxylic acid cycle to produce NADH which was involved in hydroxylation of imidacloprid to 5-hydroxy imidacloprid but did not inhibit the dehydration of 5-hydroxy imidacloprid to olefin imidacloprid. Our results have a significant meaning in further understanding the influence of different utilizable substrates on the cometabolic pathways and the fate of environmental imidacloprid.     

Genetic structure of silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus (Euphrasen, 1788)) in the Arabian Sea,Bay of Bengal,and South China Sea as indicated by mitochondrial COI gene sequences

The silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus) is a commercially important species native to the Indo‐western Pacific area. In the present study, the genetic structure of five P. argenteus populations from the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and South China Sea were investigated using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. All populations showed high levels of haplotype diversity (h) and low levels of nucleotide diversity (π). Phylogenetic trees indicated that the haplotypes could be divided into three clusters, indicating the geographic distribution of the five populations. Analysis of molecular variance (amova ) indicated the intra‐region variation among these populations to be highly significant. The average pairwise differences and F_st values among the three regions were also found to be significant. These results suggest that P. argenteus in these regions has strong geographic genetic structure. The present results provide new information for the genetic assessment, fishery management, and conservation of this species.     

Development of thermodynamic optimum searching (TOS) to improve the prediction accuracy of flux balance analysis

Flux balance analysis (FBA) has been widely used in calculating steady‐state flux distributions that provide important information for metabolic engineering. Several thermodynamics‐based methods, for example, quantitative assignment of reaction directionality and energy balance analysis have been developed to improve the prediction accuracy of FBA. However, these methods can only generate a thermodynamically feasible range, rather than the most thermodynamically favorable solution. We therefore developed a novel optimization method termed as thermodynamic optimum searching (TOS) to calculate the thermodynamically optimal solution, based on the second law of thermodynamics, the minimum magnitude of the Gibbs free energy change and the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP). Then, TOS was applied to five physiological conditions of Escherichia coli to evaluate its effectiveness. The resulting prediction accuracy was found significantly improved (10.7–48.5%) by comparing with the ¹³C‐fluxome data, indicating that TOS can be considered an advanced calculation and prediction tool in metabolic engineering. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 914–923. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A single amino acid determines the catalytic efficiency of two alkenal double bond reductases produced by the liverwort Plagiochasma appendiculatum

Alkenal double bond reductases (DBRs) catalyze the NADPH-dependent reduction of the α,β-unsaturated double bond of many secondary metabolites. Two alkenal double bond reductase genes PaDBR1 and PaDBR2 were isolated from the liverwort species Plagiochasma appendiculatum. Recombinant PaDBR2 protein had a higher catalytic activity than PaDBR1 with respect to the reduction of the double bond present in hydroxycinnamyl aldehydes. The residue at position 56 appeared to be responsible for this difference in enzyme activity. The functionality of a C56 to Y56 mutation in PaDBR1 was similar to that of PaDBR2. Further site-directed mutagenesis and structural modeling suggested that the phenol ring stacking between this residue and the substrate was an important determinant of catalytic efficiency.     

以葡萄糖为底物一步法合成γ-氨基丁酸整合型重组钝齿棒杆菌的构建

[目的]为了构建一株直接利用廉价的葡萄糖合成γ-氨基丁酸的重组钝齿棒杆菌,将来自于植物乳杆菌γ-氨基丁酸合成途径的关键酶谷氨酸脱羧酶基因(lpgad)在产谷氨酸菌株钝齿棒杆菌中进行整合表达,实现葡萄糖到GABA的一步法生产.[方法]运用PCR技术扩增得到带有tac启动子的谷氨酸脱羧酶基因tacgad.通过重叠PCR的方法获得钝齿棒杆菌精氨酸合成途径关键酶N-乙酰谷氨酸激酶(NAGK)基因内部缺失型基因△argB.利用自杀载体pK18mobsacB构建同源整合载体pK18-△argB::tacgad,以△argB的上下游序列为同源臂,通过两次同源重组将tacgad基因整合到钝齿棒杆菌基因组,同时将NAGK基因argB灭活,利用蔗糖致死基因sacB反向筛选标记筛选得到谷氨酸脱羧酶的重组钝齿棒杆菌C.crenatum △argB::tacgad.重组钝齿棒杆菌以葡萄糖为底物进行发酵,测定GABA含量.[结果]重组菌C.crenatum △argB::tacgad成功表达谷氨酸脱羧酶,同时阻断了精氨酸合成途径对谷氨酸到GABA代谢途径的竞争,粗酶液基本检测不到NAGK活性,发酵液无精氨酸合成.通过96 h发酵,重组菌可积累约8.28 g/L的GABA.[结论]本研究通过将谷氨酸脱羧酶基因定向整合到钝齿棒杆菌精氨酸合成途径的关键酶基因argB内部,成功表达谷氨酸脱羧酶的同时阻断竞争途径精氨酸的合成.本研究为实现直接利用葡萄糖合成GABA的一步法生产奠定了基础.     

基于宏基因组学的猪群样本病毒探测方法的建立

极其多样的病毒广泛存在于我们周围的环境和动物体内,其中很多病毒是人类所未知的,而发现未知病毒常常受制于病毒常规检测技术的局限性.[目的]构建未知病毒检测技术平台.[方法]应用病毒宏基因组学的理念,结合新型分子诊断技术,首先利用过滤和核酸酶处理去除样品宿主核酸干扰,然后随机PCR扩增潜在的病毒宏基因组,最后通过大规模测序及序列分析获取病毒核酸信息.[结果]利用此技术我们对猪瘟病毒(CSFV)细胞培养物和猪圆环病毒2型(PCV2)感染猪病料进行了分析,分别检测到序列总长度1680 bp,占基因组13.7％的CSFV序列和序列总长度834 bp,占基因组47.2％的PCV2序列;利用此检测技术平台研究一未知病原细胞培养物,通过测序和序列分析,结果显示56条序列中有26条为副流感病毒5型(PIV5)同源序列,覆盖了其基因组全长的16.4％;此外,应用本研究建立的方法结合新一代高通量测序,我们在混合的7份病原未知的病猪组织样品中检测到了1.1％的病毒序列,包括CSFV、PCV2、猪细环病毒(TTSuV)、猪bocavirus (PBoV)和人腺病毒6型(Ad6)等的部分基因序列.[结论]本研究建立的基于病毒宏基因组学的未知病毒的检测方法突破了传统病毒研究方法的缺陷,对于猪群样本中病毒的检测具有较高的敏感性,有望为新发、突发感染性疾病的诊断和监测提供技术支持.