Evaluation of Lignans from Piper cubeba against Schistosoma mansoni Adult Worms: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study

Six dibenzylbutyrolactonic lignans ((?)‐hinokinin ( 1 ), (?)‐cubebin ( 2 ), (?)‐yatein ( 3 ), (?)‐5‐methoxyyatein ( 4 ), dihydrocubebin ( 5 ) and dihydroclusin ( 6 )) were isolated from Piper cubeba seed extract and evaluated against Schistosoma mansoni. All lignans, except 5 , were able to separate the adult worm pairs and reduce the egg numbers during 24 h of incubation. Lignans 1 , 3 and 4 (containing a lactone ring) were the most efficient concerning antiparasitary activity. Comparing structures 3 and 4 , the presence of the methoxy group at position 5 appears to be important for this activity. Considering 1 and 3 , it is possible to see that the substitution pattern change (methylenedioxy or methoxy groups) in positions 3′ and 4′ alter the biological response, with 1 being the second most active compound. Computational calculations suggest that the activity of compound 4 can be correlated with the largest lipophilicity value.     

Recent advances in natural products exploitation in Streptomyces via synthetic biology

Natural products of microbial origin have proven to be the wellspring of clinically useful compounds for human therapeutics. Streptomyces species are predominant sources of bioactive compounds, most of which serve as potential drug candidates. While the exploitation of natural products has been severely reduced over the past two decades, the growing crisis of evolution and dissemination of drug resistant pathogens have again attracted great interest in this field. The emerging synthetic biology has been heralded as a new bioengineering platform to discover novel bioactive compounds and expand bioactive natural products diversity and production. Herein, we review recent advances in the natural products exploitation of Streptomyces with the applications of synthetic biology from three major aspects, including recently developed synthetic biology tools, natural products biosynthetic pathway engineering strategies as well as chassis host modifications.     

Amphibacillus xylanus谷氨酸脱氢酶基因工程菌培养条件优化

首先构建了5株表达NADH依赖型谷氨酸脱氢酶的大肠杆菌基因工程菌,获得来源于Amphibacillus xylanus的谷氨酸脱氢酶AxyGDH。其最适温度为60℃、最适p H为8.0,该条件下比酶活达到(903.1±24.6)U/mg,酶活半衰期为167h。其次,确定了表达AxyGDH的大肠杆菌基因工程菌E.coli BL21(DE3)/pET-28a(+)-AxyGDH的产酶条件:诱导剂IPTG浓度为0.7mmol/L、诱导温度为25℃;优化后的培养基组成为:甘油11.3g/L,酵母粉16.3g/L,Mg SO_4·7H_2O 0.62g/L,NaCl 0.5g/L,Na_2HPO_4·12H_2O 17.1g/L,KH_2PO_43g/L,NH_4Cl 1.5g/L。最后,在10L发酵罐中控制比生长速率为0.2h~(-1)进行补料分批发酵,所得AxyGDH的发酵酶活为(9 066±45)U/ml,是LB摇瓶发酵酶活的51.1倍,为谷氨酸脱氢酶的低成本生产奠定了基础。     

新型重组毕赤酵母产人胰岛素前体的表达工艺研究

以毕赤酵母为异源表达宿主合成人胰岛素前体,在实验室研究和工业生产中已有广泛应用。目前研究主要使用天然甲醇诱导型AOX1启动子,以甲醇为单一基础碳源进行胰岛素前体的诱导发酵生产。但在毕赤酵母高密度发酵生产过程中,甲醇代谢过程耗氧大、产热高,补料控制工艺复杂,限制了发酵生产的放大。基于前期对启动子AOX1的转录调控设计研究,提出以人工设计的高效组成型转录调控器件CSAD_5驱动胰岛素前体基因表达,开发了以葡萄糖为碳源的发酵生产工艺,以解决甲醇体系中的产热、耗氧及工艺控制问题。在此基础上,通过增强筛选压力提高异源基因拷贝,获得了一株胰岛素前体高表达重组毕赤酵母,利用优化的培养工艺在5L反应器水平发酵生产,胰岛素前体产量在108h达到1. 85g/L,为目前报道以葡萄糖为碳源,生产人胰岛素前体的最高水平,为胰岛素前体的工业生产及毕赤酵母的应用提供了新的思路和方法。     

Policy support for biochar: Review and recommendations

Significant evidence has accumulated demonstrating that soil biochar amendment has many environmental benefits; however, adoption has been slow. This raises the question of how to align the environmental benefits with commercial motivations to drive more widespread implementation. Here, we examine the role that government policy can play in accelerating production and use at commercial scale. We identify three types of programs that can support biochar production: commercial financial incentives, nonfinancial policy support, and research and development funding. We also describe how these programs are currently used to support biochar production. For example, financial incentives can motivate immediate changes in business practices while nonfinancial policies can be important mechanisms to educate consumers and expand market demand. Research and development support can provide the necessary funding for early‐stage innovations that may one day become commercially viable options, even without other types of policy support. There are different risk–reward profiles for each policy mechanism, and these must be considered when evaluating a policy direction. Finally, we offer broad recommendations to the development of policy that maximizes the net benefits of biochar adoption. Key recommendations include improving policies that allow for the monetization of environmental benefits and avoided costs, recognizing soil as a resource through national preservation policy, and developing a broadly accepted set of product standards for biochar.     

Intact cell mass spectrometry as a progress tracking tool for batch and fed-batch fermentation processes

Penicillin production during a fermentation process using industrial strains of Penicillium chrysogenum is a research topic permanently discussed since the accidental discovery of the antibiotic. Intact cell mass spectrometry (ICMS) can be a fast and novel monitoring tool for the fermentation progress during penicillin V production in a nearly real-time fashion. This method is already used for the characterization of microorganisms and the differentiation of fungal strains; therefore, the application of ICMS to samples directly harvested from a fermenter is a promising possibility to get fast information about the progress of fungal growth. After the optimization of the ICMS method to penicillin V fermentation broth samples, the obtained ICMS data were evaluated by hierarchical cluster analysis or an in-house software solution written especially for ICMS data comparison. Growth stages of a batch and fed-batch fermentation of Penicillium chrysogenum are differentiated by one of those statistical approaches. The application of two matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI–TOF) instruments in the linear positive ion mode from different vendors demonstrated the universal applicability of the developed ICMS method. The base for a fast and easy-to-use method for monitoring the fermentation progress of P. chrysogenum is created with this ICMS method developed especially for fermentation broth samples.     

Probiotic Strains Influence on Infant Microbiota in the In Vitro Colonic Fermentation Model GIS1

The main goal of our study was to evaluate the effect of the individual administration of five lyophilized lactic acid bacteria strains (Lactobacillus fermentum 428ST, Lactobacillus rhamnosus E4.2, Lactobacillus plantarum FCA3, Lactobacillus sp. 34.1, Weissella paramesenteroides FT1a) against the in vitro simulated microbiota of the human colon using the GIS1 system. The influence on the metabolic activity was also assessed by quantitative determination of proteins and polysaccharides at each segment of human colon. The obtained results indicated that the lactic acid bacteria L. rhamnosus E4.2 and W. paramesenteroides FTa1 had better efficiency in synthesising exopolysaccharides and also a better probiotic potential and therefore could be recommended for use in probiotics products or food industry.