Screening concepts,characterization and structural analysis of microbial-derived bioactive lipopeptides: a review

Lipopeptide biosurfactants are surface active biomolecules that are produced by a variety of microorganisms. Microbial lipopeptides have gained the interest of microbiologists, chemists and biochemists for their high biodiversity as well as efficient action, low toxicity and good biodegradability in comparison to synthetic counterparts. In this report, we review methods for the production, isolation and screening, purification and structural characterization of microbial lipopeptides. Several techniques are currently available for each step, and we describe the most commonly utilized and recently developed techniques in this review. Investigations on lipopeptide biosurfactants in natural products require efficient isolation techniques for the characterization and evaluation of chemical and biological properties. A combination of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques offer opportunities for a better characterization of lipopeptide structures, which in turn can lead to the application of lipopeptides in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agricultural and bioremediation industries.     

肺炎支原体液体培养法检测的实验评价

目的比较液体培养法和固体培养法平行检测肺炎支原体结果的一致性;评价液体培养法检测肺炎支原体的可靠性。方法采用液体培养基和固体琼脂培养基平行检测1 648份临床标本的肺炎支原体,比较同一份标本在2种培养基上的检测结果。结果液体培养法阳性296例,阳性率为18%;固体培养法阳性244例,阳性率为14.8%;液体培养法阳性而固体培养法阴性57例;固体培养阳性而液体培养法为阴性5例。2种方法的阳性检出率比较差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论肺炎支原体快速液体培养法与固体培养有较好的一致性,具有方便、简单、准确且可以用于早期检测等优点,适合临床大批量标本筛查。需结合患者临床症状等排除真菌和耐药菌造成的假阳性。     

基于Solexa高通量测序的香菇C_(91-3)功能基因的挖掘和开发

香菇是全球人工种植最为普遍的食用菌,近年来,国内外的研究者对香菇进行了深入的研究,发现香菇在预防、治疗恶性肿瘤方面都具有重要的药用价值。尤其是香菇多糖制剂现已正式作为辅助化疗药物应用于临床。但是对香菇中蛋白质生物学活性的研究以及从蛋白质水平去发掘其抗肿瘤活性的功能基因却鲜有报道。本文拟就香菇的基因组、转录组及功能基因挖掘和开发现状进行简要论述。     

Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of actinomycetes for natural product discovery

Actinomycetes are one of the most valuable sources of natural products with industrial and medicinal importance. After more than half a century of exploitation, it has become increasingly challenging to find novel natural products with useful properties as the same known compounds are often repeatedly re-discovered when using traditional approaches. Modern genome mining approaches have led to the discovery of new biosynthetic gene clusters, thus indicating that actinomycetes still harbor a huge unexploited potential to produce novel natural products. In recent years, innovative synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools have greatly accelerated the discovery of new natural products and the engineering of actinomycetes. In the first part of this review, we outline the successful application of metabolic engineering to optimize natural product production, focusing on the use of multi-omics data, genome-scale metabolic models, rational approaches to balance precursor pools, and the engineering of regulatory genes and regulatory elements. In the second part, we summarize the recent advances of synthetic biology for actinomycetal metabolic engineering including cluster assembly, cloning and expression, CRISPR/Cas9 technologies, and chassis strain development for natural product overproduction and discovery. Finally, we describe new advances in reprogramming biosynthetic pathways through polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase engineering. These new developments are expected to revitalize discovery and development of new natural products with medicinal and other industrial applications.     

A comparison of survey and focal follow methods for estimating individual activity budgets of cetaceans

Activity budget data are essential for determining behavioral responses to physiological and ecological variables. Yet, few studies are available to investigate the robustness, accuracy, and biases of the methods used to estimate activity budgets for cetaceans. In this study, we compare activity budgets of 55 adult female bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia derived from two methods: surveys (n = 6,903) and focal follows (n = 1,185, totaling 2,721 h of observation). Activity budgets estimated from survey data differed in all behavioral states compared to focal follow data. However, when controlling for temporal autocorrelation, only time spent socializing and time spent traveling remained disparate between the methods. To control for biases associated with assigning group‐level behavior to individuals, we also compared survey and focal follow activity budgets for lone females. Here we found differences between methods in time spent foraging and traveling regardless of whether we controlled for temporal autocorrelation, which suggests detection biases likely play a role in explaining differences in activity budget estimates between the two methodologies. Our results suggest that surveys are less representative of individual‐level activity budgets, and thus, when individual‐level knowledge about behavior is needed, focal follows are preferred.     

中国香菇种质资源中两种主要病毒的携带情况检测

香菇病毒病通常具有潜隐性特征,携带病毒的香菇菌株往往并不表现出明显症状,但一旦爆发常造成较大经济损失。本文采用RT-PCR检测技术,系统分析了中国香菇野生种质及栽培种质中两种主要病毒Lentinula edodes mycovirus HKB（LeV-HKB）和L. edodes partitivirus 1（LePV1）的携带情况。对来源于中国主要栽培省（市）的90个香菇栽培菌株的检测结果表明,有67.8%（61/90）的供试菌株单独或复合感染有LeV-HKB和LePV1中的1种或2种,LeV-HKB病毒携带率56.7%（51/90）,明显高于LePV1 35.6%（32/90）;栽培菌株两种病毒的复合感染率为24.4%（22/90）。对地理来源几乎覆盖整个中国的125个野生菌株的检测结果表明,有75.2%（94/125）的供试菌株至少感染了LeV-HKB和LePV1中的1种,8.8%（11/125）野生菌株同时感染了两种病毒,且野生菌株中LePV1病毒携带率70.4%（88/125）明显高于LeV-HKB 13.6%（17/125）。栽培菌株和野生菌株中LeV-HKB和LePV1病毒的存在与否与菌株地理来源没有明显相关性,显示香菇病毒极可能通过担孢子在自然界广泛传播。本研究为开展香菇菌种病毒病快速检测,从源头控制香菇病毒病传播,追踪病毒病的发生流行规律奠定了基础。     

Blue excitable green emitting Ce3+ doped CaS phosphor for w‐LEDs

CaS:Ce³⁺ is an efficient green‐emitting (535 nm) phosphor, excitable with blue light (450–470 nm) and was synthesized via a solid‐state reaction method by heating under a reducing atmosphere. The luminescent properties, photoluminescent (PL) excitation and emission of the phosphor were analyzed by spectrofluorophotometry. The excitation and emission peaks of the CaS:Ce³⁺ phosphor lay in the visible region, which made them relevant for light‐emitting diode (LED) application for the generation of white light. Judd‐Oflet parameters were calculated and revealed that green light emitted upon blue illumination. The prepared phosphor had strong blue absorption at 470 nm and a broad green emission band range from 490–590 nm with the peak at 537 nm. The characteristics of the CaS:Ce³⁺ phosphor make it suitable for use as a wavelength tunable green emitting phosphor for three band white LEDs pumped by a blue LED (470 nm). The Commission International de l'Eclairage co‐ordinates were calculated by a spectrophotometric method using the spectral energy distribution (0.304, 0.526) and confirm the green emission. The potential application of this phosphor is as a phosphor‐converted white light‐emitting diode. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Rapid Identification of Self-incompatibility of Cabbage by Amino Acid Analysis

Amino acid analysis was employed in the study of protein in the stigma and pollen of self-incompatible and self-compatible lines of cabbage ( Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata ); from which distinct differences in the contents of amino acids were found between the two lines. The analysis of variance indicated that the contents of 9 kinds of amino acids in the stigma and 6 kinds in the pollen were comparatively much higher in the self-incompatible ones. Cluster analysis was per-formed in order to delete the factors related to the gene type variance. Unassured variances were abandoned by accurate examination. The threonine and tyrosine contents in the stigma and the glycine and alanine content in the pollen were considered as standards to identify self-incompatibility. In the self-incompatible lines, the above-mentioned amino acid contents were higher than 0.223%, 0.358%, 1.593% and 1.464%, respectively; whereas in the self-compatible lines, they were less than 0.185% ,0.164%, 1.470% and 1.006% correspondingly.     

PBL教学法在发酵工程课程教学中的应用

根据发酵工程的课程特点,在课程教学中探索使用PBL教学方法。经过几年的教学实践,逐步形成了“一个问题串联一次课,一个作业串联整个课程”的PBL教学模式。结果显示,通过采用该模式,激发了学生的学习兴趣,提高了学生的自主学习能力、工程应用能力和创新意识,取得了良好的教学效果。     

HPLC-analysis of algal pigments: comparison of columns,column properties and eluents

The effects of columns (Nucleosil C₁₈ODS, MZ-PAH, YMC-PACK C₃₀), column properties (inner diameters of 4 mm, 3 mm and 2 mm, pore-width 10 nm and 30 nm) and eluents (methanol, acetonitrile, acetone, water) were tested on the separation of algal pigments. The length of columns was 250 mm and particle size was 5 μm. Flow rates and gradients were adjusted to optimize peak separation; remaining chromatographic conditions were kept constant. The resolution of chromatographic systems was tested with pigment standards and various algal cultures. Total flow rate and retention times decreased with decreasing inner diameter, whereas pressure, sensitivity and peak-width increased. Pore width had negligible effects on the chromatographic separation of pigments under the test conditions. Only with acetonitrile as eluent were all the taxonomically important pigments resolved adequately: zeaxanthin (Cyanophyceae), lutein (Chlorophyceae), fucoxanthin (Bacillariopyceae), alloxanthin (Cryptophyceae), peridinin (Dinophyceae).