Effects of growth conditions on exopolysaccharide production by Cyanospira capsulata

Batch cultures of Cyanospira capsulata, a heterocystous cyanobacterium possessing a thick polysaccharidic capsule, were characterized by increasing viscosity owing to the continuous release of a soluble polysaccharide (EPS) into the culture medium. Both capsulated trichomes and solubilized EPS contributed to the flow properties of whole cultures. A typical pseudoplastic behaviour, the more marked the more aged were the cultures, was evidenced.The production of EPS was investigated under different growth conditions by changing some nutritional and physical parameters known to affect the synthesis of exopolysaccharides in algae and cyanobacteria. Among the factors tested (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ or PO₄⁻⁴ deficiencies, salinity and pH) only Mg²⁺ shortage caused a significant enhancement of the EPS production. Under continuous illumination in open ponds, the EPS productivity of batch cultures on standard mineral medium was about 5·8 g m⁻² day⁻¹, whereas under Mg²⁺ deficiency with a consequent increase of the cultures' viscosity     

工程菌种自动化高通量编辑与筛选研究进展

合成生物学(synthetic biology)与经典生物学研究的革命性区别之一是合成生物学能将生物实验的对象、方法、技术和流程高度标准化和模块化,创建出自动化与高通量的合成生物铸造模式。该模式通过复杂生物过程与自动化设施的结合,颠覆过往劳动密集型的研究范式,获得更高的技术迭代能力,极大促进了合成生物学的发展和产业化应用。值此天津工业生物技术研究所创立10周年之际,本文回顾了研究所在工业菌种自动化高通量编辑与筛选领域的系列重要工作进展,对基因克隆(gene cloning)、基因组编辑(genome editing)、编辑序列设计(editing sequence design)等生物技术的自动化实现,以及流式细胞、液滴微流控、全基因组规模扰动测序等高通量筛选技术进行了分析讨论,并展望了本领域未来的发展方向。望借此为创建具有自主知识产权的优秀菌种及其产业应用提供智能化、自动化和全链条覆盖的整体支撑能力。     

干旱胁迫下发菜光合作用相关基因差异表达分析

该研究以不同失水处理的发菜为研究材料,以充分吸水状态的发菜为对照,利用高通量测序技术和qRT PCR技术检测了干旱胁迫下发菜光合作用相关基因差异表达规律,并对光合色素和酶活在干旱胁迫下的变化进行了研究。结果表明：(1)发菜在不同程度干旱胁迫下有113个光合作用相关基因差异表达,其中失水30%、75%和100%的发菜分别有44个、74个和91个光合作用相关基因差异表达。(2)随着干旱胁迫程度的加深藻胆素、叶绿素a和类胡萝卜素含量逐渐降低,Rubisco活性随着干旱胁迫程度的增强先上升后下降,GAPDH活性随着干旱胁迫的增强呈现下降的趋势。研究表明,发菜通过光合作用相关基因的差异表达调控光合作用以适应干旱胁迫。该研究结果对进一步研究发菜干旱胁迫响应机制及其耐旱光合机理奠定了基础。     

Use of biodiesel‐derived crude glycerol for vancomycin production by Amycolatopsis orientalis XMU‐VS01

Crude glycerol is a primary by‐product in the biodiesel industry. Microbial fermentation on crude glycerol for producing value‐added products provides opportunities to utilize a large quantity of this by‐product. This study investigates the potential of using the crude glycerol to produce vancomycin (glycopeptide antibiotics) through fermentation of Amycolatopsis orientalis XMU‐VS01. The results show that crude glycerol was the most effective carbon source for mycelium growth and vancomycin production, with 40–60 g/L glycerol concentration as optimal range. Among other culture medium components, potato protein (nitrogen source) and the phosphate concentration had significant effects (p<0.05) for vancomycin production. A Box‐Behnken design and response surface methodology were employed to formulate the optimal medium. Their optimal values were determined as 52.73 g/L of glycerol, 17.36 g/L of potato protein, and 0.1 g/L of dipotassium phosphate. A highest vancomycin yield of 7.61 g/L with biomass concentration of 15.8 g/L was obtained after 120 h flask fermentation. The yield of vancomycin was 3.5 times higher than with basic medium. The results suggest that biodiesel‐derived crude glycerol is a promising feedstock for production of vancomycin from A. orientalis culture.     

谷氨酸棒杆菌中基于CRISPR/Cas9的多位点碱基编辑系统的优化

作为新型的基因组编辑工具,碱基编辑技术结合了CRISPR/Cas系统的定位功能和碱基脱氨酶的编辑功能,可实现特定位点的碱基突变,具有不产生双链DNA断裂,无需外源模板且不依赖染色体DNA同源重组的优势.目前,研究者们已在重要的工业生产菌株谷氨酸棒杆菌(Corynebacterium glutamicum)中开发了多种碱...     

Induction of antigen-specific regulatory T cells following overexpression of a Notch ligand by human B lymphocytes

In mice, activation of the Notch pathway in T cells by antigen-presenting cells overexpressing Notch ligands favors differentiation of regulatory T lymphocytes responsible for antigen-specific tolerance. To determine whether this mechanism operates in human T cells, we used Epstein-Barr virus-positive lymphoblastoid cell lines (EBV-LCL) as our (viral) antigen-presenting cells and overexpressed the Notch ligand Jagged-1 (EBV-LCL J1) by adenoviral transduction. The EBV-LCL J1s were cocultured with autologous T cells, and the proliferative and cytotoxic responses to EBV antigens were measured. Transduction had no effect on EBV-LCL expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens or of costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86, and CD40. However, we observed a 35% inhibition of proliferation and a >65% reduction in cytotoxic-T-cell activity, and interleukin 10 production was increased ninefold. These EBV-LCL J1-stimulated T lymphocytes act as antigen-specific regulatory cells, since their addition to fresh autologous T cells cultured with autologous nontransduced EBV-LCL cells significantly inhibited both proliferation and cytotoxic effector function. Within the inhibitory population, CD4(+)CD25(+) and CD8(+)CD25(-) T cells had the greatest activity. This inhibition appears to be antigen-specific, since responses to Candida and cytomegalovirus antigens were unaffected. Hence, transgenic expression of Jagged-1 by antigen-presenting cells can induce antigen-specific regulatory T cells in humans and modify immune responses to viral antigens.     

Biodiversity of Phototrophic Biofilms Dwelling on Monumental Fountains

Among the stone monumental assets, artistic fountains are particularly affected by microbial colonization due to constant contact with water, giving rise to biodegradation processes related with physical–chemical and aesthetical alterations. In this paper, we make an overview of reported biodiversity of the phototrophic patina developed in various fountains of Italy and Spain. The microbial composition of four fountains (two from Florence, Italy and two from Granada, Spain) was investigated using traditional and/or molecular techniques. The results indicated many common similarities with regard the phototrophic biodiversity for all the investigated fountains. Automated ribosomal RNA intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), a molecular fingerprint tool, was used to examine the eubacterial and cyanobacterial community for two of the investigated fountains. The principal component analysis of ARISA profiles strengthens the results obtained by traditional methods and revealed separate clusters, as a consequence of the differences of micro-environmental conditions for each fountain.     

QTL detection on porcine chromosome 12 for fatty-acid composition and association analyses of the fatty acid synthase, gastric inhibitory polypeptide and acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase alpha genes

Refinement of previous QTL on porcine chromosome 12 for fatty-acid composition and a candidate gene association analysis were conducted using an Iberian × Landrace cross. The concentrations of ten fatty acids were assayed in backfat tissue from which four metabolic ratios were calculated for 403 F₂ animals. Linkage analysis identified two significant QTL. The first QTL was associated with the average chain length ratio and the percentages of myristic, palmitic and gadoleic acids. The second QTL was associated with percentages of palmitoleic, stearic and vaccenic acids. Based upon its position on SSC12, fatty acid synthase was tested as a candidate gene for the first QTL and no significant effects were found. Similarly, gastric inhibitory polypeptide ( GIP ) and acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase alpha ( ACACA ) were tested as candidate genes for the second QTL using three SNPs in GIP and 15 synonymous SNPs in ACACA cDNA sequences. Two missense SNPs in GIP showed significant effects with palmitoleic and stearic fatty-acid concentration. Highly significant associations were found for two SNPs in ACACA with stearic, palmitoleic and vaccenic fatty-acid concentrations. These associations could be due to linkage disequilibrium with the causal mutations.     

Heavy metal sorption by released polysaccharides and whole cultures of two exopolysaccharide-producing cyanobacteria

The metal removal capacity of cultures of two capsulated, exopolysaccharide-producing cyanobacteria, Cyanospira capsulata and Nostoc PCC7936, were tested using copper (II) as the model metal. C. capsulata cultures removed the greatest amount of copper, with a maximum per unit of biomass (q _max) of 115.0±5.1 mg copper g⁻¹ of protein, compared with 85.0±3.2 removed with Nostoc PCC7936 cultures. Water solutions of pure polysaccharides (RPSs) released into the culture medium by C. capsulata and Nostoc PCC7936 achieved q _max values of 20.2±0.8 mg g⁻¹ copper per polysaccharide dry weight with C. capsulata RPS and 11.0±1.5 mg g⁻¹ with Nostoc PCC7936 RPS. Cultures of the two cyanobacteria also removed Zn (II) and Ni (II), in both single-metal systems and in multimetal systems with Cu; in the various single-metal systems more copper was removed than Zn or Ni, while in the multimetal systems a smaller amount of each individual metal was removed but the overall amount of all metal ions sorbed or the amount of copper sorbed in the copper-only system was almost the same with C. capsulata, and slightly higher with Nostoc PCC7936.     

An RNAi strategy for treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by mutant Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor neuron degeneration, paralysis and death. One cause of this disease is mutations in the Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. As mutant SOD1 acquires a toxic property that kills motor neurons, by reducing the mutant protein the disease progression may be slowed or prevented. While mutant SOD1 is toxic, the wild-type SOD1 is indispensable for motor neuron health. Therefore, the ideal therapeutic strategy would be to inhibit selectively the mutant protein expression. Previously we have demonstrated that RNA interference (RNAi) can selectively inhibit some mutant SOD1 expression. However, more than 100 SOD1 mutants can cause ALS and all mutants cannot be inhibited selectively by RNAi. To overcome this obstacle, we have designed a replacement RNAi strategy. Using this strategy, all mutants and wild-type genes are inhibited by RNAi. The wild-type SOD1 function is then replaced by designed wild-type SOD1 genes that are resistant to the RNAi. Here we demonstrate the concept of this strategy.