Design and synthesis of a stereodynamic catalyst with reversal of selectivity by enantioselective self‐inhibition

Chirality plays a pivotal role in an uncountable number of biological processes, and nature has developed intriguing mechanisms to maintain this state of enantiopurity. The strive for a deeper understanding of the different elements that constitute such self‐sustaining systems on a molecular level has sparked great interest in the studies of autoinductive and amplifying enantioselective reactions. The design of these reactions remains highly challenging; however, the development of generally applicable principles promises to have a considerable impact on research of catalyst design and other adjacent fields in the future. Here, we report the realization of an autoinductive, enantioselective self‐inhibiting hydrogenation reaction. Development of a stereodynamic catalyst with chiral sensing abilities allowed for a chiral reaction product to interact with the catalyst and change its selectivity in order to suppress its formation, which caused a reversal of selectivity over time.     

Amphibian metamorphosis as a model for studying the developmental actions of thyroid hormone

The thyroid hormones L-thyroxine and triiodo-Lthyronine have profound effects on postenbryonic development of most vertebrates.Analysis of their action in mammals is vitiated by the exposure of the developing foetus to a number of maternal factors which do not allow one to specifically define the role of thyroid hormone (TH) or that of other hormones and factors that modulate its action.Amphibian metamorphosis is obligatorily dependent on TH which can initiate all the diverse physiological manifestations of this postembryonic developmental process(morphogenesis,cell death,re-structuring,etc.) in free-living embryos and larvas of most anurans.This article will first describe the salient features of metamorphosis and its control by TH and other hormones.Emphasis will be laid on the key role played by TH receptor (TR),in particular the phenomenon of TR gene autoinduction,in initiating the developmental action of TH.Finally,it will be argued that the findings on the control of amphibian metamorphosis enhance our understanding of the regulation of postembryonic development by TH in other vertebrate species.     

Consequences of relative cellular positioning on quorum sensing and bacterial cell-to-cell communication

Cell-to-cell bacterial communication via diffusible signals is addressed and the conceptual framework in which quorum sensing is usually described is evaluated. By applying equations ruling the physical diffusion of the autoinducer molecules, one can calculate the gradient profiles that would occur either around a single cell or at the center of volumes of increasing size and increasing cell densities. Water-based matrices at 25 °C and viscous biofilms at colder temperatures are compared. Some basic consequences relevant for the field of microbial signalling arise. As regards induction, gradient-mixing dynamics between as little as two cells lying at a short distance appears to be sufficient for the buildup of a concentration reaching the known thresholds for quorum sensing. A straight line in which the highest concentrations occur is also created as a consequence of the gradient overlap geometry, providing an additional signal information potentially useful for chemotactic responses. In terms of whole population signalling, it is shown how the concentration perceived by a cell in the center is critically dependent not only on the cell density but also on the size of the biofilm itself. Tables and formulas for the practical prediction of N -acyl homoserine lactones concentrations at desired distances in different cell density biofilms are provided.     

Online measurement of the respiratory activity in shake flasks enables the identification of cultivation phases and patterns indicating recombinant protein production in various Escherichia coli host strains

Escherichia coli is commonly used for recombinant protein production with many available host strains. Screening experiments are often performed in batch mode using shake flasks and evaluating only the final product concentration. This conventional approach carries the risk of missing the best strain due to limited monitoring capabilities. Thus, this study focuses on investigating the general suitability of online respiration measurement for selecting expression hosts for heterologous protein production. The oxygen transfer rate (OTR) for different T7‐RNA polymerase‐dependent Escherichia coli expression strains was compared under inducing and noninducing conditions. As model enzymes, a lipase A from Bacillus subtilis (BSLA) and a 3‐hydroxybutyryl‐CoA dehydrogenase from Thermus thermophilus (HBD) were chosen. Four strains were compared during expression of both enzymes in autoinduction medium. Additionally, four strains were compared during expression of the BSLA with IPTG induction. It was found that the metabolic burden during recombinant protein production induces a phase of constant OTR, while undisturbed cell growth with no or little product formation is indicated by an exponential increase. This pattern is independent of the host strain, expressed enzyme, and induction method. Furthermore, the OTR gives information about carbon source consumption, biomass formation, and the transition from production to noninduced second growth phase, thereby ensuring a fair comparison of different strains. In conclusion, online monitoring of the respiration activity is suited to qualitatively identify, if a recombinant protein is produced by a strain or not. Furthermore, laborious offline sampling is avoided. Thus, the technique is easier and faster compared to conventional approaches. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:315–327, 2018     

Enhancement of extracellular bispecific anti‐MUC1 nanobody expression in E. coli BL21 (DE3) by optimization of temperature and carbon sources through an autoinduction condition

Escherichia coli is one of the most suitable hosts for production of antibodies and antibody fragments. Antibody fragment secretion to the culture medium improves product purity in cell culture and diminishes downstream costs. In this study, E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) harboring gene encoding bispecific anti‐MUC1 nanobody was selected, and the autoinduction methodology for expression of bispecific anti‐MUC1 nanobody was investigated. Due to the replacement of IPTG by lactose as inducer, less impurity and toxicity in the final product were observed. To increase both intracellular and extracellular nanobody production, initially, the experiments were performed for the key factors including temperature and duration of protein expression. The highest amount of nanobody was produced after 21 h at 33°C. The effect of different carbon sources, glycerol, glucose, lactose, and glycine as a medium additive at optimum temperature and time were also assessed by using response surface methodology. The optimized concentrations of carbon sources were obtained as 0.75% (w/v), 0.03% (w/v), 0.1% (w/v), and 0.75% (w/v) for glycerol, glucose, lactose, and glycine, respectively. Finally, the production of nanobody in 2 L fermenter under the optimized autoinduction conditions was evaluated. The results show that the total titer of 87.66 µg/mL anti‐MUC1 nanobody, which is approximately seven times more than the total titer of nanobody produced in LB culture medium, is 12.23 µg/L .     

Incorporation of Selenomethionine into Induced Intracytoplasmic Membrane Proteins of Rhodobacter species

Efficient multiple- or single-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD/SAD) techniques that use tunable X-ray sources at third-generation synchrotrons exploit the anomalous scattering of certain heavy atoms for determination of experimental phases. Development of methods for the in vivo substitution of methionine by selenomethionine (SeMet) has revolutionized the process for determination of structures of soluble proteins in recent years. Herein, we report methods for biosynthetic incorporation of SeMet into induced intracytoplasmic membrane proteins of two species of the Rhodobacter genus of purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria. Amino acid analysis of a membrane protein complex that was purified to homogeneity determined that the extent of SeMet incorporation was extensive and approached quantitative replacement. Diffraction-quality crystals were obtained from SeMet-labeled membrane proteins purified from 2 l of culture. These methods augment the potential utility of photosynthetic bacteria and their inducible membrane systems for the production of foreign membrane proteins for structure determination.     

Transcriptional regulation of basic fibroblast growth factor gene expression in capillary endothelial cells.

The growth of capillary endothelial cells (BCE) is an important regulatory step in the formation of capillary blood vessels. In vivo, the proliferation of these cells is stringently controlled. In vitro they can be stimulated by polypeptide growth factors, such as acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Since bFGF is synthesized and stored by vascular endothelial cells, this mitogen may play an important role in an autocrine growth regulation during angiogenesis. Here, evidence is presented for induction of the mRNA of bFGF by bFGF itself. A similar increase of bFGF mRNA was observed in response to thrombin and after treatment with phorbol ester. These results suggest that an autocrine loop may exist that may serve to modulate the mitogenic response in BCE under various physiological conditions, (e.g., wound healing and new capillary formation).     

Approaches to efficient production of recombinant angiogenesis inhibitor rhVEGI‐192 and characterization of its structure and antiangiogenic function

Methods to prepare pure, bioactive recombinant human vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (rhVEGI), a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis potentially applicable in antiangiogenic cancer therapy, are in urgent demand for preclinical investigation as well as future clinical trials of the protein. Here, we report expression and purification of rhVEGI‐192, a recombinant VEGI isoform, comparatively using host strains BL21 (DE3) pLysS and Origami B (DE3) with IPTG‐induction and autoinduction techniques. Our study identified that a combined use of Origami B (DE3) strain and autoinduction expression system gave rise to a high yield of purified rhVEGI‐192 at 105.38 mg/L culture by immobilized‐metal affinity chromatography on Ni‐NTA column. The antiangiogenic activity was effectively restored after the insoluble fractions being dissolved in 8M urea and subsequently subjected to a gradient‐dialysis refolding process. Functional tests demonstrated that the purified rhVEGI‐192 potently inhibited endothelial growth, induced endothelial apoptosis and suppressed neovascularization in chicken chorioallantoic membrane, indicating that the developed method allows preparation of rhVEGI‐192 with high yield, solubility, and bioactivity. Most importantly, our study also demonstrates that VEGI‐192 is capable of forming polymeric structure, which is possibly required for its antiangiogenic activity.     

藤黄绿脓菌素的自诱导及假单胞菌M18抗生物质代谢相关性初步分析

假单胞菌M18的生防功能归功于其分泌吩嗪-1-羧酸和藤黄绿脓菌素。为了研究抗生物质合成代谢相关性及调控机制,分别构建了两种抗生物质合成基因簇插入突变株M18T和M18Z1。用翻译融合表达载体pMEAZ(pltA′-′lacZ)分别转化野生株和突变株M18T、发酵培养并测定β-半乳糖苷酶活性,结果显示,添加藤黄绿脓菌素使突变株M18T(pMEAZ)的β-半乳糖苷酶活性比野生株M18(pMEAZ)增加约6倍,表明藤黄绿脓菌素对自身基因簇具正向自诱导作用。抗生物质的测定结果显示,突变株M18T无藤黄绿脓菌素合成,而吩嗪-1-羧酸的合成量与野生株相同;突变株M18Z1与野生株相比,吩嗪-1-羧酸明显减少,藤黄绿脓菌素却显著提高。过量的吩嗪-1-羧酸又抑制藤黄绿脓菌素的合成。表明,假单胞菌M18中独有的代谢相关方式为:藤黄绿脓菌素不影响吩嗪-1-羧酸,但吩嗪-1-羧酸负调控藤黄绿脓菌素。     

群体感应与群体淬灭及其在抗微生物感染中的潜在应用

自从发现群体感应现象以来,由于其可替代抗生素药物以避免抗药性突变株出现的潜在应用前景,有关群体感应与群体淬灭研究日益受到人们的广泛关注,相关研究的进展速度促使研究者无法不相信群体淬灭机制作为新药开发的巨大价值。我们重点讨论了群体感应与群体淬灭的作用机制,并探讨了以群体淬灭方式作为抗病原性药物开发的应用前景。