A Brief View of the Surface Membrane Proteins from Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causal agent of Chagas’ disease which affects millions of people around the world mostly in Central and South America. T. cruzi expresses a wide variety of proteins on its surface membrane which has an important role in the biology of these parasites. Surface molecules of the parasites are the result of the environment to which the parasites are exposed during their life cycle. Hence, T. cruzi displays several modifications when they move from one host to another. Due to the complexity of this parasite’s cell surface, this review presents some membrane proteins organized as large families, as they are the most abundant and/or relevant throughout the T. cruzi membrane

Biochemical, Cellular, and Immunologic Aspects during Early Interaction between Trypanosoma cruzi and Host Cell

The close parasite-host relationship involves different aspects such as the biochemical, physiological, morphological, and immunological adaptations. Studies on parasite-host interaction have provided a myriad of information about its biology and have established the building blocks for the development of new drug therapies to control the parasite. Several mechanisms for the parasite invasion have been proposed through in vivo or in vitro experimental data. Since the first histological studies until the studies on the function/structure of the involved molecules, this complex interaction has been roughly depicted. However, new recent strategies as genetic and proteomic approaches have tuned knowledge on how the host reacts to the parasite and how the parasite avoids these host’s reactions in order to survive

Torulaspora delbrueckii: Towards Innovating in the Legendary Baking and Brewing Industries

Baking and brewing are among the oldest bioprocesses refined by human societies. Both fermentative processes have successfully used domesticated strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in their process as the biocatalyst throughout their evolution. However, the dominance of S. cerevisiae has limited the capability for diversification of many organoleptic properties of the final product, such as aroma and flavours. The use of non-Saccharomyces yeasts can be an enormous source of opportunities for innovation in both fermentative processes. Torulaspora delbrueckii is a ubiquitous yeast species, and numerous strains have been isolated from many different bioprocesses. The strains of T. delbrueckii, once considered microbial contamination, have recently shown several advantages over S. cerevisiae strains, including higher ethanol tolerance; better capabilities to consume wort sugars; higher resistance to hop/pH/osmotic stress; and freeze-thaw resistance, among others. This chapter aims to present a comprehensive review of frontier research on T. delbrueckii regarding its potential and prospects for the baking and brewing industries

Frontiers and New Trends in the Science of Fermented Food and Beverages

From time immemorial fermented foods have undoubtedly contributed to the progress of modern societies. Historically, ferments have been present in virtually all human cultures worldwide, and nowadays natives from many ancient cultures still conduct a wide variety of food fermentations using deep-rooted recipes and processes. Within the last four centuries, scientific research has started to unravel many aspects of the biological process behind fermentations, which has contributed to the improvement of many industrial processes. During our journey in the research field, we have always been attracted to the development of scientific research around fermentations, especially autochthonous ferments: a natural repository of novel biomolecules and biological processes that will positively impact on many application fields from health, to food, to materials

Role of Sinorhizobium meliloti and Escherichia coli long-chain Acyl-CoA synthetase FadD in long-term survival

© 2020 by the authors.FadD is an acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) synthetase specific for long-chain fatty acids (LCFA). Strains mutated in fadD cannot produce acyl-CoA and thus cannot grow on exogenous LCFA as the sole carbon source. Mutants in the fadD (smc02162) of Sinorhizobium meliloti are unable to grow on oleate as the sole carbon source and present an increased surface motility and accumulation of free fatty acids at the entry of the stationary phase of growth. In this study, we found that constitutive expression of the closest FadD homologues of S. meliloti, encoded by sma0150 and smb20650, could not revert any of the mutant phenotypes. In contrast, the expression of Escherichia coli fadD could restore the same functions as S. meliloti fadD. Previously, we demonstrated that FadD is required for the degradation of endogenous fatty acids released from membrane lipids. Here, we show that absence of a functional fadD provokes a significant loss of viability in cultures of E. coli and of S. meliloti in the stationary phase, demonstrating a crucial role of fatty acid degradation in survival capacity.This research was funded by grants from CONACyT/Mexico (153998 and 253549), from the Spanish Ministry /MINECO/MCIU/AEI (BIO2013-42801-P and PGC2018-096477-B-I00) and FEDER funds (EU). The APC was funded by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. G.R-H was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the DGAPA (Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico)-UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). Á.d.l.C.P.-C. was supported by CONACyT through the “Cátedras CONACyT para Jóvenes Investigadores” Programme (Project #609).Peer reviewe