Riverine Litter Monitoring - Options and Recommendations

Marine litter is an issue of global concern as recognized by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The establishment of programmes of measures, aiming to reduce plastics and its possible impacts, requires identifying and quantifying sources of litter and their pathways to the marine environment. In this regard, riverine litter input is estimated to be a major contributor, but there is no comprehensive information about the amount of litter being transported through rivers into the sea. Further, there are no harmonized methodologies that can be used to provide quantitative data for comparable assessments on riverine litter. This technical report compiles the options for monitoring of riverine litter and quantification of litter fluxes, focusing on the monitoring of anthropogenic litter. Current scientific and technical background regarding litter in river systems, their flow regime and basic properties is also included. The document is intended to provide first recommendations for monitoring approaches and methodologies. It also provide indications on the issues which need to be further developed in a collaborative approach. An extensive literature review has been performed in order to identify the existing options for the monitoring of litter items in rivers. Different monitoring methods are used in three environmental compartments: River water surface can be monitored by visual observation and image acquisition; monitoring in the river water body can include the use of retaining structures and sampling using grids, nets and filtration systems (with different mesh sizes and openings) at different water depths; and river bank monitoring, comprises the observation and eventual collection of litter items. Methodologies are described and technical details are reported whenever available. As methodologies are further developed and basic research is ongoing, it is not possible to provide now clear guidance on how to monitor riverine litter, though some initial recommendations can be made. General recommendations highlight the need for additional scientific knowledge, which should be made accessible to facilitate communication and coordination among key players in order to harmonize efforts and provide guidance at international level in a collaborative way. Knowledge gaps should be filled by analysing the outcome of these ongoing activities (the recommendations include a list of identified gaps). There is a need for agreed monitoring methodologies at international level, therefore guidance document on the monitoring of riverine litter is needed, including metadata requirements and reporting units. For quantification of riverine litter input to the marine environment, monitoring methods have to provide data that can be related to river flow to allow calculation of litter fluxes (e.g. visual observation on river water surface and collection method for river water body).JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Water Security Plan Implementation Manual for Drinking Water Systems

Water is a core infrastructure sector that serves communities and businesses on a daily basis. Clean drinking water sustains core functions of our society which makes safety and security of water infrastructure a top priority. The implementation of security measures to counter hostile actions against the physical and cyber integrity of water supply systems and deliberate waterborne contamination requires an appropriate planning process incorporating risk assessment surveys, establishment of communication strategies, protocols and screening methods. This manual provides a detailed basis for the creation and implementation of a Water Security Plan for drinking water systems, supporting water utility operators with the information and tools they need to develop a plan specifically for the security of their water supply systems. An effective Water Security Plan, together with a continuously managed implementation, supports the optimization of equipment placement and resource allocation – either of human or economic nature – along the water supply system, as well as increasing the confidence level of the water utilities to be able to cope in case a chemical/biological contamination occurs.JRC.E.2 - Technology Innovation in Securit

Multicopy plasmid integration in Komagataella phaffii mediated by a defective auxotrophic marker

Background: A commonly used approach to improve recombinant protein production is to increase the levels of expression by providing extra-copies of a heterologous gene. In Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris) this is usually accomplished by transforming cells with an expression vector carrying a drug resistance marker following a screening for multicopy clones on plates with increasingly higher concentrations of an antibiotic. Alternatively, defective auxotrophic markers can be used for the same purpose. These markers are generally transcriptionally impaired genes lacking most of the promoter region. Among the defective markers commonly used in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is leu2-d, an allele of LEU2 which is involved in leucine metabolism. Cells transformed with this marker can recover prototrophy when they carry multiple copies of leu2-d in order to compensate the poor transcription from this defective allele. Results: A K. phaffii strain auxotrophic for leucine (M12) was constructed by disrupting endogenous LEU2. The resulting strain was successfully transformed with a vector carrying leu2-d and an EGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) reporter gene. Vector copy numbers were determined from selected clones which grew to different colony sizes on transformation plates. A direct correlation was observed between colony size, number of integrated vectors and EGFP production. By using this approach we were able to isolate genetically stable clones bearing as many as 20 integrated copies of the vector and with no significant effects on cell growth. Conclusions: In this work we have successfully developed a genetic system based on a defective auxotrophic which can be applied to improve heterologous protein production in K. phaffii. The system comprises a K. phaffii leu2 strain and an expression vector carrying the defective leu2-d marker which allowed the isolation of multicopy clones after a single transformation step. Because a linear correlation was observed between copy number and heterologous protein production, this system may provide a simple approach to improve recombinant protein productivity in K. phaffii

Causes of Proteolytic Degradation of Secreted Recombinant Proteins Produced in ethylotrophic Yeast Pichia pastoris: Case Study With Recombinant Ovine Interferon-T

It was observed that during fermentative production of recombinant ovine interferon-H (r-oIFN-H ) in Pichia pastoris, a secreted recombinant protein, the protein was degraded increasingly after 48 h of induction and the rate of degradation increased towards the end of fermentation at 72 h, when the fermentation was stopped. Proteases, whose primary source was the vacuoles, was found in in-creasing levels in the cytoplasm and in the fermentation broth after 48 h of induction and reached maximal values when the batch was completed at 72 h. Protease levels at various cell fractions as well as in the culture supernatant were lower when glycerol was used as the carbon source instead of methanol. It can be concluded that methanol me-tabolism along with cell lysis towards the end of fermenta-tion contributes to increased proteolytic activity and even-tual degradation of recombinant protei

In vitro activation and enzyme kinetic analysis of recombinant midgut serine proteases from the Dengue vector mosquito Aedes aegypti

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major Dengue virus vector <it>Aedes aegypti </it>requires nutrients obtained from blood meal proteins to complete the gonotrophic cycle. Although bioinformatic analyses of <it>Ae. aegypti </it>midgut serine proteases have provided evolutionary insights, very little is known about the biochemical activity of these digestive enzymes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used peptide specific antibodies to show that midgut serine proteases are expressed as zymogen precursors, which are cleaved to the mature form after blood feeding. Since midgut protein levels are insufficient to purify active proteases directly from blood fed mosquitoes, we engineered recombinant proteins encoding a heterologous enterokinase cleavage site to permit generation of the bona fide mature form of four midgut serine proteases (AaET, AaLT, AaSPVI, AaSPVII) for enzyme kinetic analysis. Cleavage of the chromogenic trypsin substrate BApNA showed that AaET has a catalytic efficiency (k_cat/K_M) that is ~30 times higher than bovine trypsin, and ~2-3 times higher than AaSPVI and AaSPVII, however, AaLT does not cleave BApNA. To measure the enzyme activities of the mosquito midgut proteases using natural substrates, we developed a quantitative cleavage assay based on cleavage of albumin and hemoglobin proteins. These studies revealed that the recombinant AaLT enzyme was indeed catalytically active, and cleaved albumin and hemoglobin with equivalent efficiency to that of AaET, AaSPVI, and AaSPVII. Structural modeling of the AaLT and AaSPVI mature forms indicated that AaLT is most similar to serine collagenases, whereas AaSPVI appears to be a classic trypsin.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data show that <it>in vitro </it>activation of recombinant serine proteases containing a heterologous enterokinase cleavage site can be used to investigate enzyme kinetics and substrate cleavage properties of biologically important mosquito proteases.</p

Systematic Single-Cell Analysis of Pichia pastoris Reveals Secretory Capacity Limits Productivity

Biopharmaceuticals represent the fastest growing sector of the global pharmaceutical industry. Cost-efficient production of these biologic drugs requires a robust host organism for generating high titers of protein during fermentation. Understanding key cellular processes that limit protein production and secretion is, therefore, essential for rational strain engineering. Here, with single-cell resolution, we systematically analysed the productivity of a series of Pichia pastoris strains that produce different proteins both constitutively and inducibly. We characterized each strain by qPCR, RT-qPCR, microengraving, and imaging cytometry. We then developed a simple mathematical model describing the flux of folded protein through the ER. This combination of single-cell measurements and computational modelling shows that protein trafficking through the secretory machinery is often the rate-limiting step in single-cell production, and strategies to enhance the overall capacity of protein secretion within hosts for the production of heterologous proteins may improve productivity

Detection and elimination of cellular bottlenecks in protein-producing yeasts

Yeasts are efficient cell factories and are commonly used for the production of recombinant proteins for biopharmaceutical and industrial purposes. For such products high levels of correctly folded proteins are needed, which sometimes requires improvement and engineering of the expression system. The article summarizes major breakthroughs that led to the efficient use of yeasts as production platforms and reviews bottlenecks occurring during protein production. Special focus is given to the metabolic impact of protein production. Furthermore, strategies that were shown to enhance secretion of recombinant proteins in different yeast species are presented

Physiological state as transferable operating criterion to improve recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris through oxygen limitation

BACKGROUND: The yeast Pichia pastoris is widely used as a production platform for secreted recombinant protein. The application of oxygen-limiting conditions leads to an important increase in protein specific productivity driven by the GAP promoter. RESULTS: The physiological and metabolic adaptation of the host to a wide range of oxygen availability has been systematically studied in glucose-limited chemostat cultivations producing an antibody fragment (Fab). A weighty increase of up to 3-fold of the specific Fab production rate (qFab) and Fab yield (YPX) has been achieved for the optimal conditions. Besides the remarkable increase on both Fab yield and productivity, as a consequence of the metabolic shift from respiratory to respiro-fermentative pathways, a decrease on biomass yield and generation of several secreted by-products have been observed. CONCLUSION: The accurate system characterization achieved throughout the bioprocess specific rates and the monitoring of cell physiology allowed the determination of the optimal conditions to enhance bioprocess efficiency. This work also presents a versatile approach based on the physiological state of the yeast that can be used to implement the desired oxygen-limiting conditions to fermentations set-ups with different oxygen transfer capacities, alternative operating modes, and even for the production of other proteins of interest

Vaccines to combat river blindness: expression, selection and formulation of vaccines against infection with Onchocerca volvulus in a mouse model.

Human onchocerciasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by Onchocerca volvulus and an important cause of blindness and chronic disability in the developing world. Although mass drug administration of ivermectin has had a profound effect on control of the disease, additional tools are critically needed including the need for a vaccine against onchocerciasis. The objectives of the present study were to: (i) select antigens with known vaccine pedigrees as components of a vaccine; (ii) produce the selected vaccine antigens under controlled conditions, using two expression systems and in one laboratory and (iii) evaluate their vaccine efficacy using a single immunisation protocol in mice. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that joining protective antigens as a fusion protein or in combination, into a multivalent vaccine, would improve the ability of the vaccine to induce protective immunity. Out of eight vaccine candidates tested in this study, Ov-103, Ov-RAL-2 and Ov-CPI-2M were shown to reproducibly induce protective immunity when administered individually, as fusion proteins or in combination. Although there was no increase in the level of protective immunity induced by combining the antigens into one vaccine, these antigens remain strong candidates for inclusion in a vaccine to control onchocerciasis in humans