Complexity of fungal polyketide biosynthesis and function

Where does one draw the line between primary and secondary metabolism? The answer depends on the perspective. Microbial secondary metabolites (SMs) were at first believed not to be very important for the producers because they are dispensable for growth under laboratory conditions. However, such compounds become important in natural niches of the organisms, and some are of prime importance for humanity. Polyketides are an important group of SMs with aflatoxin as a well-known and well-characterized example. In Aspergillus spp., all 34 afl genes encoding the enzymes for aflatoxin biosynthesis are located in close vicinity on chromosome III in a so-called gene cluster. This led to the assumption that most genes required for polyketide biosynthesis are organized in gene clusters. Recent research, however, revealed an enormous complexity of the biosynthesis of different polyketides, ranging from individual polyketide synthases to a gene cluster producing several compounds, or to several clusters with additional genes scattered in the genome for the production of one compound. Research of the last decade furthermore revealed a huge potential for SM biosynthesis hidden in fungal genomes, and methods were developed to wake up such sleeping genes. The analysis of organismic interactions starts to reveal some of the ecological functions of polyketides for the producing fungi

The interprofessional organizations - from the need of establishment to the need of development and affirmation

Through the present study it aims to represent the actual image of the interprofessional organizations on product chain in Romania, reflecting briefly the establishment and development issues. In the context of the reorganization of entire agrifood production system, in dealing with future crises, whatever is their nature, it’s needed to seriously manage the organizational issues and to present them as a useful tool for increasing the access to new markets for producers and to offer local products quality to consumers in Romania both. Using the documentation method it was obtained an overview of the relationship between the need of affirmation and the real need to convert the interprofessional organizations in Romania in functional structures. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recognized till now only five IPO but the analysis and the directly involved interprofessional organizations opinions exchanges, it was emerged some primordial issues in order to improve the legislation of interprofessional organizations on product chain. The interprofessional organizations on product chain are meant, almost in ingrate way, to be interposed between the pressing help need in the development of intra-community trade relationships and the stiffness required by the legislation

Internet de las Cosas: propiedad de los datos y su tratamiento como secretos empresariales

El presente trabajo analiza los aspectos legales derivados de la evolución del Internet de las cosas en las empresas y la creciente implementación de la Industria 4.0. Es por ello, que cada vez más empresas persiguen la incorporación de soluciones tecnológicas en sus productos y servicios, como son los sensores, la inteligencia artificial y el Big data. El objetivo de este estudio es conocer la regulación actual sobre la protección que se les concede a las empresas que apuestan por obtener una ventaja competitiva a partir de la recopilación de datos no personales gracias a dispositivos o maquinarias, exponiendo las carencias y soluciones de la normativa europea y nacional en esta materia.<br /

Redox Proteomic Analysis Reveals Oxidative Modifications of Proteins by Increased Levels of Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species During Hypoxia Adaptation of Aspergillus fumigatus

We thank Silke Steinbach, Till Kindel, and Michael Cyrulies for their excellent technical assistance. Work of T.K., O.K. and A.A.B was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsge-meinschaft within the Collaborative Research Center TR124 FungiNet (project A1 and Z2).The work of E.S. was supported by the International Leibniz Research School for Microbial and Biomolecular Interactions (ILRS)and by the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).We thank Matthew Blango and Falk Hillmann for the critical reading of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Reducing the Sludge Quantity Produced from Used Water Purification – A Source of Profit

This paper has its origins in the analysis of a real situation met in the Water Purification Plant from Cluj-Napoca city. The produced dehydrated sludge is about 70 - 80 tonnes / 24 hours, with a density that allows for an equivalence of 1 tonne to 1 m³, 80,000 Kg or 80 m³, i.e. a huge amount and an impressive volume of material. This paper does not propose solutions to valorise or store the huge quantity of sludge, though the present solutions are quite inefficient. The stress is placed upon the sludge production sources, its transportation to the purification plants, the collection of the sludge in the purification plants and the dehydration methods that can be used. The analysis of these stages aims at identifying several measures that could lead to diminishing the amount of sludge produced after the purification of used and dehydrated water in the purification plants without affecting the quality of purified water. The measures identified are to be presented as measures that can be applied in the spirit of sustainable and efficient development. The business feature is given by the savings brought by the mitigation of the sludge amount to be stored and paid for in the ecological storage places in remote areas

Influence of Technological Parameters on the Evolution of Nickel Films Deposited by Electrolysis

The influence of technological parameters on the structure of nickel layers electrodeposited on a copper substrate in a Watts bath has been studied. The complex influence of current densities, temperature and pH values on the formation of the deposition layers are compared. The surface morphology of the nickel films was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to investigate the crystallinity of the prepared samples. The increase in the current density leads to fine crystallized films, while layers obtained at even higher current density have dendritic structures. The temperature increasing results in a structure change from fine to coarse

Performance evaluation in the growing of the stellate sturgeon fry in 35 days from hatching under the circumstances of enrichening food with probiotics

The main objective of the present paper was to evaluate the influence of the commercial probiotic BetaPlus® Ultra on the growth performance of the stellate sturgeon after 35 days of hatching, but the specific objective was to evaluate the food retention efficiency in the transition period from feeding with natural feed to that with commercial feed. For this purpose, a 93-day experiment was carried out with 6 experimental variants (5 different probiotic concentrations : V 1-1.28x1013 CFU, V2-2.56 x1013 CFU, V3 -3.84x1013 CFU, V4 – 5.12x1013 CFU, V5 -6.4x1013 CFU and V6- control variant, in duplicates). The experiment started with a number of 6000 exemplars of 35-day post hatched larvae (500 specimens/rearing unit) with a mean individual weight (± SD) of 0.35 ± 0.02 g and a total length between 3-5 cm. According to the rearing technology, sorting was carried out throughout the experimental period which led to the division of the experiment into 9 different experimental stages according to feeding protocol. Feeding efficiency, expressed by FCR and protein retention, indicated by PER shows an insignificant increase (p> 0.05) in the V2 variant and an insignificant decrease in the case where the probiotic (V6) was not administered. Therefore, according to this experiment, a concentration of 2.56x1013 CFU / kg of commercial probiotic BetaPlus® Ultra represents an optimum value for promoting the growth, feeding efficiency and retention of proteins of trout after more than one gram

Streptomyces polyketides mediate bacteria–fungi interactions across soil environments

Although the interaction between prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms is crucial for the functioning of ecosystems, information about the processes driving microbial interactions within communities remains scarce. Here we show that arginine-derived polyketides (arginoketides) produced by Streptomyces species mediate cross-kingdom microbial interactions with fungi of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium, and trigger the production of natural products. Arginoketides can be cyclic or linear, and a prominent example is azalomycin F produced by Streptomyces iranensis, which induces the cryptic orsellinic acid gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans. Bacteria that synthesize arginoketides and fungi that decode and respond to this signal were co-isolated from the same soil sample. Genome analyses and a literature search indicate that arginoketide producers are found worldwide. Because, in addition to their direct impact, arginoketides induce a secondary wave of fungal natural products, they probably contribute to the wider structure and functioning of entire soil microbial communities

A study of collected narratives on gender perceptions in the 27 EU Member States : synthesis report

The ‘Study of collected narratives on gender perceptions in the 27 EU Member States’ has been commissioned by the European Institute for Gender Equality with the aim of mapping the persistence of stereotypical gender attitudes and perceptions. The study has as its central objective the collection of real-life stories related to gender perceptions in the form of narratives. The specific aim with this study is to map stereotypical gender attitudes/perceptions through stories and put these in their narrative form and original language in an online database. These narratives have been analysed with a view to identifying how stereotypical gender perceptions influence people’s lives, as well as to provide background information on possible obstacles for increased gender equality in various contexts and on how stereotypical gender perceptions can be overcome. For the purpose of this study, gender perceptions are defined as “people’s perceptions with regard to (asymmetric) gender roles and attributes of ‘femininity’ / ‘masculinity’”. It is the purpose of this Synthesis report to make a broad, rather than a detailed and focussed analysis of the narratives. The analysis will seek to identify belief systems, patterns and norms of behaviour that reinforce gender stereotypes, including how these may evolve over time. The study wants to point to possible ways of how and why people change their ways of thinking about gender. In this context, the study looks for triggers of change such as key actors or factors that have contributed to breaking a pattern of stereotypical gender perceptions.peer-reviewe