Marine Cyanobacteria Compounds with Anticancer Properties: Implication of Apoptosis

Marine cyanobacteria have been proved to be an important source of potential anticancer drugs. Although several compounds were found to be cytotoxic to cancer cells in culture, the pathways by which cells are affected are still poorly elucidated. For some compounds, cancer cell death was attributed to an implication of apoptosis through morphological apoptotic features, implication of caspases and proteins of the Bcl-2 family, and other mechanisms such as interference with microtubules dynamics, cell cycle arrest and inhibition of proteases other than caspases

Single Cell Genome Amplification Accelerates Identification of the Apratoxin Biosynthetic Pathway from a Complex Microbial Assemblage

Filamentous marine cyanobacteria are extraordinarily rich sources of structurally novel, biomedically relevant natural products. To understand their biosynthetic origins as well as produce increased supplies and analog molecules, access to the clustered biosynthetic genes that encode for the assembly enzymes is necessary. Complicating these efforts is the universal presence of heterotrophic bacteria in the cell wall and sheath material of cyanobacteria obtained from the environment and those grown in uni-cyanobacterial culture. Moreover, the high similarity in genetic elements across disparate secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways renders imprecise current gene cluster targeting strategies and contributes sequence complexity resulting in partial genome coverage. Thus, it was necessary to use a dual-method approach of single-cell genomic sequencing based on multiple displacement amplification (MDA) and metagenomic library screening. Here, we report the identification of the putative apratoxin. A biosynthetic gene cluster, a potent cancer cell cytotoxin with promise for medicinal applications. The roughly 58 kb biosynthetic gene cluster is composed of 12 open reading frames and has a type I modular mixed polyketide synthase/nonribosomal peptide synthetase (PKS/NRPS) organization and features loading and off-loading domain architecture never previously described. Moreover, this work represents the first successful isolation of a complete biosynthetic gene cluster from Lyngbya bouillonii, a tropical marine cyanobacterium renowned for its production of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites

Sharing and community curation of mass spectrometry data with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking

The potential of the diverse chemistries present in natural products (NP) for biotechnology and medicine remains untapped because NP databases are not searchable with raw data and the NP community has no way to share data other than in published papers. Although mass spectrometry techniques are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of natural products, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social molecular networking (GNPS, http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community wide organization and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations. We also introduce the concept of ‘living data’ through continuous reanalysis of deposited data

Minnesota Farm Business Notes No. 414

Evaluating Alternative Forage Handling System

The Place of Beef Cow Herds on Southern Minnesota Farms

Should I have a beef herd on my farm? If I should, how large should it be? These are questions currently being asked by many farmers. Each farm is a unique business with individual resource and management situations so that no pat answer can be given. However, given the proper information to which farmers can relate their situation, they can provide their own answers. This bulletin provides such information

The Place of Beef Cow Herds on Southern Minnesota Farms

Should I have a beef herd on my farm? If I should, how large should it be? These are questions currently being asked by many farmers. Each farm is a unique business with individual resource and management situations so that no pat answer can be given. However, given the proper information to which farmers can relate their situation, they can provide their own answers. This bulletin provides such information.Livestock Production/Industries,

The Hoiamides, Structurally Intriguing Neurotoxic Lipopeptides from Papua New Guinea Marine Cyanobacteria

Two related peptide metabolites, one a cyclic depsipeptide, hoiamide B , and the other a linear lipopeptide, hoiamide C, were isolated from two different collections of marine cyanobacteria obtained in Papua New Guinea. Their structures were elucidated by combining various techniques in spectroscopy, chromatography and synthetic chemistry. Both metabolites belong to the unique hoiamide structural class, characterized by possessing an acetate extended and S-adenosyl methionine modified isoleucine unit, a central triheterocyclic system comprised of two -methylated thiazolines and one thiazole, as well as a highly oxygenated and methylated C-15 polyketide unit. The cyclic depsipeptide 2 stimulated sodium influx and suppressed spontaneous Ca2+ oscillations with EC50 values of 3.92 μM and 79.8 nM, respectively, while 3 had no significant effects in these assays