Discursive regime dynamics in the Dutch energy transition

Since its introduction in the National Environmental Policy Plan in 2001 the notion of 'energy transition' is firmly rooted in the Dutch energy debate. Despite political efforts to shift to a sustainable energy system, the Netherlands is lagging behind other European countries. Scholarly literature generally ascribes such slow developments to the dominant role of incumbents. In this paper we explore how prominent incumbents of the Dutch energy system discursively frame the energy transition by unravelling their existing and evolving storylines. Our results show that decarbonization in the context of a European energy market is currently seen as the dominant driver for the energy transition, linked to discursive elements on keeping the energy supply secure and affordable. We found tensions within this dominant storyline and emerging storylines with the potential to undermine the dominant one. In response, incumbents are discursively repositioning themselves, thereby restructuring coalitions - possibly indicating discursive regime destabilization

Progress challenges and opportunities for the re-engineering of trans-AT polyketide synthases

Polyketides are a structurally and functionally diverse family of bioactive natural products that are used extensively as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. In bacteria these molecules are biosynthesized by giant, multi-functional enzymatic complexes, termed modular polyketide synthases (PKSs), that function in assembly-line like fashion to fuse and tailor simple carboxylic acid monomers into a vast array of elaborate chemical scaffolds. Modifying PKSs through targeted synthase re-engineering is a promising approach for accessing functionally-optimized polyketides. Due to their highly mosaic architectures the recently identified trans-AT family of modular synthases appear inherently more amenable to re-engineering than their well studied cis-AT counterparts. Here, we review recent progress in the re-engineering of trans-AT PKSs, summarize opportunities for harnessing the biosynthetic potential of these systems, and highlight challenges that such re-engineering approaches present. </p