Crowdfunding: Financing ventures in the digital era

Crowdfunding is a method of raising funds to support a venture, usually by raising small amounts from a large number of investors. Typically, a project creator posts a project on a platform seeking a certain amount of funds for some venture. Potential backers view the project and contribute money if they are convinced of the idea. In most cases, these backers receive something in return. Crowdfunding helps facilitate projects that would otherwise have fallen through the cracks. There are many success stories, but the average success rates are moderate. To succeed, it is necessary to manage the expectations of diverse stakeholders during the entire funding and development process. Success factors range from selecting the right platform to accurate communication all along the way. Prior experience helps, as well as a realistic assessment of the chances, so as not to disappoint the community

The genome of the Tiger Milk mushroom, Lignosus rhinocerotis, provides insights into the genetic basis of its medicinal properties

BACKGROUND The sclerotium of Lignosus rhinocerotis (Cooke) Ryvarden or Tiger milk mushroom (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) is a valuable folk medicine for indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. Despite the increasing interest in this ethnobotanical mushroom, very little is known about the molecular and genetic basis of its medicinal and nutraceutical properties. RESULTS The de novo assembled 34.3 Mb L. rhinocerotis genome encodes 10,742 putative genes with 84.30% of them having detectable sequence similarities to others available in public databases. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close evolutionary relationship of L. rhinocerotis to Ganoderma lucidum, Dichomitus squalens, and Trametes versicolor in the core polyporoid clade. The L. rhinocerotis genome encodes a repertoire of enzymes engaged in carbohydrate and glycoconjugate metabolism, along with cytochrome P450s, putative bioactive proteins (lectins and fungal immunomodulatory proteins) and laccases. Other genes annotated include those encoding key enzymes for secondary metabolite biosynthesis, including those from polyketide, nonribosomal peptide, and triterpenoid pathways. Among them, the L. rhinocerotis genome is particularly enriched with sesquiterpenoid biosynthesis genes. CONCLUSIONS The genome content of L. rhinocerotis provides insights into the genetic basis of its reported medicinal properties as well as serving as a platform to further characterize putative bioactive proteins and secondary metabolite pathway enzymes and as a reference for comparative genomics of polyporoid fungi.This research is supported by High Impact Research Grant UM.C/625/1/HIR/ MoE/E20040-20001 from the University of Malaya/Ministry of Education, Malaysia. H-YYY is supported by the postgraduate research grant (PPP) PV024/ 2012A from University of Malaya, Malaysia. Y-HC is a recipient of Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA)

The genome of the Tiger Milk mushroom, Lignosus rhinocerotis, provides insights into the genetic basis of its medicinal properties

BACKGROUND: The sclerotium of Lignosus rhinocerotis (Cooke) Ryvarden or Tiger milk mushroom (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) is a valuable folk medicine for indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. Despite the increasing interest in this ethnobotanical mushroom, very little is known about the molecular and genetic basis of its medicinal and nutraceutical properties. RESULTS: The de novo assembled 34.3 Mb L. rhinocerotis genome encodes 10,742 putative genes with 84.30% of them having detectable sequence similarities to others available in public databases. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close evolutionary relationship of L. rhinocerotis to Ganoderma lucidum, Dichomitus squalens, and Trametes versicolor in the core polyporoid clade. The L. rhinocerotis genome encodes a repertoire of enzymes engaged in carbohydrate and glycoconjugate metabolism, along with cytochrome P450s, putative bioactive proteins (lectins and fungal immunomodulatory proteins) and laccases. Other genes annotated include those encoding key enzymes for secondary metabolite biosynthesis, including those from polyketide, nonribosomal peptide, and triterpenoid pathways. Among them, the L. rhinocerotis genome is particularly enriched with sesquiterpenoid biosynthesis genes. CONCLUSIONS: The genome content of L. rhinocerotis provides insights into the genetic basis of its reported medicinal properties as well as serving as a platform to further characterize putative bioactive proteins and secondary metabolite pathway enzymes and as a reference for comparative genomics of polyporoid fungi. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-635) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Heterologous expression of cytotoxic sesquiterpenoids from the medicinal mushroom Lignosus rhinocerotis in yeast

Background: Genome mining facilitated by heterologous systems is an emerging approach to access the chemical diversity encoded in basidiomycete genomes. In this study, three sesquiterpene synthase genes, GME3634, GME3638, and GME9210, which were highly expressed in the sclerotium of the medicinal mushroom Lignosus rhinocerotis, were cloned and heterologously expressed in a yeast system. Results: Metabolite profile analysis of the yeast culture extracts by GC-MS showed the production of several sesquiterpene alcohols (C15H26O), including cadinols and germacrene D-4-ol as major products. Other detected sesquiterpenes include selina-6-en-4-ol, β-elemene, β-cubebene, and cedrene. Two purified major compounds namely (+)-torreyol and α-cadinol synthesised by GME3638 and GME3634 respectively, are stereoisomers and their chemical structures were confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that GME3638 and GME3634 are a pair of orthologues, and are grouped together with terpene synthases that synthesise cadinenes and related sesquiterpenes. (+)-Torreyol and α-cadinol were tested against a panel of human cancer cell lines and the latter was found to exhibit selective potent cytotoxicity in breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF7) with IC50 value of 3.5 ± 0.58 μg/ml while α-cadinol is less active (IC50 = 18.0 ± 3.27 μg/ml). Conclusions: This demonstrates that yeast-based genome mining, guided by transcriptomics, is a promising approach for uncovering bioactive compounds from medicinal mushroomsH-YYY is supported by an Australian Awards Endeavour Research Fellowship. MJM-G received an Australian Awards Endeavour Scholarship and a Mexican CONACYT scholarship. YH-C is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT160100233). This work was partially supported by Funda‑ mental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS): FP029-2014A from Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, and Postgraduate Research Grant (PPP): PG144/2014B from University of Malaya

16S metagenomic microbial composition analysis of kefir grain using MEGAN and BaseSpace

Kefir is a unique cultured product traditionally made from the fermentation of milk with kefir grains. Metagenomics analysis of kefir grain is essential to understand the composition of microbial populations in the kefir grain. Many microbial populations have been reported in kefir grains from different parts of the world. Although the kefir from Malaysian kefir grain is regularly consumed locally, no report has been made on the kefir grain microbial profile. The present study used kefir grain obtained locally and the microbial composition in the kefir grain was determined using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). The taxonomic results analysis obtained when using BaseSpace (Illumina) and MEGAN were compared. The software agreed that Lactobacillus genus dominated the samples and the predominant species was L. kefiranofaciens (81.45–91.93%) while L. kefiri (2.01–2.47%) was the second in abundance. The results suggested that Malaysian kefir grain contained the same top two predominant species using both software methods and the microbial composition between both software did not vary significantly

Prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in different clinical stages before the national COVID-19 vaccination programme in Malaysia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

More than 1.75 million COVID-19 infections and 16 thousand associated deaths have been reported in Malaysia. A meta-analysis on the prevalence of COVID-19 in different clinical stages before the National COVID-19 Vaccination Program in Malaysia is still lacking. To address this, the disease severity of a total of 215 admitted COVID-19 patients was initially recorded in the early phase of this study, and the data were later pooled into a meta-analysis with the aim of providing insight into the prevalence of COVID-19 in 5 different clinical stages during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. We have conducted a systematic literature search using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and two preprint databases (bioRxiv and medRxiv) for relevant studies with specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality assessment for the included studies was performed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. The heterogeneity was examined with an I2 index and a Q-test. Funnel plots and Egger’s tests were performed to determine publication bias in this meta-analysis. Overall, 5 studies with 6375 patients were included, and the pooled prevalence rates in this meta-analysis were calculated using a random-effect model. The highest prevalence of COVID-19 in Malaysia was observed in Stage 2 cases (32.0%), followed by Stage 1 (27.8%), Stage 3 (17.1%), Stage 4 (7.6%), and Stage 5 (3.4%). About two-thirds of the number of cases have at least one morbidity, with the highest percentage of hypertension (66.7%), obesity (55.5%), or diabetes mellitus (33.3%) in Stage 5 patients. In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggested a high prevalence of COVID-19 occurred in Stage 2. The prevalence rate in Stage 5 appeared to be the lowest among COVID-19 patients before implementing the vaccination program in Malaysia. These meta-analysis data are critically useful for designing screening and vaccination programs and improving disease management in the country