De novo synthesis of trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid in oleaginous yeast Yarrowia Lipolytica

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has many well-documented beneficial physiological effects. Due to the insufficient natural supply of CLA and low specificity of chemically produced CLA, an effective and isomer-specific production process is required for medicinal and nutritional purposes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The linoleic acid isomerase gene from <it>Propionibacterium acnes</it> was expressed in <it>Yarrowia lipolytica</it> Polh. Codon usage optimization of the PAI and multi-copy integration significantly improved the expression level of PAI in <it>Y. lipolytica.</it> The percentage of <it>trans</it>-10, <it>cis</it>-12 CLA was six times higher in yeast carrying the codon-optimized gene than in yeast carrying the native gene. In combination with multi-copy integration, the production yield was raised to approximately 30-fold. The amount of <it>trans</it>-10, <it>cis</it>-12 CLA reached 5.9% of total fatty acid yield in transformed <it>Y. lipolytica</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first report of production of <it>trans</it>-10, <it>cis</it>-12 CLA by the oleaginous yeast <it>Y. lipolytica</it>, using glucose as the sole carbon source through expression of linoleic acid isomerase from <it>Propionibacterium acnes</it>.</p

Evaluation of the spermatogenic activity of polyherbal formulation in oligospermic males

The therapeutic use of natural herbs is an ancient human civilization act and the numbers of people have reliance on their pharmacological properties and preferred to use the natural herbs. People also use to consume these herbs as supplements to energize, bolster, and eventually enhance sexual ability. Polyherbal formulation (PHF) is one of these herbal amalgams that can be used to treat sexual dysfunction including erectile dysfunction, impotence, ejaculation dysfunction, and hypogonadism. The pilot study was aimed at evaluating the capacity of PHF in enhancing the spermatogenic potential of oligospermic patients. Thirty-six male patients with oligospermia were enrolled and randomized either to treatment (n = 23) with PHF (750 mg/d in three doses for 90 days) or to placebo (n = 13) in the same protocol. The preintervention semen analysis was compared with posttreatment semen analysis. Based on the postintervention semen analysis, patients were advised to undergo either in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to assess their fertility status. After polyherbal treatment, there was a 256% increase in sperm concentration (9.59 +/- 4.37 x 106/mL to 25.61 +/- 8.6 x 10(6)/mL;

Genetic modification of Mucor circinelloides for canthaxanthin production by heterologous expression of β-carotene ketolase gene

11 pags, 4 figs, 1 tab. -- he Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.756218/full#supplementary-materiaCanthaxanthin is a reddish-orange xanthophyll with strong antioxidant activity and higher bioavailability than carotenes, primarily used in food, cosmetics, aquaculture, and pharmaceutical industries. The spiking market for natural canthaxanthin promoted researchers toward genetic engineering of heterologous hosts for canthaxanthin production. Mucor circinelloides is a dimorphic fungus that produces β-carotene as the major carotenoid and is considered as a model organism for carotenogenic studies. In this study, canthaxanthin-producing M. circinelloides strain was developed by integrating the codon-optimized β-carotene ketolase gene (bkt) of the Haematococcus pluvialis into the genome of the fungus under the control of strong promoter zrt1. First, a basic plasmid was constructed to disrupt crgA gene, a negative regulator of carotene biosynthesis resulted in substantial β-carotene production, which served as the building block for canthaxanthin by further enzymatic reaction of the ketolase enzyme. The genetically engineered strain produced a significant amount (576 ± 28 μg/g) of canthaxanthin, which is the highest amount reported in Mucor to date. Moreover, the cell dry weight of the recombinant strain was also determined, producing up to more than 9.0 g/L, after 96 h. The mRNA expression level of bkt in the overexpressing strain was analyzed by RT-qPCR, which increased by 5.3-, 4.1-, and 3-folds at 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively, compared with the control strain. The canthaxanthin-producing M. circinelloides strain obtained in this study provided a basis for further improving the biotechnological production of canthaxanthin and suggested a useful approach for the construction of more valuable carotenoids, such as astaxanthin.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31670064 and 31972851), the Tai Shan Industrial Experts Program tscy 20160101, and the Shandong provincial key technology R&D plan (2018GNC110039, 2018GSF121013).Peer reviewe

Genome Characterization of the Oleaginous Fungus Mortierella alpina

Mortierella alpina is an oleaginous fungus which can produce lipids accounting for up to 50% of its dry weight in the form of triacylglycerols. It is used commercially for the production of arachidonic acid. Using a combination of high throughput sequencing and lipid profiling, we have assembled the M. alpina genome, mapped its lipogenesis pathway and determined its major lipid species. The 38.38 Mb M. alpina genome shows a high degree of gene duplications. Approximately 50% of its 12,796 gene models, and 60% of genes in the predicted lipogenesis pathway, belong to multigene families. Notably, M. alpina has 18 lipase genes, of which 11 contain the class 2 lipase domain and may share a similar function. M. alpina's fatty acid synthase is a single polypeptide containing all of the catalytic domains required for fatty acid synthesis from acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, whereas in many fungi this enzyme is comprised of two polypeptides. Major lipids were profiled to confirm the products predicted in the lipogenesis pathway. M. alpina produces a complex mixture of glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids. In contrast, only two major sterol lipids, desmosterol and 24(28)-methylene-cholesterol, were detected. Phylogenetic analysis based on genes involved in lipid metabolism suggests that oleaginous fungi may have acquired their lipogenic capacity during evolution after the divergence of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota and Mucoromycota. Our study provides the first draft genome and comprehensive lipid profile for M. alpina, and lays the foundation for possible genetic engineering of M. alpina to produce higher levels and diverse contents of dietary lipids

Microbes as Biofertilizers, a Potential Approach for Sustainable Crop Production

Continuous decline of earth’s natural resources and increased use of hazardous chemical fertilizers pose a great concern for the future of agriculture. Biofertilizers are a promising alternative to hazardous chemical fertilizers and are gaining importance for attaining sustainable agriculture. Biofertilizers play a key role in increasing crop yield and maintaining long-term soil fertility, which is essential for meeting global food demand. Microbes can interact with the crop plants and enhance their immunity, growth, and development. Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, and silica are the essential nutrients required for the proper growth of crops, but these nutrients are naturally present in insolubilized or complex forms. Certain microorganisms render them soluble and make them available to the plants. The potential microbes, their mode of action, along with their effect on crops, are discussed in this review. Biofertilizers, being cost effective, non-toxic, and eco-friendly, serve as a good substitute for expensive and harmful chemical fertilizers. The knowledge gained from this review can help us to understand the importance of microbes in agriculture and the ways to formulate these microbes as biofertilizers for sustainable crop production

Database Access Point Security (DAPS)

BNP Paribas has adopted an IT security policy that prohibits direct access to company databases from client applications. To ensure that the company remains compliant with security standards, our team implemented a low-maintenance, highly-scalable, authentication service that serves as the mediator between client applications and databases. This middleware interacts with databases to process and relay data, as well as ensures that users are authenticated and authorized to perform the actions that they request. Our team simultaneously developed a responsive, user-friendly web application that system administrators can use to manage user roles for the authorization process. These services are anticipated to serve as the basis for the solution that BNP Paribas deploys company-wide

Fermented Foods: Their Health-Promoting Components and Potential Effects on Gut Microbiota

Fermented foods play a significant role in the diets of many cultures, and fermentation has been recognized for its many health benefits. During fermentation, the physical and biochemical changes due to microorganisms are crucial to the long-term stability of fermented foods. Recently, fermented foods have attracted the attention of scientists all over the world. Some putative mechanisms that explain how fermented foods affect health are the potential probiotic effects of the microorganisms in fermented foods, bioactive peptides and biogenic amines produced as a result of fermentation, phenolic compounds transformed to bioactive substances, and decreased antinutrients. In addition, increased vitamin content, antioxidant, antihypertensive, and antidiabetic activities have associated with fermented products. The purpose of this paper is to present various types of fermented foods and the health-promoting components that emerge during the fermentation of major food matrices, as well as the affect of fermented foods on the gut microbiome once they are ingested

Quantitative evaluation of rock brittleness and fracability based on elastic-wave velocity variation around borehole

Brittleness and fracability are two important rock properties in hydraulic fracturing of unconventional reservoirs. Based on the variation of compressional and shear velocity around borehole using acoustic measurement, an effective technique is developed to estimate these parameters to guide reservoir-fracturing. During drilling, when the rock is broken, a significant amount of drilling induced cracks will occur in the formation around the borehole, reducing elastic wave velocity around borehole and causing the wave velocity variation away from borehole. The radial variation of compressional and shear velocities of formation rocks surrounding a borehole were respectively obtained from P-wave travel time tomography and dipole shear-wave dispersion inversion. By integrating the two variation profiles along the radial direction, the brittleness-fracability index is obtained to estimate the brittleness and fracability of formation rocks. The index shows fairly good consistency and correlation with rock brittleness and fracability, which demonstrates the practicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Well log data analysis examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique. Key words: rock brittleness-fracability, brittleness-fracability index, radial acoustic velocity variation, acoustic well logging, elastic-wave velocit

Influence of extraction solvents on antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the pulp and seed of Anisophyllea laurina R. Br. ex Sabine fruits

Objective: To evaluate the influence of extraction solvents on antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the pulp and seed of Anisophyllea laurina R. Br. ex Sabine fruits. Methods: The antibacterial activities of pulp and seed extracts were tested by using disk diffusion method against eight bacterial strains and three fungal strains. Total phenolic, flavonoid, monomeric anthocyanin and tannin contents, and antioxidant activities were determined by spectrometric methods. Results: The antioxidant analysis of pulp extract revealed the strong radical scavenging capacity and total phenolic content (4329.66 mg of gallic acid/100 g), while seed extract showed the high antioxidant activity and total tannin content (5326.78 mg catechin equivalent/100 g). Antibacterial and antifungal activities of methanol and ethanol extracts exhibited potent growth inhibitory activity against Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 with minimum inhibitory concentration values ranged from 125 to 250 μg/mL. However, seed extract had the strongest potential activity against Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans with minimum inhibitory concentration value of 500 μg/mL compared to pulp extract. Conclusions: Our results therefore demonstrated that ethanol and methanol extractions were more efficient in extracting antioxidants and bioactive compound in pulp and seed. These results support that these plant extracts can be used for the treatment of bacterial infections