Dual Induction of New Microbial Secondary Metabolites by Fungal Bacterial Co-cultivation

We thank the College of Physical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, for provision of infrastructure and facilities in the Marine Biodiscovery Centre. We acknowledge the receipt of funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 312184 (PharmaSea). MR thanks School of Science and Sport, University of the West of Scotland for providing the open-access fees required for the publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Somalia's evolving political market place: from famine and humanitarian crisis to permanent precarity

Somalia has a long history of famine and humanitarian crisis. This article focuses on the years 2008–2020, during which governance and aid practices changed substantially and which include three crisis periods. The article examines whether and how governance analysed as a political marketplace can help explain Somalia's repeated humanitarian crises and the manipulation of response. We argue that between 2008 and 2011 the political marketplace was a violent competitive oligopoly which contributed to famine, but that from 2012 a more collusive, informal political compact resulted in a status quo which avoided violent conflict or famine in 2017 and which functioned to keep external resources coming in. At the same time, this political arrangement benefits from the maintenance of a large group of displaced people in permanent precarity as a source of aid and labour

<i>Mare Geneticum</i>: balancing governance of marine genetic resources in international waters

A fair and effective regime regulating benefit-sharing of marine genetic resources (MGR) in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) must consider the inclusion of developing states, support scientific research and safeguard investments of the private sector. The present innovative proposal ensures a delicate balance through an approach based on open access, albeit with limitations. Access to MGR in ABNJ is facilitated, but conditional on the public release of collected samples and raw data. Adoption of the open access principle guarantees a powerful form of non-monetary benefit-sharing. The balance is maintained by the option for an extended embargo period, allowing samples and data to be kept confidential for a certain period, against payment to a biodiversity contribution fund. Monetary benefit-sharing, as a sector-negotiated percentage on revenue, could be imposed at the point of product commercialisation, and would offer a tangible payment system with a low transaction cost

Marine Biotechnology: A New Vision and Strategy for Europe

Marine Board-ESF The Marine Board provides a pan-European platform for its member organisations to develop common priorities, to advance marine research, and to bridge the gap between science and policy in order to meet future marine science challenges and opportunities. The Marine Board was established in 1995 to facilitate enhanced cooperation between European marine science organisations (both research institutes and research funding agencies) towards the development of a common vision on the research priorities and strategies for marine science in Europe. In 2010, the Marine Board represents 30 Member Organisations from 19 countries. The Marine Board provides the essential components for transferring knowledge for leadership in marine research in Europe. Adopting a strategic role, the Marine Board serves its Member Organisations by providing a forum within which marine research policy advice to national agencies and to the European Commission is developed, with the objective of promoting the establishment of the European Marine Research Area

Bioactividad de los extractos y aislamiento de los lignanos de las semillas de Centaurea dealbata

Centaurea dealbata Willd. (Family: Asteraceae) belongs to the big genus Centaurea that comprises ca. 500 species. Then-hexane, dichloromethane (DCM) and methanol (MeOH) extracts of the seeds of C. dealbata have been assessed forantioxidant activity and general toxicity using, respectively, the DPPH assay, and the brine shrimp lethality assay. Boththe DCM and the MeOH extract showed signifi cant levels of antioxidant activities with an RC50 value 6.8 x 10-2 and4.7 x 10-2 mg/mL, respectively. None of the extracts exhibited any signifi cant general toxicity (LD50 = &gt;1000 mg/mL).Three major bioactive components of the MeOH extract were found to be the lignans, arctigenin, arctiin and matairesinoside.The structures of these lignans were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, and also by directcomparison with the respective published data. This is the fi rst report on the occurrence of arctiin and matairesionl inC. dealbata. The distribution of these lignans within the genus Centaurea has also been presented.La Centaurea dealbata Willd. (familia: Asteraceae) pertenece al género Centaurea, que comprende unas 500 especies.Para evaluar la actividad antioxidante y la toxicidad general de los extractos de n-hexano, diclorometano (DCM)y metanol (MeOH) de las semillas de C. dealbata se han utilizado, respectivamente, el ensayo DPPH y el ensayo deletalidad de gambas en salmuera. Tanto el extracto de DCM como el de MeOH presentaron niveles signifi cativosde actividad antioxidante, con valores de RC50 de 6,8 x 10-2 y 4,7 x 10-2 mg/mL, respectivamente. Ninguno de losextractos presentó una toxicidad general signifi cativa (LD50 = &gt;1000 mg/mL). Se observó que los tres principalescomponentes bioactivos del extracto de MeOH fueron los lignanos arctigenina, arctiina y matairesinosida. Lasestructuras de estos lignanos se dilucidaron mediante análisis espectroscópicos exhaustivos y comparación directacon los datos respectivos publicados. Éste es el primer informe sobre la ocurrencia de arctiina y matairesinol en C.dealbata. También se presenta la distribución de estos lignanos dentro del género Centaurea

Bypassing the proline/thiazoline requirement of the macrocyclase PatG

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Spongionella secondary metabolites protect mitochondrial function in cortical neurons against oxidative stress

Accepted: 8 January 2014 This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Acknowledgments The research leading to these results has received funding from the following FEDER cofunded-grants: From Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain: AGL2009-13581-CO2-01, AGL2012-40485-CO2-01. From Xunta de Galicia, Spain: 10PXIB261254 PR. From the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA—Research Executive Agency (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement Nos. 265896 BAMMBO, 265409 µAQUA, and 262649 BEADS, 315285 CIGUATOOLS and 312184 PHARMASEA. From the Atlantic Area Programme (Interreg IVB Trans-national): 2009-1/117 Pharmatlantic. MER thanks the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for a PhD Scholarship. MJ thanks the Scottish University Life Science Alliance which provided funding to set up the compound library.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Microbial engineering of new streptomyces sp. from extreme environments for novel antibiotics and anticancer drugs

Today there is a tremendous need for new antibiotics and novel cytotoxic compounds against cancer cells to develop efficient alternative treatment to chemotherapy. We have searched for highly active Streptomyces strains in the driest desert in the world, the Atacama desert in northern Chile. We have identified several new strains and found many novel antibiotics and anticancer agents (“Chaxamycins”, “Chaxalactins” and “Atacamycins”) from Streptomyces C34 and C38. A genome scale model of the metabolism of Streptomyces leeuwenhoekii C34 has been developed from its genome sequence. The model, iVR1007, has 1726 reactions including 239 for transport, reactions for secondary metabolite biosynthesis, 1463 metabolites and 1007 genes. The model was validated with experimental data of growth in 89, 54 and 23 sole carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous sources, respectively, and showed a high level of accuracy (82.5 %). We have included reactions for desferrioxamines, ectoine, Chaxamycins, Chaxalactins and for the hybrid polyketides/non-ribosomal peptide synthesized by the halogenase cluster. A detailed Metabolic Flux Balance Analysis was carried out in order to study the metabolic pathways of Chaxalactins, Chaxamycins and the product of the halogenase cluster, by recognizing overexpression targets and useful knock-out sites to increase production of these secondary metabolites. Alternatively we have identified the gene cluster in S. leeuwenhoekii C34 responsible for the biosynthesis of the Chaxamycins and Chaxalactins and have cloned the whole gene cluster in a much more efficient strain of Streptomyces, namely S. coelicolor A3 whose heterologous expression of gene clusters from other Streptomyces strains has been successfully tested. Our recent results concerning these two alternative strategies for identification and overproduction of these important secondary metabolites will be presented and discussed in this presentation

Antiviral drug discovery : preparing for the next pandemic

Acknowledgements The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) with funds received from the South African National Department of Health and the UK Government's Newton Fund (R. A. D., RL. M. G., K. C.), the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EQATA (R. J. M. G.), the UK Global Challenge Research Fund (R. J. M. G., R. A. D.), the University of Cape Town (K. C.) and the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Innovation, administered through the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) to K. C. (UID: 64767) and R. A. D. (UID: 87583). C. S. A. acknowledges financial support for SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 research from UKMRC (CVG-1725-2020) and UKRI-DHSC (MR/Vo28464/1). The authors acknowledge Bronwyn Tweedie of the Rhodes University Print Services Unit who provided the graphics for Fig. 1 and thank Gordon Cragg for his insightful comments and encouragement during the preparation of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD