Publications by authors named "Alberto Jimenez"

Background: Ashbya gossypii is a filamentous fungus widely utilized for industrial riboflavin production and has a great potential as a microbial chassis for synthesizing other valuable metabolites such as folates, biolipids, and limonene. Engineered strains of A. gossypii can effectively use various waste streams, including xylose-rich feedstocks.

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Knowledge is scarce to what extent environmental drivers and native symbiotic fungi in soil induce abrupt (short-term), systemic (multiple traits), or specific (a subset of traits) shifts in C plants' ecophysiological/mycorrhizal responses. We cultivated an emblematic native C species (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum, "Chiltepín") to look at how the extreme heat of the Sonoran desert, sunlight regimes (low = 2, intermediate = 15, high = 46 mol m d) and density of native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil (low AMF = 1% v/v, high AMF = 100% v/v), drive shifts on mycorrhizal responses through multiple functional traits (106 traits).

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Objective: To define the relationship between chronic chikungunya post-viral arthritis disease severity, cytokine response and T cell subsets in order to identify potential targets for therapy.

Methods: Participants with chikungunya arthritis were recruited from Colombia from 2019-2021. Arthritis disease severity was quantified using the Disease Activity Score-28 and an Arthritis-Flare Questionnaire adapted for chikungunya arthritis.

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The development of novel eco-friendly materials like chitosan for food storage and preservation has become crucial in eliminating plastic packaging and minimizing waste. In this work, cinnamaldehyde has been encapsulated in chitosan nanoparticles and subsequently incorporated into a 2 % chitosan film. The obtained nanoparticles achieved an average radius size of 89.

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IMP dehydrogenase and GMP reductase are enzymes from the same protein family with analogous structures and catalytic mechanisms that have gained attention because of their essential roles in nucleotide metabolism and as potential drug targets. This study focusses on GuaB3, a less-explored enzyme within this family. Phylogenetic analysis uncovers GuaB3's independent evolution from other members of the family and it predominantly occurs in Cyanobacteria.

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Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and other drugs is a common occurrence in Western societies. Alcohol consumption is related to 15% of fatal injuries in traffic accidents worldwide, with those DUI of alcohol being up to 18 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident. Evidence for DUI of alcohol or marijuana among the college population in Mexico is scarce.

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Objective: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes persistent arthritis, and our prior study showed that approximately one third of CHIKV arthritis patients had exacerbated arthritis associated with exercise. The underlying mechanism of exercise-associated chikungunya arthritis flare (EACAF) is unknown, and this analysis aimed to examine the regulatory T-cell immune response related to CHIKV arthritis flares.

Methods: In our study, 124 Colombian patients with a history of CHIKV infection four years prior were enrolled and 113 cases with serologically confirmed CHIKV IgG were used in this analysis.

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Article Synopsis
  • IMPDH is a crucial enzyme in making guanine nucleotides and balances the production of adenine and guanine nucleotides, playing significant roles in cell function and immune response.
  • It is also a target for various antiviral and immunosuppressive drugs, highlighting its importance in medical treatments.
  • Recent research has shed light on how IMPDH is regulated through various mechanisms, especially focusing on allosteric controls that adjust its activity.
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Background: Limonene is a cyclic monoterpene that has applications in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The industrial production of limonene and its derivatives through plant extraction presents important drawbacks such as seasonal and climate issues, feedstock limitations, low efficiency and environmental concerns. Consequently, the implementation of efficient and eco-friendly bioprocesses for the production of limonene and other terpenes constitutes an attractive goal for microbial biotechnology.

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Dapagliflozin is a selective sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and chronic kidney disease. In all indications, treatment can be initiated in adults with estimated glomerular filtration rate of at least 25 mL/min/1.73 m.

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Article Synopsis
  • IMP dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is crucial for the guanine nucleotide pathway and its activity is regulated by GTP in eukaryotes, though the regulatory mechanisms in bacteria are less understood.
  • Research shows that in many bacteria, (p)ppGpp competes with ATP to regulate IMPDH activity by binding to a newly identified pocket in the enzyme's regulatory domain.
  • Interestingly, Proteobacteria lack this pocket, leading to a different regulation mechanism where their IMPDHs are instead influenced by the competition between ATP and GTP, highlighting how each organism's IMPDH has adapted over time.
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Saffron is a unique plant in many aspects, and its cellular processes are regulated at multiple levels. The genetic makeup in the form of eight chromosome triplets (2n = 3x = 24) with a haploid genetic content (genome size) of 3.45 Gbp is decoded into different types of RNA by transcription.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses a filamentous fungus that is used industrially for riboflavin production and has engineered strains capable of synthesizing metabolites like folic acid and nucleosides.
  • It highlights the importance of effective gene expression systems for both native and foreign genes, emphasizing the need for novel promoters to enhance bioproduction capabilities.
  • The study introduces a modified Dual Luciferase Reporter Assay that identified 10 new promoters, including three strong and seven medium/weak ones, improving gene expression and influencing sporulation in mutant strains.
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Objective: The primary objective of this research was to explore the link between sleep and flare pain associated with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. The secondary objective was to investigate if cytokines and T regulatory (Treg) cells have an influence on this relationship.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using data collected in Barranquilla, Colombia, which enrolled patients with and without chronic arthritis with a history of chikungunya infection.

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The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a novel genetic tool which allows the precise manipulation of virtually any genomic sequence. In this protocol, we use a specific CRISPR/Cas9 system for the manipulation of . The filamentous fungus is currently used for the industrial production of riboflavin (vitamina B2).

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Background: COVID-19 is one of the biggest pandemics in human history, along with other disease pandemics, such as the H1N1 influenza A, bubonic plague, and smallpox pandemics. This study is a small contribution that tries to find contrasted formulas to alleviate global suffering and guarantee a more manageable future.

Objective: In this study, a statistical approach was proposed to study the correlation between the incidence of COVID-19 in Spain and search data provided by Google Trends.

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The co-utilization of mixed (pentose/hexose) sugars constitutes a challenge for microbial fermentations. The fungus Ashbya gossypii, which is currently exploited for the industrial production of riboflavin, has been presented as an efficient biocatalyst for the production of biolipids using xylose-rich substrates. However, the utilization of xylose in A.

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CRISPR/Cas technologies constitute essential tools for rapid genome engineering of many organisms, including fungi. The CRISPR/Cas9 system adapted for the industrial fungus Ashbya gossypii enables efficient genome editing for the introduction of deletions, insertions and nucleotide substitutions. However, the Cas9 system is constrained by the existence of a specific 5'-NGG-3' PAM sequence in the target site.

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This work presents the exploitation of waste industrial by-products as raw materials for the production of microbial lipids in engineered strains of the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii. A lipogenic xylose-utilizing strain was used to apply a metabolic engineering approach aiming at relieving regulatory mechanisms to further increase the biosynthesis of lipids. Three genomic manipulations were applied: the overexpression of a feedback resistant form of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase enzyme; the expression of a truncated form of Mga2, a regulator of the main Δ9 desaturase gene; and the overexpression of an additional copy of DGA1 that codes for diacylglycerol acyltransferase.

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The filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii is currently used for the industrial production of vitamin B2. Furthermore, the ability of A. gossypii to grow using low-cost substrates together with the inexpensive downstream processing makes this fungus an attractive biotechnological chassis.

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Background: Lactones are highly valuable cyclic esters of hydroxy fatty acids that find application as pure fragrances or as building blocks of speciality chemicals. While chemical synthesis often leads to undesired racemic mixtures, microbial production allows obtaining optically pure lactones. The production of a specific lactone by biotransformation depends on the supply of the corresponding hydroxy fatty acid, which has economic and industrial value similar to γ-lactones.

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