Genome-Wide Identification of the Expansin Gene Family and Its Potential Association with Drought Stress in Moso Bamboo.

Expansins, a group of cell wall-loosening proteins, are involved in cell-wall loosening and cell enlargement in a pH-dependent manner. According to previous study, they were involved in plant growth and abiotic stress responses. However, information on the biological function of the expansin gene in moso bamboo is still limited.

Discovery of novel fatty acid synthase (FAS) inhibitors based on the structure of ketoaceyl synthase (KS) domain.

Development of fatty acid synthase (FAS) inhibitors has increasingly attracted much attention in recent years due to their potential therapeutic use in obesity and cancers. In this investigation, pharmacophore modeling based on the first crystal structure of human KS domain of FAS was carried out. The established pharmacophore model was taken as a 3D query for retrieving potent FAS inhibitors from the chemical database Specs.

Fatty acid synthase inhibitors from the hulls of Nephelium lappaceum L.

Natural products inhibiting fatty acid synthase (FAS) are appearing as potential therapeutic agents to treat cancer and obesity. The bioassay-guided chemical investigation of the hulls of Nephelium lappaceum L. resulted in the isolation of ten compounds (1-10) mainly including flavonoids and oleane-type triterpene oligoglycosides, in which all of the compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time.