High-level production of Rhodiola rosea characteristic component rosavin from D-glucose and L-arabinose in engineered Escherichia coli.

Rosavin is the characteristic component of Rhodiola rosea L., an important medicinal plant used widely in the world that has been reported to possess multiple biological activities. However, the endangered status of wild Rhodiola has limited the supply of rosavin.

[Advances in microbial synthesis of plant natural products].

Plant natural products are one of the main sources of small molecule drugs, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and fragrances, and play an important role in economy development. At present, the way of obtaining plant natural products mainly depends on direct extraction from plants, which is farm land occupying and time consuming. The contents of active ingredients in plants are usually low, and thus the production cost is high.

Metabolic Engineering of for High-Level Production of Salicin.

Salicin is a notable phenolic glycoside derived from plants including and genus and has multiple biological activities such as anti-inflammatory and antiarthritic, anticancer, and antiaging effects. In this work, we engineered production of salicin from cheap renewable carbon resources in () by extending the shikimate pathway. We first investigated enzymes synthesizing salicylate from chorismate.

Biosynthesis of a rosavin natural product in Escherichia coli by glycosyltransferase rational design and artificial pathway construction.

Phytochemicals are rich resources for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical agents. A key challenge of accessing these precious compounds can present significant bottlenecks for development. The cinnamyl alcohol disaccharides also known as rosavins are the major bioactive ingredients of the notable medicinal plant Rhodiola rosea L.

Phase transformation and heterojunction construction of bismuth oxyiodides by grinding-assisted calcination in the presence of thiourea and their photoactivity.

Bismuth-rich oxyhalides are promising photocatalysts due to their special layered structure and adjustable band gap energy. In this work, a series of bismuth oxyiodides were fabricated by grinding-assisted calcination in the presence of thiourea, where grinding-induced mechanical force could accelerate the decomposition reaction and thiourea could prohibit the crystal particles from growing due to coordination action. The combined effect of grinding and thiourea could decrease the temperature of phase transformation of bismuth oxyiodides.

Producing Gram-Scale Unnatural Rosavin Analogues from Glucose by Engineered .

Cinnamyl alcohol glycosides (CAGs) are key active ingredients of the precious medicinal plant L., which has diverse pharmacological activities. The quality of extracts is standardized to the contents of rosavin, a cinnamyl alcohol disaccharide, along with salidroside.

One-pot grinding method to BiO(HCOO)I solid solution with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity.

Considering that conventional hydrothermal route to prepare photocatalysts is energy-consumable and difficult to scale-up, herein, uniform bismuth oxide formate (BiOHCOO; BiOR) nanosheets were firstly prepared from solid-state chemical reaction by a facile room-temperature grinding method. Furthermore, since BiOR could only respond to UV light, thin-nanosheet-based flowerlike BiO(HCOO)I solid solutions were synthesized via a one-pot method by adding KI into the BiOR reaction mixture and continuously grinding for an additional duration. As compared with BiOR, the resulting solid solution with x = 0.

Production of caffeoylmalic acid from glucose in engineered Escherichia coli.

Objectives: To achieve biosynthesis of caffeoylmalic acid from glucose in engineered Escherichia coli.

Results: We constructed the biosynthetic pathway of caffeoylmalic acid in E. coli by co-expression of heterologous genes RgTAL, HpaBC, At4CL2 and HCT2.

C4 Protein of Regulates Brassinosteroid Signaling Pathway through Interaction with AtBIN2 and Affects Male Fertility in .

Sweepoviruses have been identified globally and cause substantial yield losses and cultivar decline in sweet potato. This study aimed to investigate the interaction between sweepovirus and plant host by analyzing the function of the viral protein C4 of -Jiangsu (SPLCV-JS), a sweepovirus cloned from diseased sweet potato plants in East China. Ectopic expression of the C4 in altered plant development drastically with phenotypic changes including leaf curling, seedling twisting, deformation of floral tissues and reduction of pollen fertility, and seed number.

Production of Cinnamyl Alcohol Glucoside from Glucose in Escherichia coli.

Rosin, a cinnamyl alcohol glucoside, is one of the important ingredients in Rhodiola rosea, which is a valuable medicinal herb used for centuries. Rosin displayed multiple biological activities. The traditional method for producing rosin and derivatives is direct extraction from R.

Biosynthesis of phlorisovalerophenone and 4-hydroxy-6-isobutyl-2-pyrone in Escherichia coli from glucose.

Background: Type III polyketide synthases (PKSs) contribute to the synthesis of many economically important natural products, which are typically produced by direct extraction from plants or synthesized chemically. For example, humulone and lupulone (Fig. 1a) in hops (Humulus lupulus) account for the characteristic bitter taste of beer and display multiple pharmacological effects.

Cobalt Sulfide/Graphene Composite Hydrogel as Electrode for High-Performance Pseudocapacitors.

Graphene and its composite hydrogels with interconnected three-dimensional (3D) structure have raised continuous attention in energy storage. Herein, we describe a simple hydrothermal strategy to synthesize 3D CoS/graphene composite hydrogel (CGH), which contains the reduction of GO sheets and anchoring of CoS nanoparticles on graphene sheets. The formed special 3D structure endows this composite with high electrochemical performance.

De novo biosynthesis of Gastrodin in Escherichia coli.

Gastrodin, a phenolic glycoside, is the key ingredient of Gastrodia elata, a notable herbal plant that has been used to treat various conditions in oriental countries for centuries. Gastrodin is extensively used clinically for its sedative, hypnotic, anticonvulsive and neuroprotective properties in China. Gastrodin is usually produced by plant extraction or chemical synthesis, which has many disadvantages.

Synthesis of rosmarinic acid analogues in Escherichia coli.

Objectives: To produce rosmarinic acid analogues in the recombinant Escherichia coli BLRA1, harboring a 4-coumarate: CoA ligase from Arabidopsis thaliana (At4CL) and a rosmarinic acid synthase from Coleus blumei (CbRAS).

Results: Incubation of the recombinant E. coli strain BLRA1 with exogenously supplied phenyllactic acid (PL) and analogues as acceptor substrates, and coumaric acid and analogues as donor substrates led to production of 18 compounds, including 13 unnatural RA analogues.

Engineered synthesis of rosmarinic acid in Escherichia coli resulting production of a new intermediate, caffeoyl-phenyllactate.

Objectives: To achieve high production of rosmarinic acid and derivatives in Escherichia coli which are important phenolic acids found in plants, and display diverse biological activities.

Results: The synthesis of rosmarinic acid was achieved by feeding caffeic acid and constructing an artificial pathway for 3,4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid. Genes encoding the following enzymes: rosmarinic acid synthase from Coleus blumei, 4-coumarate: CoA ligase from Arabidopsis thaliana, 4-hydroxyphenyllactate 3-hydroxylase from E.

Heterologous biosynthesis of costunolide in Escherichia coli and yield improvement.

Costunolide, the main bioactive compound of the medicinal plant, Radix Aucklandiae, is a sesquiterpene lactone (SL) and has a broad range of biological activities. It is also a precursor of many biologically-active SLs and is a branching point in the biosynthesis of SLs. Here we have reconstituted the costunolide biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli by co-expression of three genes (GAS, GAO, LsCOS) involved in costunolide biosynthesis and eight genes involved in converting acetyl-CoA into farnesyl diphosphate from mevalonate pathway.

Production of salidroside in metabolically engineered Escherichia coli.

Salidroside (1) is the most important bioactive component of Rhodiola (also called as "Tibetan Ginseng"), which is a valuable medicinal herb exhibiting several adaptogenic properties. Due to the inefficiency of plant extraction and chemical synthesis, the supply of salidroside (1) is currently limited. Herein, we achieved unprecedented biosynthesis of salidroside (1) from glucose in a microorganism.

Agroinfection of sweet potato by vacuum infiltration of an infectious sweepovirus.

Sweepovirus is an important monopartite begomovirus that infects plants of the genus Ipomoea worldwide. Development of artificial infection methods for sweepovirus using agroinoculation is a highly efficient means of studying infectivity in sweet potato. Unlike other begomoviruses, it has proven difficult to infect sweet potato plants with sweepoviruses using infectious clones.

Kinetics study of pyridine biodegradation by a novel bacterial strain, Rhizobium sp. NJUST18.

Biodegradation of pyridine by a novel bacterial strain, Rhizobium sp. NJUST18, was studied in batch experiments over a wide concentration range (from 100 to 1,000 mg l(-1)). Pyridine inhibited both growth of Rhizobium sp.

Why mosaic? Gene expression profiling of African cassava mosaic virus-infected cassava reveals the effect of chlorophyll degradation on symptom development.

Cassava mosaic disease, caused by cassava begomoviruses, is the most serious disease for cassava in Africa. However, the pathogenesis of this disease is poorly understood. We employed high throughput digital gene expression profiling based on the Illumina Solexa sequencing technology to investigate the global transcriptional response of cassava to African cassava mosaic virus infection.

Engineered short branched-chain acyl-CoA synthesis in E. coli and acylation of chloramphenicol to branched-chain derivatives.

Short branched-chain acyl-CoAs are important building blocks for a wide variety of pharmaceutically valuable natural products. Escherichia coli has been used as a heterologous host for the production of a variety of natural compounds for many years. In the current study, we engineered synthesis of isobutyryl-CoA and isovaleryl-CoA from glucose in E.

Graphene-based 3D composite hydrogel by anchoring Co3O4 nanoparticles with enhanced electrochemical properties.

Three-dimensional (3D) graphene-based composite materials have attracted increasing attention, owing to their specific surface area, high conductivity and electronic interactions. Here, we report a convenient route to fabricate a 3D Co3O4/Graphene Hydrogel (CGH) composite as an electrode material for supercapacitors. Utilizing the gelation of a graphene oxide dispersion enables the anchoring of Co3O4 nanoparticles on the graphene sheet surfaces and formation of the hydrogel simultaneously.

Molecular characterization of two sweepoviruses from China and evaluation of the infectivity of cloned SPLCV-JS in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Sweepoviruses are important begomoviruses that infect Ipomoea plants worldwide and cause sweet potato yield losses and cultivar decline. Two sweepoviruses, sweet potato leaf curl virus-Jiangsu (SPLCV-JS) and sweet potato leaf curl China virus-Zhejiang (SPLCCNV-ZJ), were cloned from diseased sweet potato plants collected in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces of China. Sequence characterization and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that both are typical monopartite begomoviruses and have close relationships to several reported SPLCV and SPLCCNV isolates, respectively, from Asian countries.

Efficient embryogenic suspension culturing and rapid transformation of a range of elite genotypes of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.).

Efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation was developed using embryogenic suspension cell cultures of elite sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) cultivars, including Ayamurasaki, Sushu2, Sushu9, Sushu11, Wanshu1, Xushu18 and Xushu22.

Poly(sulfonated phenylene)-block-Polyimide Copolymers for Fuel Cell Applications.

Novel poly(2-(3-sulfo)benzoyl-1,4-phenylene)-block-polynaphthalimide (PSP-b-PI) copolymers were successfully synthesized by Ni(0)-catalyzed copolymerization of 2,5-dichloro-3'-sulfo-benzophenone and dichloro-terminated naphthalimide oligomer. The membranes exhibited a microphase-separated structure and good hydrolytic stability at 130 °C. They showed a fairly strong anisotropy of membrane swelling with much smaller in-plane swelling, but a rather weak anisotropy of proton conductivity.