The thermophilic biomass-degrading bacterium utilizes two enzymes to oxidize glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate during glycolysis.

is an extremely thermophilic, cellulolytic bacterium with a growth optimum at 78 °C and is the most thermophilic cellulose degrader known. It is an attractive target for biotechnological applications, but metabolic engineering will require an in-depth understanding of its primary pathways. A previous analysis of its genome uncovered evidence that may have a completely uncharacterized aspect to its redox metabolism, involving a tungsten-containing oxidoreductase of unknown function.

What will Become of the Taxpayer Investment in Public Cord Blood Stem Cell Banking?

Cord Blood (CB) is a unique and readily available source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation. CB also contains other types of stem cells, including endothelial stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells, that may prove useful in non-traditional clinical uses. Genetic and molecular analyses have demonstrated that CB stem cells lie somewhere between mature stem cells like those found in Bone Marrow (BM), and fetal stem cells.

Engineering redox-balanced ethanol production in the cellulolytic and extremely thermophilic bacterium, .

is an extremely thermophilic cellulolytic bacterium with great potential for consolidated bioprocessing of renewable plant biomass. Since it does not natively produce ethanol, metabolic engineering is required to create strains with this capability. Previous efforts involved the heterologous expression of the gene encoding a bifunctional alcohol dehydrogenase, AdhE, which uses NADH as the electron donor to reduce acetyl-CoA to ethanol.

Genome Stability in Engineered Strains of the Extremely Thermophilic Lignocellulose-Degrading Bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii.

is the most thermophilic cellulose degrader known and is of great interest because of its ability to degrade nonpretreated plant biomass. For biotechnological applications, an efficient genetic system is required to engineer it to convert plant biomass into desired products. To date, two different genetically tractable lineages of strains have been generated.

Ethanol production by the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus by expression of bacterial bifunctional alcohol dehydrogenases.

Ethanol is an important target for the renewable production of liquid transportation fuels. It can be produced biologically from pyruvate, via pyruvate decarboxylase, or from acetyl-CoA, by alcohol dehydrogenase E (AdhE). Thermophilic bacteria utilize AdhE, which is a bifunctional enzyme that contains both acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase activities.

A New Class of Tungsten-Containing Oxidoreductase in Caldicellulosiruptor, a Genus of Plant Biomass-Degrading Thermophilic Bacteria.

Caldicellulosiruptor bescii grows optimally at 78°C and is able to decompose high concentrations of lignocellulosic plant biomass without the need for thermochemical pretreatment. C. bescii ferments both C5 and C6 sugars primarily to hydrogen gas, lactate, acetate, and CO2 and is of particular interest for metabolic engineering applications given the recent availability of a genetic system.

Metallomics of two microorganisms relevant to heavy metal bioremediation reveal fundamental differences in metal assimilation and utilization.

Although as many as half of all proteins are thought to require a metal cofactor, the metalloproteomes of microorganisms remain relatively unexplored. Microorganisms from different environments are likely to vary greatly in the metals that they assimilate, not just among the metals with well-characterized roles but also those lacking any known function. Herein we investigated the metal utilization of two microorganisms that were isolated from very similar environments and are of interest because of potential roles in the immobilization of heavy metals, such as uranium and chromium.

Degradation of high loads of crystalline cellulose and of unpretreated plant biomass by the thermophilic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii.

The thermophilic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii grows at 78 °C on high concentrations (200 g L(-1)) of both crystalline cellulose and unpretreated switchgrass, while low concentrations (<20 g L(-1)) of acid-pretreated switchgrass inhibit growth. Degradation of crystalline cellulose, but not that of unpretreated switchgrass, was limited by nitrogen and vitamin (folate) availability. Under optimal conditions, C.

The phosphate of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate is an acid/base catalyst in the mechanism of Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase.

Kynureninase (L-kynurenine hydrolase, EC 3.7.1.

Rate, affinity and calcium dependence of nitric oxide synthase isoform binding to the primary physiological regulator calmodulin.

Using interferometry-based biosensors the binding and release of endothelial and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (eNOS and nNOS) from calmodulin (CaM) was measured. In both isoforms, binding to CaM is diffusion limited and within approximately three orders of magnitude of the Smoluchowski limit imposed by orientation-independent collisions. This suggests that the orientation of CaM is facilitated by the charge arrays on the CaM-binding site and the complementary surface on CaM.

Optical biosensing: Kinetics of protein A-IGG binding using biolayer interferometry.

An undergraduate biochemistry laboratory experiment has been developed using biolayer interferometry (BLI), an optical biosensing technique similar to surface plasmon resonance (SPR), in which students obtain and analyze kinetic data for a protein-protein interaction. Optical biosensing is a technique of choice to determine kinetic and affinity constants for biomolecular interactions. Measurements can be made in real-time without labels, making biosensing particularly appropriate for the teaching laboratory.