Solid-contact ion-selective electrodes for aromatic cations based on pi-coordinating soft carriers.

Ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) based on pi-coordinating carriers were prepared and investigated as potentiometric sensors for aromatic cations, using N-methylpyridinium as a model aromatic cation. Derivatives of tetraphenylborate were studied as charged carriers in plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) membranes. Furthermore, neutral compounds containing pi-coordinating anthryl groups were studied as neutral carriers.

Directed evolution of a maltogenic alpha-amylase from Bacillus sp. TS-25.

Directed evolution coupled with a high-throughput robotic screen was employed to broaden the industrial use of the maltogenic alpha-amylase Novamyl from Bacillus sp. TS-25. Wild-type Novamyl is currently used in the baking industry as an anti-staling agent in breads baked at neutral or near neutral pH.

Plants utilize isoprene emission as a thermotolerance mechanism.

Isoprene is a volatile compound emitted from leaves of many plant species in large quantities, which has an impact on atmospheric chemistry due to its massive global emission rate (5 x 10(14) carbon g year(-1)) and its high reactivity with the OH radical, resulting in an increase in the half-life of methane. Isoprene emission is strongly induced by the increase in isoprene synthase activity in plastids at high temperature in the day time, which is regulated at its gene expression level in leaves, while the physiological meaning of isoprene emission for plants has not been clearly demonstrated. In this study, we have functionally overexpressed Populus alba isoprene synthase in Arabidopsis to observe isoprene emission from transgenic plants.

Using DNA-tagged mutagenesis to improve heterologous protein production in Aspergillus oryzae.

Using DNA-tagged mutagenesis to improve heterologous protein production in Aspergillus oryzae. Fungal Genetics and Biology 29, 28-37. Restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) has been employed as a mutagen to generate two insertion libraries in an Aspergillus oryzae strain expressing a Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase.