Discovery of Potent Glycosidases Enables Quantification of Smoke-Derived Phenolic Glycosides through Enzymatic Hydrolysis.

When grapes are exposed to wildfire smoke, certain smoke-related volatile phenols (VPs) can be absorbed into the fruit, where they can be then converted into volatile-phenol (VP) glycosides through glycosylation. These volatile-phenol glycosides can be particularly problematic from a winemaking standpoint as they can be hydrolyzed, releasing volatile phenols, which can contribute to smoke-related off-flavors. Current methods for quantitating these volatile-phenol glycosides present several challenges, including the requirement of expensive capital equipment, limited accuracy due to the molecular complexity of the glycosides, and the utilization of harsh reagents.

Electrical-biological hybrid system for carbon efficient isobutanol production.

We have developed an electrical-biological hybrid system wherein an engineered microorganism consumes electrocatalytically produced formate from CO to supplement the bioproduction of isobutanol, a valuable fuel chemical. Biological CO sequestration is notoriously slow compared to electrochemical CO reduction, while electrochemical methods struggle to generate carbon-carbon bonds which readily form in biological systems. A hybrid system provides a promising method for combining the benefits of both biology and electrochemistry.

Adaptive laboratory evolution for improved tolerance of isobutyl acetate in Escherichia coli.

Previously, Escherichia coli was engineered to produce isobutyl acetate (IBA). Titers greater than the toxicity threshold (3 g/L) were achieved by using layer-assisted production. To avoid this costly and complex method, adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) was applied to E.