Effect of acyl chain length on therapeutic activity and mode of action of the CX-KYR-NH2 antimicrobial lipopeptide.

Peptide lipidation has proven to be an inexpensive and effective strategy for designing next-generation peptide-based drug compounds. In this study, the effect of the acyl chain length of ultrashort LiPs (CX-KYR-NH2; X=10, 12, 14 and 16) on their bacterial killing and membrane disruption kinetics was investigated. The geometric mean of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for 4 pathogenic bacterial strains was 25 μM, with a selectivity index of 10.

Combinatorial gene overexpression and recessive mutant gene introduction in sake yeast.

Industrial yeast strains are generally diploid and are often defective in sporulation. Such strains are hence thought to be less tractable for manipulation by genetic engineering. To facilitate more reliable genetic manipulation of the diploid yeast Japanese sake, we constructed variants of this strain that were homozygous for a URA3 deletion, homozygous for either MATa or MATalpha, and homozygous for either the his3 or the lys4 mutation.