Cashew nut testa, a by-product of cashew nut processing, is abundant in phenolic compounds and exhibits strong antioxidant properties, making it a potential additive for enhancing the antioxidant properties of biodegradable films used in food packaging. This study explores the fabrication of biodegradable chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol films incorporating varying concentrations of cashew nut testa extract (CNTE; 0, 1, 2 and 3% v/v) and evaluates their physical, structural, mechanical, optical and antioxidant properties. The results demonstrate that increasing extract concentration generally increased the thickness, tensile strength, Young's modulus, thermal stability and antioxidant capacity of the films, while reducing the moisture content, swelling degree, elongation at break, and light transmittance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF-hydroxycinnamic acid (pHCA) is one of the most abundant naturally occurring hydroxycinnamic acids, a class of chemistries known for their antioxidant properties. In this study, we evaluated the impact of pHCA on different parameters of skin aging in in vitro skin models after HO and UV exposure. These parameters include keratinocyte senescence and differentiation, inflammation, and energy metabolism, as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe demand for dietary fiber-rich cookies has increased due to customer awareness about the importance of dietary fiber in human health. In addition, the urge of creating food sustainability has led to the need to reuse food by-products. In this study, dietary fiber-rich cookies were developed by incorporating jackfruit rind (JFR) powder, a by-product of jackfruit processing, as a replacement for wheat flour.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriceptides are cyclophane-containing ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides. The characteristic cross-links are formed between an aromatic ring to Cβ on three-residue Ω1X2X3 motifs (Ω1 = aromatic). Here, we explored the promiscuity of the XYE family triceptide maturase, XncB from DSM 3370.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnzymes catalyzing peptide macrocyclization are important biochemical tools in drug discovery. The -residue clophane-orming nzyme (3-CyFEs) are an emerging family of post-translational modifying enzymes that catalyze the formation of three-residue peptide cyclophanes. In this report, we introduce three additional 3-CyFEs, including ChlB, WnsB, and FnnB, that catalyze cyclophane formation on Tyr, Trp, and Phe, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConventional nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment requires a high oxygen and energy input. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), the single-step conversion of ammonium and nitrite to nitrogen gas, is a more energy and cost effective alternative applied extensively to sidestream wastewater treatment. It would also be a mainstream treatment option if species diversity and physiology were better understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe analysis of metagenome data based on the recovery of draft genomes (so called metagenome-assembled genomes, or MAG) has assumed an increasingly central role in microbiome research in recent years. Microbial communities underpinning the operation of wastewater treatment plants are particularly challenging targets for MAG analysis due to their high ecological complexity, and remain important, albeit understudied, microbial communities that play ssa key role in mediating interactions between human and natural ecosystems. Here we consider strategies for recovery of MAG sequence from time series metagenome surveys of full-scale activated sludge microbial communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeptide-derived cyclophanes inhabit a unique niche in the chemical space of macrocyclic peptides with several examples of pharmaceutical importance. Although both synthetic and biocatalytic methods are available for constructing these macrocycles, versatile (bio)catalysts able to incorporate a variety of amino acids that compose the macrocycle would be useful for the creation of diverse peptide cyclophanes. In this report, we synergized the use of bioinformatic tools to map the biosynthetic landscape of radical SAM enzymes (3-CyFEs) that catalyze three-residue cyclophane formation in the biosynthesis of a new family of RiPP natural products, the triceptides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent research has shown enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) from municipal wastewater at warmer temperatures around 30 °C to be achievable in both laboratory-scale reactors and full-scale treatment plants. In the context of a changing climate, the feasibility of EBPR at even higher temperatures is of interest. We operated two lab-scale EBPR sequencing batch reactors for > 300 days at 30 °C and 35 °C, respectively, and followed the dynamics of the communities of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and competing glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) using a combination of 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding, quantitative PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBeyond the consensus definition of G-quadruplex-forming motifs with tracts of continuous guanines, G-quadruplexes harboring bulges in the G-tetrad core are prevalent in the human genome. Here, we study the incorporation of a duplex hairpin within a bulge of a G-quadruplex. The NMR solution structure of a G-quadruplex containing a duplex bulge was resolved, revealing the structural details of the junction between the duplex bulge and the G-quadruplex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCyclic peptide natural products have served as important drug molecules, with several examples used clinically. Enzymatic or chemical macrocyclization is the key transformation for constructing these chemotypes. Methods to generate new and diverse cyclic peptide scaffolds enabling the modular and predictable synthesis of peptide libraries are desirable in drug discovery platforms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe folding kinetics is an important parameter affecting the relevance of DNA and RNA G-quadruplex (G4) structures in biological processes. Previous studies of the G4 folding kinetics mainly depended on fast measurement techniques. In previously available examples of G4s with loops up to three residues, the folding kinetics spanning several orders of magnitude has been reported, ranging from milliseconds to over 100 s.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite recent evidence from full-scale plants suggesting that Accumulibacter may be capable of using amino acids, this metabolic trait has never been confirmed in a bioreactor experiment. Here we show that an enriched culture of . Accumulibacter clade IIF strain SCELSE-1 could metabolize 11 of 20 α-amino acids, with aspartate, glutamate, asparagine, and glutamine resulting in the highest phosphorus removal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA single sublineage I OTU was found to perform nitrite oxidation in full-scale domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the tropics. This taxon had an apparent oxygen affinity constant lower than that of the full-scale domestic activated sludge cohabitating ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) (0.09 ± 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is considered challenging in the tropics, based on a great number of laboratory-based studies showing that the polyphosphate-accumulating organism (PAO) Candidatus Accumulibacter does not compete well with glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) at temperatures above 25 °C. Yet limited information is available on the PAO community and the metabolic capabilities in full-scale EBPR systems operating at high temperature. We studied the composition of the key functional PAO communities in three full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with high in-situ EBPR activity in Singapore, their EBPR-associated carbon usage characteristics, and the relationship between carbon usage and community composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall-molecule ligands targeting nucleic acids have been explored as potential therapeutic agents. Duplex groove-binding ligands have been shown to recognize DNA in a sequence-specific manner. On the other hand, quadruplex-binding ligands exhibit high selectivity between quadruplex and duplex, but show limited discrimination between different quadruplex structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report here the formation of stable DNA quadruplex-duplex hybrid complexes harboring multiple duplex stems within the same loop of a quadruplex structure. The folding topology of a two-stem quadruplex-duplex hybrid construct was validated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This multi-stem incorporation principle is applicable at different loop positions of the same quadruplex construct and could be extended to three or more duplex stems, giving rise to a diverse range of possible structures.
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