Current Biotechnology - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2017

Background: Basidiomycete Trametes versicolor is one of the most studied white rot fungus due to its great genetic potential responsible for the expression of different and powerful capacities such as degrading lignocellulose in wood decay bioprocesses. T. versicolor whole genome is currently being sequenced due to the high interest in using its enzymatic complex systems as well as producing its polysaccharopeptides Read More

Background: The conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals is an important technology to replace petroleum as a transportation fuel which will ease climate effects of burning fossil fuels. Recent advances in cellulosic ethanol production have enabled the establishment of commercial scale plants that produce ethanol for transportation fuel. Thermotolerant cellulase enzymatic mixtures from thermophilic fungi are an attracti Read More

Background: Oxalic acid is a common metabolite of wood-degrading basidiomycete fungi, and it has been proposed to possess several important roles in fungal physiology, including assistance in degradation of lignocellulose polymers. Because high concentrations of oxalic acid are toxic to fungi, they produce oxalate degrading enzymes, i.e. oxalate decarboxylases (ODC) and oxalate oxidases (OXO), to regulate the amount Read More

Background: Wood rotting white-rot and litter-decomposing basidiomycetes form a huge reservoir of oxidative enzymes, needed for applications in the pulp and paper and textile industries and for bioremediation. Objective: The aim was (i) to achieve higher throughput in enzyme screening through miniaturization and automatization of the activity assays, and (ii) to discover fungi which produce efficient oxidoreductases for i Read More

Background: Manganese peroxidases (MnP) and lignin peroxidases (LiP) are haem-including fungal secreted class-II peroxidases, which are interesting oxidoreductases in protein engineering aimed at designing of biocatalysts for lignin and lignocellulose conversion, dye compound degradation, activation of aromatic compounds, and biofuel production. Objective. Recombinant short-type MnP (Pr-MnP3) of the white r Read More

Background: Commercial fungal cellulases used in biomass-to-biofuels processes can be grouped into three general classes: native, augmented, and engineered. Objective: To evaluate lignin binding affinities of different enzyme activities in various commercial cellulase formulations in order to determine if enzyme losses due to lignin binding can be modulated by using different enzymes of the same activity Methods: We used w Read More

Background: A major bottleneck in DNA-mediated transformation of fungi is the limited number of available selective marker genes, especially when sequential transformations of the same strain are necessary. In the model basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea, the trp1+ gene is a commonly used dominant selection marker for transformation to complement trp1 auxotrophies. The trp1+ encoded tryptophan synthase is a bifu Read More

Background: Methanogens utilize low carbon molecules in anaerobic environments and produce CH4 that serves as a key component in the global carbon cycle in the atmosphere. Genome-scale metabolic modeling is a proficient computational tool for integrative analysis of their cellular and metabolic processes. Thus, genome-scale models of methanogens have gained great importance in environmental and biotechnological Read More

Background: Many investigations have attributed bio-functional properties to a range of conjugated fatty acids (CFAs) of which the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and conjugated linolenic acid (CLNA) isomers have displayed potent health beneficial effects in a large number of in vitro and in vivo studies. CLNA isomers are naturally present in high concentrations in a variety of seed oils but relatively in small amount in meat an Read More

Background: Celite- immobilized lipase was used to catalyze the esterification reaction between different alcohol of carbon chain in increasing order viz. methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol to form cinnamate esters in DMSO (solvent) at different temperatures for different time periods in a chemical reactor. Methods: The molar ratio of 1:1 (cinnamic acid: alcohol) was found to be optimum for the syntheses of all cinnam Read More