Marine-Derived Compounds and Prospects for Their Antifungal Application.

The introduction of antifungals in clinical practice has an enormous impact on the provision of medical care, increasing the expectancy and quality of life mainly of immunocompromised patients. However, the emergence of pathogenic fungi that are resistant and multi-resistant to the existing antifungal therapy has culminated in fungal infections that are almost impossible to treat. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover new strategies. The marine environment has proven to be a promising rich resource for the discovery and development of new antifungal compounds. Thus, this review summarizes more than one hundred marine natural products, or their derivatives, which are categorized according to their sources-sponges, bacteria, fungi, and sea cucumbers-as potential candidates as antifungal agents. In addition, this review focus on recent developments using marine antifungal compounds as new and effective approaches for the treatment of infections caused by resistant and multi-resistant pathogenic fungi and/or biofilm formation; other perspectives on antifungal marine products highlight new mechanisms of action, the combination of antifungal and non-antifungal agents, and the use of nanoparticles and anti-virulence therapy.

A transcriptomic survey of Migdolus fryanus (sugarcane rhizome borer) larvae.

Sugarcane, a major crop grown in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world, is produced mainly for sucrose, which is used as a sweetener or for the production of bioethanol. Among the numerous pests that significantly affect the yield of sugarcane, the sugarcane rhizome borer (Migdolus fryanus, a cerambycidae beetle) is known to cause severe damage to the crops in Brazil. The absence of molecular information about this insect reinforces the need for studies and an effective method to control this pest. In this study, RNA-Seq technology was employed to study different parts of M. fryanus larvae. The generated data will help in further investigations about the taxonomy, development, and adaptation of this insect. RNA was extracted from six different parts (head, fat body, integument, hindgut, midgut, and foregut) using Trizol methodology. Using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology and the Trinity platform, trimming and de novo assembly was performed, resulting in 44,567 contigs longer than 200 nt for a reunion of data from all transcriptomes, with a mean length of 1,095.27 nt. Transcripts were annotated using BLAST against different protein databanks (Uniprot/Swissprot, PFAM, KEEG, SignalP 4.1, Gene Ontology, and CAZY) and were compared for similarity using a Venn diagram. Differential expression patterns were studied for select genes through qPCR and FPKM comprising important protein families (digestive peptidases, glucosyl hydrolases, serine protease inhibitors and otopetrin), which allowed a better understanding of the insect's digestion, immunity and gravity sensorial mechanisms.

Industrial PE-2 strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: from alcoholic fermentation to the production of recombinant proteins.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most important microorganism used in the ethanol fermentation process. The PE-2 strain of this yeast is widely used to produce alcohol in Brazil due to its high fermentation capacity. The aim of the present study was to develop an expression system for recombinant proteins using the industrial PE-2 strain of S. cerevisiae during the alcoholic fermentation process. The protein chosen as a model for this system was CaneCPI-1, a cysteine peptidase inhibitor. A plasmid containing the CaneCPI-1 gene was constructed and yeast cells were transformed with the pYADE4_CaneCPI-1 construct. To evaluate the effect on fermentation ability, the transformed strain was used in the fermentation process with cell recycling. During the nine-hour fermentative cycles the transformed strain did not have its viability and fermentation ability affected. In the last cycle, when the fermentation lasted longer, the protein was expressed probably at the expense of ethanol once the sugars were exhausted. The recombinant protein was expressed in yeast cells, purified and submitted to assays of activity that demonstrated its functionality. Thus, the industrial PE-2 strain of S. cerevisiae can be used as a viable system for protein expression and to produce alcohol simultaneously. The findings of the present study demonstrate the possibility of producing recombinant proteins with biotechnological applications during the ethanol fermentation process.