Reduction of PDC1 expression in S. cerevisiae with xylose isomerase on xylose medium.

Ethanol production using hemicelluloses has recently become a focus of many researchers. In order to promote D: -xylose fermentation, we cloned the bacterial xylA gene encoding for xylose isomerase with 434 amino acid residues from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and successfully expressed it in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a non-xylose assimilating yeast. The recombinant strain S. cerevisiae W303-1A/pAGROXI successfully colonized a minimal medium containing D: -xylose as a sole carbon source and was capable of growth in minimal medium containing 2% xylose via aerobic shake cultivation. Although the recombinant strain assimilates D: -xylose, its ethanol productivity is quite low during fermentation with D: -xylose alone. In order to ascertain the key enzyme in ethanol production from D: -xylose, we checked the expression levels of the gene clusters involved in the xylose assimilating pathway. Among the genes classified into four groups by their expression patterns, the mRNA level of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC1) was reduced dramatically in xylose media. This reduced expression of PDC1, an enzyme which converts pyruvate to acetaldehyde, may cause low ethanol productivity in xylose medium. Thus, the enhancement of PDC1 gene expression may provide us with a useful tool for the fermentation of ethanol from hemicellulose.

Lipid production in Porphyridium cruentum grown under different culture conditions.

Autotrophic growth of Porphyridium cruentum under 18:12 h and 12:12 h light:dark cycles showed the maximum cell concentration of 2.1 g-dry wt./L, whereas the specific growth rate, 0.042 (1/h), at 18:6 h is faster than that of 12:12 h, 0.031 (1/h), respectively. The highest lipid accumulation level, 19.3 (%, w/w), was achieved at 12:12 h cycle. Under dark cultivation condition with 10 g/L of glucose, the lipid accumulation in the cell was 10.9 (%, w/w), whereas the heterotrophic growth with glycerol as the carbon resource showed low level of cell concentration and lipid production, compared to that of glucose. The glucose was decided to be a suitable carbon resource for the heterotrophic growth of P. cruentum. The lipids from P. cruentum seemed be feasible for biodiesel production, because over 30% of the lipid was C16-C(18:1). The cultivation time and temperature were important factors to increase the maximum cell concentration. Extending the cultivation time helps maintain the maximum cell concentration, and higher lipid accumulation was achieved at 25 degrees C, compared to 35 degrees C. The fed-batch cultures showed that, under the light condition, the specific production rate was slightly decreased to 0.4% lipid/g-dry wt./day at the later stage, whereas, under the dark condition, the specific production rate was maintained to be a maximum value of 1.1% lipid/g-dry wt./day, even in the later stage of cultivation. The results indicate that the heterotrophic or 12:12 h cyclic mixotrophic growth of P. cruentum could be used for the production of biodiesel in long-term fed-batch cultivation of P. cruentum.

Effect of different extraction protocols on anticancer and antioxidant activities of Berberis koreana bark extracts.

High-pressure extraction and ultrasonification extraction techniques were employed to extract bioactive compounds from Berberis koreana. This study aimed to determine the effect of ultrasonification in a high pressure process on the extraction yield, and the anticancer and antioxidant activities of the B. koreana bark extract. The effect of high-pressure extraction time when carried out for 5 and 15 min (HP5 and HP15) was also investigated. The best extraction yield with maximum percentage of phenolic compounds was obtained using high pressure with sonification (HPWS) extraction method. Experimental results indicated that HPWS altered the antioxidant activities, including the scavenging capacity of diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and xanthine oxidase. HP5 and HP15 with conventional extraction have almost similar bioactivity, but showed lower antioxidant and anticancer activities compared to HPWS. The results showed that the application of ultrasonification improved the extraction efficiency for bioactive compounds and, as deduced from chromatographic profiles, it may have allowed the release of new compounds. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed evidence of rupturing of the tissue surface treated with HPWS, in contrast to conventional extraction, HP5, and HP15. The HPWS extraction was not only more efficient but also convenient for the recovery and purification of the active compounds of hard plant tissues.

Hinokitiol, a natural tropolone derivative, inhibits TNF-alpha production in LPS-activated macrophages via suppression of NF-kappaB.

In this study, we examined the modulatory effect of hinokitiol (HK) on the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, a critical factor involved in skin inflammation and hair follicle apoptosis. HK effectively suppressed TNF-alpha production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated, macrophage-like (RAW264.7) cells. This compound also diminished mRNA synthesis of TNF-alpha, indicating that HK-mediated inhibition may occur at the transcriptional level. Moreover, this compound down-regulated the phosphorylation of PDK1, Akt/PKB, and ERK, resulting in a loss of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB activation, which is detectable by immunoblotting and reporter gene assays. Therefore, these results suggest that HK may cure hair loss by suppressing factors that promote follicular apoptosis, such as TNF-alpha, in addition to stimulating new hair growth.