Development of the production of 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid from lignin extracts, which are industrially formed as by-products, as raw materials.

Lignosulfonate is a by-product of the cooking process by sulfite pulping for paper manufacturing. The treatment of wood chips by various salts of sulfurous acid solubilizes lignin to produce a cellulose-rich wood pulp. Developing a technique for the conversion of lignosulfonate by-product to high value materials has an important industrial utility. Sphingobium sp. strain SYK-6, which was isolated from pulping wastewater, is one of the best enzymatically or genetically characterized bacteria for degrading lignin-derived aromatics. We have previously established a system for the production of 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), a novel platform chemical that can produce a variety of bio-based polymers, by introducing of ligA, ligB, and ligC genes from SYK-6 into a mutant strain of Pseudomonas putida PpY1100. In this study, extracts from lignosulfonates, which were desulphonated and depolymerized by alkaline oxidation, were evaluated as substrates for microbiological conversion to PDC by the transgenic bacteria.

DWARF50 (D50), a rice (Oryza sativa L.) gene encoding inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase, is required for proper development of intercalary meristem.

Rice internodes are vital for supporting high-yield panicles, which are controlled by various factors such as cell division, cell elongation and cell wall biosynthesis. Therefore, formation and regulation of the internode cell-producing intercalary meristem (IM) are important for determining the shape of internodes. To understand the regulation of internode development, we analysed a rice dwarf mutant, dwarf 50 (d50). Previously, we reported that parenchyma cells in the elongated internodes of d50 ectopically deposit cell wall phenolics. In this study, we revealed that D50 encodes putative inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase (5PTase), which may be involved in phosphoinositide signalling required for many essential cellular functions, such as cytoskeleton organization, endocytosis and vesicular trafficking in eukaryotes. Analysis of the rice genome revealed 20 putative 5PTases including D50. The d50 mutation induced abnormally oriented cell division, irregular deposition of cell wall pectins and thick actin bundles in the parenchyma cells of the IM, resulting in abnormally organized cell files of the internode parenchyma and dwarf phenotype. Our results suggest that the putative 5PTase, encoded by D50, is essential for IM formation, including the direction of cell division, deposition of cell wall pectins and control of actin organization.

Isolation and molecular characterization of single-chain Fv antibodies raised against pollen allergens from Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don).

We report here the isolation and molecular characterization of single-chain Fv (scFv) antibodies raised against two major allergens, Cryj1 and Cryj2, in the pollen of Cryptomeria japonica by the phage display method. Recombinant phages that produced scFv antibodies that bound to Cryj1 or Cryj2 were isolated by selection with immobilized antigens in microtiter plates. After selection of six Cryj1- and four Cryj2-specific scFv antibodies with strong binding activity, we performed pairwise interaction analysis of them by surface plasmon resonance. The analysis revealed that the scFv antibodies against Cryj1 bound to only four non-overlapping epitopes, with dissociation constants that ranged from 4.84x10(-9) M to 1.62x10(-7) M. By contrast, four Cryj2-specific scFv antibodies inhibited each other's binding to Cryj2, with dissociation constants from 1.11x10(-7) M to 4.21x10(-7) M. Our results indicate that recombinant technology provides a time-saving method for the production of antibodies against pollen allergens.