Pretreatment of rice straw with recycled ionic liquids by phase-separation process for low-cost biorefinery.

An efficient ionic liquids (ILs) recycle technology will increase the economic viability of lignocellulosic biorefinery. The availability of recycling 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride for rice straw (RS) pretreatment was conducted. The kosmotropic salt K3 PO4 (TKP) solution was used as antisolvent for cellulose precipitation and forming a three-phase system consisting of biomass, ILs-rich, and salt-rich phases. The upper ILs phase and the bottom TKP phase were recycled without additional purification, which significantly simplifies the process for recovering ILs. Subsequently, the RS pretreated with multiple reusing ILs (RPRS) were investigated by components analysis, structure evolution, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation experiments. The results showed that unpurified reusing ILs led to further delignification and improvement of enzyme accessibility of the pretreated RS. The reducing sugar yield of RS pretreated with 8th reusing IL (8th RPRS) could still reach 98.9%, and the ethanol and succinic acid concentrations achieved 91.9 and 29.3 g/L by simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation. The present study demonstrated that the ILs recovered by phase-separation process could be used for RS pretreatment, and achieving high titer ethanol fermentation.

The large intracellular loop of ptch1 mediates the non-canonical Hedgehog pathway through cyclin B1 in nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome.

Mutations in the transmembrane receptor patched homolog 1 (Homo sapiens) (ptch1) are responsible for nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS), an autosomal dominant disorder that causes developmental abnormalities and predisposes the affected individuals to cancer. Many of these mutations, including mutations in the C-terminus of the large intracellular loop (ICL) of ptch1 (p.C727VfsX745 and p.S733IfsX736), result in the premature truncation of the protein. The ptch1­C727VfsX745 and ptch1-S733IfsX736 mutations have been identified in patients with NBCCS­associated keratocystic odontogenic tumors (KCOTs). In the present study, we found that the molecular mechanisms regulated by the non-canonical Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway through cyclin B1 are involved in the pathogenesis of NBCCS-associated KCOTs. In contrast to wild-type ptch1, ptch1-C727VfsX745 and ptch1­S733IfsX736 clearly exhibited reduced binding to cyclin B1. Moreover, the cells expressing these two mutations demonstrated an increase in cell cycle progression and these two mutation constructs failed to inhibit cell proliferation. In addition, the mutants enhanced the activity of glioma-associated oncogene family zinc finger 1 (GLI1), a downstream reporter of Hh signaling. Thus, our data suggest that the non-canonical Hh pathway mediated through ptch1 and cyclin B1 is involved in the pathogenesis of NBCCS-associated KCOTs. The C-terminus of ICL in ptch1 may also be a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of this disease.