Organelle Engineering in Yeast: Enhanced Production of Protopanaxadiol through Manipulation of Peroxisome Proliferation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Isoprenoids, which are natural compounds with diverse structures, possess several biological activities that are beneficial to humans. A major consideration in isoprenoid production in microbial hosts is that the accumulation of biosynthesized isoprenoid within intracellular membranes may impede balanced cell growth, which may consequently reduce the desired yield of the target isoprenoid. As a strategy to overcome this suggested limitation, we selected peroxisome membranes as depots for the additional storage of biosynthesized isoprenoids to facilitate increased isoprenoid production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To maximize the peroxisome membrane storage capacity of S.cerevisiae, the copy number and size of peroxisomes were increased through genetic engineering of the expression of three peroxisome biogenesis-related peroxins (Pex11p, Pex34p, and Atg36p). The genetically enlarged and high copied peroxisomes in S.cerevisiae were stably maintained under a bioreactor fermentation condition. The peroxisome-engineered S.cerevisiae strains were then utilized as host strains for metabolic engineering of heterologous protopanaxadiol pathway. The yields of protopanaxadiol from the engineered peroxisome strains were ca 78% higher than those of the parent strain, which strongly supports the rationale for harnessing the storage capacity of the peroxisome membrane to accommodate the biosynthesized compounds. Consequently, this study presents in-depth knowledge on peroxisome biogenesis engineering in S.cerevisiae and could serve as basic information for improvement in ginsenosides production and as a potential platform to be utilized for other isoprenoids.

Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis caused by HACEK Organisms: a Case Reports and Systematic Review of the Literature.

HACEK is a rare cause of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). We describe 42-year-old male patient who presented with Aggregatibacter aphrophilus PVE and cerebral infarct. A. aphrophilus was isolated from his blood cultures as the sole pathogen, which was confirmed by subsequent 16S rRNA sequencing. He was treated with valve replacement surgery and an 8 week course of pathogen-directed antibiotic therapy and followed for 20 months without recurrence.

Crohn's disease and smoldering multiple myeloma: a case report and literature review.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that presents with abdominal pain, weight loss, and diarrhea. Although the etiology has not been fully elucidated, both environmental and genetic causes are known to be involved. In chronic inflammatory conditions such as IBD, B lymphocytes are chronically stimulated, and they induce monoclonal expansion of plasma cells, sometimes resulting in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Immunomodulators that are commonly used to control inflammation, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) blockers could increase the possibility of hematologic malignancy. The pathogenesis of multiple myeloma in association with TNF-α inhibitor therapy is attributed to decreased apoptosis of plasma cell populations. Here, we describe a case of a 36-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with immunoglobulin A subtype smoldering multiple myeloma during the treatment for CD with infliximab and adalimumab. We report this case along with a review of the literature on cases of multiple myeloma that occurred in conjunction with CD.

Phase transition-induced band edge engineering of BiVO4 to split pure water under visible light.

Through phase transition-induced band edge engineering by dual doping with In and Mo, a new greenish BiVO4 (Bi1-XInXV1-XMoXO4) is developed that has a larger band gap energy than the usual yellow scheelite monoclinic BiVO4 as well as a higher (more negative) conduction band than H(+)/H2 potential [0 VRHE (reversible hydrogen electrode) at pH 7]. Hence, it can extract H2 from pure water by visible light-driven overall water splitting without using any sacrificial reagents. The density functional theory calculation indicates that In(3+)/Mo(6+) dual doping triggers partial phase transformation from pure monoclinic BiVO4 to a mixture of monoclinic BiVO4 and tetragonal BiVO4, which sequentially leads to unit cell volume growth, compressive lattice strain increase, conduction band edge uplift, and band gap widening.

A Case Report of Familial Renal Hypouricemia Confirmed by Genotyping of SLC22A12, and a Literature Review.

A 24-year-old male visited our hospital because of pain in both flanks. His biochemistry profile showed an elevated serum creatinine level and low serum uric acid level. History taking revealed that he had undertaken exercise prior to the acute kidney injury (AKI) event, and he stated that family members had a history of urolithiasis. His renal profile improved after hydration and supportive care during hospitalization. Although the patient was subsequently admitted again due to AKI, his status recovered with similar treatment. Since the diagnosis of the patient was familial renal hypouricemia with exercise-induced AKI, we performed genotyping of SLC22A12, which encodes human urate transporter 1. The diagnosis was confirmed by the detection of a homozygous mutation of W258X. We herein, report a case of familial renal hypouricemia confirmed by genotyping of SLC22A12, and review the relevant literature.

Improved photoelectrochemical activity of CaFe2O4/BiVO4 heterojunction photoanode by reduced surface recombination in solar water oxidation.

A bismuth vanadate photoanode was first fabricated by the metal-organic decomposition method and particles of calcium ferrite were electrophoretically deposited to construct a heterojunction photoanode. The characteristics of the photoanodes were investigated in photoelectrochemical water oxidation under simulated 1 sun (100 mW cm(-2)) irradiation. Relative to the pristine BiVO4 anode, the formation of the heterojunction structure of CaFe2O4/BiVO4 increased the photocurrent density by about 60%. The effect of heterojunction formation on the transfer of charge carriers was investigated using hydrogen peroxide as a hole scavenger. It was demonstrated that the heterojunction formation reduced the charge recombination on the electrode surface with little effect on bulk recombination. The modification with an oxygen evolving catalyst, cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi), was also beneficial for improving the efficiency of CaFe2O4/BiVO4 heterojunction photoanode mainly by increasing the stability.

Isomorphic Ti substitution into SBA-15 without Ti loss and with lower TiO2 segregation.

A convenient method has been discovered to incorporate Ti atoms isomorphically into a SBA-15 lattice without Ti loss. By hydrolysis of a Ti precursor near neutral pH instead of conventional acidic conditions, Ti loss was almost eliminated and its segregation to form TiO2 particles was suppressed while the mesoporous structure remained intact.

Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water oxidation over metal-doped monoclinic BiVO(4) photoanodes.

The visible-light-induced water oxidation ability of metal-ion-doped BiVO(4) was investigated and of 12 metal ion dopants tested, only W and Mo dramatically enhanced the water photo-oxidation activity of bare BiVO(4); Mo had the highest improvement by a factor of about six. Thus, BiVO(4) and W- or Mo-doped (2 atom %) BiVO(4) photoanodes about 1 µm thick were fabricated onto transparent conducting substrate by a metal-organic decomposition/spin-coating method. Under simulated one sun (air mass 1.5G, 100 mW cm(-2)) and at 1.23 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode, the highest photocurrent density (J(PH)) of about 2.38 mA cm(-2) was achieved for Mo doping followed by W doping (J(PH) ≈ 1.98 mA cm(-2)), whereas undoped BiVO(4) gave a J(PH) value of about 0.42 mA cm(-2). The photoelectrochemical water oxidation activity of W- and Mo-doped BiVO(4) photoanodes corresponded to the incident photon to current conversion efficiency of about 35 and 40 % respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky analysis indicated a positive flat band shift of about 30 mV, a carrier concentration 1.6-2 times higher, and a charge-transfer resistance reduced by 3-4-fold for W- or Mo-doped BiVO(4) relative to undoped BiVO(4). Electronic structure calculations revealed that both W and Mo were shallow donors and Mo doping generated superior conductivity to W doping. The photo-oxidation activity of water on BiVO(4) photoanodes (undoped