ABSTRACT
Rhodotorula toruloides is a non-conventional yeast with a natural carotenoid pathway. In particular, R. toruloides is an oleaginous yeast that can accumulate lipids in high content, thereby gaining interest as a promising industrial host. In this study, we isolated and taxonomically identified a new R. toruloides LAB-07 strain. De novo genome assembly using PacBio and Illumina hybrid platforms yielded 27 contigs with a 20.78 Mb genome size. Subsequent genome annotation analysis based on RNA-seq predicted 5296 protein-coding genes, including the fatty acid production pathway. We compared lipid production under different media; it was highest in the yeast extract salt medium with glycerol as a carbon source. Polyunsaturated α-linolenic acid was detected among the fatty acids, and docking phosphatidylcholine as a substrate to modeled Fad2, which annotated as Δ12-fatty acid desaturase showed bifunctional Δ12, 15-desaturation is structurally possible in that the distances between the diiron center and the carbon-carbon bond in which desaturation occurs were similar to those of structurally identified mouse stearoyl-CoA desaturase. Finally, the applicability of the extracted total lipid fraction of R. toruloides was investigated, demonstrating an increase in filaggrin expression and suppression of heat-induced MMP-1 expression when applied to keratinocytes, along with the additional antioxidant activity. This work presents a new R. toruloides LAB-07 strain with genomic and lipidomic data, which would help understand the physiology of R. toruloides. Also, the various skin-related effect of R. toruloides lipid extract indicates its potential usage as a promising cosmetic ingredient.
ABSTRACT
Aspergillus cristatus is a beneficial fungus of microbial fermented teas such as China's Fuzhuan brick tea and Pu-erh tea, and is commonly called golden flower fungus (GFF) because its cleistothecium has a yellow millet or sand grain shape. Since natural materials fermented with GFF exhibit various physiological activities, a new active cosmeceutical ingredient was developed by solid-state fermentation of ginseng, a famous active material for healthy skin, with GFF. The extract of solid-state fermented ginseng with GFF (GFFG) exhibited potent anti-aging efficacy on the skin such as the increase of hyaluronic acid synthesis, aquaporin expression, and mRNA level of filaggrin in HaCaT keratinocyte. GFFG also inhibited the expression of MMP-1 increased by TNF-α in human dermal fibroblast. Sophisticated chromatographic and spectroscopic studies have elucidated isodihydroauroglaucin and flavoglaucin as the metabolites which were not present in ginseng extract nor GFF extract alone. Bioassay of these metabolites revealed that these compounds were part of active principles of GFFG. These results suggest that GFFG would be a potential active ingredient in anti-aging cosmeceutical products.
ABSTRACT
Rice koji, used as a starter for maximizing fermentation benefits, produces versatile end products depending on the inoculum microbes used. Here, we performed metabolite profiling to compare rice koji fermented with two important filamentous fungus, Aspergillus oryzae and A. cristatus, during 8 days. The multivariate analyses showed distinct patterns of primary and secondary metabolites in the two kojis. The rice koji fermented with A. oryzae (RAO) showed increased α-glucosidase activity and higher contents of sugar derivatives than the one fermented with A. cristatus (RAC). RAC showed enhanced ß-glucosidase activity and increased contents of flavonoids and lysophospholipids, compared to RAO. Overall, at the final fermentation stage (8 days), the antioxidant activities and anti-aging effects were higher in RAC than in RAO, corresponding to the increased metabolites such as flavonoids and auroglaucin derivatives in RAC. This comparative metabolomic approach can be applied in production optimization and quality control analyses of koji products.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research was to identify metabolite change during barley (Hordeum vulgare) germination and reveal active principles for the anti-wrinkle activity. Barley was germinated with deionized water (DW) and mineral-rich water (MRW) for the comparison of the effect of mineral contents on the metabolites changes during germination. The effects of germinated barley extracts (GBEs) on collagen production and collagenase inhibition were evaluated in vitro using human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). A pronounced anti-wrinkle activity was observed in the test group treated with the MRW-GBEs. In order to find out the active components related to the anti-wrinkle activity, an orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was performed, using the data from secondary metabolites profiling conducted by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS. The anti-wrinkle activity of MRW-GBEs was revealed to be associated with the increase of oligomeric compounds of procyanidin and prodelphinidin, indicating that it can be used as an active ingredient for anti-wrinkle agents.
