The global rise in urbanization and industrial activity has led to the production and incorporation of foreign contaminant molecules into ecosystems, distorting them and impacting human and animal ...health. Physical, chemical, and biological strategies have been adopted to eliminate these contaminants from water bodies under anthropogenic stress. Biotechnological processes involving microorganisms and enzymes have been used for this purpose; specifically, laccases, which are broad spectrum biocatalysts, have been used to degrade several compounds, such as those that can be found in the effluents from industries and hospitals. Laccases have shown high potential in the biotransformation of diverse pollutants using crude enzyme extracts or free enzymes. However, their application in bioremediation and water treatment at a large scale is limited by the complex composition and high salt concentration and pH values of contaminated media that affect protein stability, recovery and recycling. These issues are also associated with operational problems and the necessity of large-scale production of laccase. Hence, more knowledge on the molecular characteristics of water bodies is required to identify and develop new laccases that can be used under complex conditions and to develop novel strategies and processes to achieve their efficient application in treating contaminated water. Recently, stability, efficiency, separation and reuse issues have been overcome by the immobilization of enzymes and development of novel biocatalytic materials. This review provides recent information on laccases from different sources, their structures and biochemical properties, mechanisms of action, and application in the bioremediation and biotransformation of contaminant molecules in water. Moreover, we discuss a series of improvements that have been attempted for better organic solvent tolerance, thermo-tolerance, and operational stability of laccases, as per process requirements.
► Digestate was a source of available nitrogen and phosphorous in the short term. ► Digestate exerted positive effects on soil biological properties. ► Digestate led to good yield results for a ...summer watermelon crop. ► Organic amendments did not satisfy the nitrogen demand of a winter cauliflower crop.
The usefulness of a digestate from an anaerobic codigestion process as a fertiliser product was evaluated in a field experiment using two horticultural crops (watermelon and cauliflower), during two successive growing seasons. The effects of the digestate were compared with those of a traditional organic amendment (cattle manure) and a conventional mineral fertiliser. Digestate addition to soil provided a source of available nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the short-term and had positive effects on soil biological properties such as microbial biomass and enzyme activities, compared to the non-amended soil. The digestate application to soil led to yields comparable to the mineral fertilisation for the summer watermelon crop. However, for the winter cauliflower crop, only plots treated with the mineral fertiliser had good production. Nitrogen from the digestate is rapidly and highly available for plant growth in the short-term but also can be easily lost, together with a slow rate of microbial processes due to low temperatures, could reduce the fertilising capacity of the digestate. This seemed to be the main limiting factor for the winter cauliflower crop, where digestate or cattle manure, used as basal dressing, were not enough to satisfy the crop demand for nitrogen during its whole growth cycle.
Understanding the structure, functionalities and biology of functional amyloids is an issue of emerging interest. Inclusion bodies, namely protein clusters formed in recombinant bacteria during ...protein production processes, have emerged as unanticipated, highly tunable models for the scrutiny of the physiology and architecture of functional amyloids. Based on an amyloidal skeleton combined with varying amounts of native or native-like protein forms, bacterial inclusion bodies exhibit an unusual arrangement that confers mechanical stability, biological activity and conditional protein release, being thus exploitable as versatile biomaterials. The applicability of inclusion bodies in biotechnology as enriched sources of protein and reusable catalysts, and in biomedicine as biocompatible topographies, nanopills or mimetics of endocrine secretory granules has been largely validated. Beyond these uses, the dissection of how recombinant bacteria manage the aggregation of functional protein species into structures of highly variable complexity offers insights about unsuspected connections between protein quality (conformational status compatible with functionality) and cell physiology.
Libman-Sacks endocarditis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is commonly complicated with embolic cerebrovascular disease (CVD) or valve dysfunction for which high-risk valve surgery ...is frequently performed. However, the role of medical therapy alone for Libman-Sacks endocarditis and associated acute CVD remains undefined.
To determine in this cross-sectional and longitudinal study if conventional anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic therapy may be an effective therapy in SLE patients with Libman-Sacks endocarditis and associated acute CVD.
17 SLE patients with Libman-Sacks endocarditis detected by two-and-three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and complicated with acute CVD stroke/TIA, focal brain injury on MRI, or cognitive dysfunction were treated with conventional anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic therapy for a median of 6 months and then underwent repeat TEE, transcranial Doppler, brain MRI, and neurocognitive testing for re-assessment of Libman-Sacks endocarditis and CVD.
Valve vegetations decreased in number, diameter, and area (all p ≤0.01); associated valve regurgitation significantly improved (p = 0.04), and valve thickening did not progress (p = 0.56). In 13 (76%) patients, valve vegetations or valve regurgitation resolved or improved in number and size or by ≥1 degree, respectively, as compared to 4 (24%) patients in whom vegetations or valve regurgitation persisted unchanged or increased in size or by ≥1 degree (p = 0.03). Also, cerebromicroembolism, lobar and global gray and white matter cerebral perfusion, ischemic brain lesion load, and neurocognitive dysfunction resolved or significantly improved (all p ≤0.04).
These preliminary data suggest that combined conventional anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic therapy may be an effective treatment for Libman-Sacks endocarditis and its associated CVD and may obviate the need for high-risk valve surgery.
This review summarizes recent progress in the development of cobalt-based catalytic centers as the most potentially useful alternatives to noble metal-based electrocatalysts (Pt-, Ir-, and Ru-based) ...towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid and alkaline media. A series of cobalt-based high-performance electrocatalysts have been designed and synthesized including cobalt oxides/chalcogenides, Co–Nx/C, Co-layered double hydroxides (LDH), and Co–metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The strategies of controllable synthesis, the structural properties, ligand effect, defects, oxygen vacancies, and support materials are thoroughly discussed as a function of the electrocatalytic performance of cobalt-based electrocatalysts. Finally, prospects for the design of novel, efficient cobalt-based materials, for large-scale application and opportunities, are encouraged.
A field experiment was carried out in a semiarid agricultural Mediterranean area located at the “El Teularet” experimental field in the Enguera Sierra (Valencia, southeast Spain) to assess the ...influence of different agricultural management systems on indicators of soil biological quality and activity (microbial biomass C, basal respiration, C mineralization coefficients, metabolic quotient (qCO
2), respiratory quotient (RQ: moles CO
2 evolved/moles O
2 consumed), soluble C and dehydrogenase, urease, protease-BAA, phosphatase and β-glucosidase activities), one year after treatment establishment. The management practices assayed were as follows: application of the herbicides paraquat, glyphosate or oxyfluorfen, addition of olive tree pruning residues, ploughing, sowing of oats
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addition of crop residues
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ploughing, sowing of
Medicago sativa, sowing of oats and vetch
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addition of crop residues and addition of oat straw. A non-treated plot was used as control soil and a plot under natural vegetation was used as a standard of local, high quality soil. The plots with addition of oat straw had higher values of enzymatic activity, microbial biomass and respiration, reaching similar values to soil under native vegetation. The lowest levels of soil biological quality indicators were observed in the plots with application of some type of herbicide. Low RQ values were observed in these plots as consequence of the scarce-null inputs of organic matter, suggesting an increase in organic matter recalcitrance. The addition of oat straw to soil can be considered an effective technology, due to the rapid improvement of soil quality, for carrying out sustainable agriculture in semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystems.
Recombinant proteins are widely used as biopharmaceuticals, but their production by mammalian cell culture is expensive. Hence, improvement of bioprocess productivity is greatly needed. A temperature ...downshift (TDS) from 37°C to 28-34°C is an effective strategy to expand the productive life period of cells and increase their productivity (qp). Here, TDS in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell cultures, initially grown at 37°C and switched to 30°C during the exponential growth phase, resulted in a 1.6-fold increase in the qp of recombinant human tissue plasminogen activator (rh-tPA). The transcriptomic response using next-generation sequencing (NGS) was assessed to characterize the cellular behavior associated with TDS. A total of 416 (q > 0.8) and 3,472 (q > 0.9) differentially expressed transcripts, with more than a 1.6-fold change at 24 and 48 h post TDS, respectively, were observed in cultures with TDS compared to those at constant 37°C. In agreement with the extended cell survival resulting from TDS, transcripts related to cell growth arrest that controlled cell proliferation without the activation of the DNA damage response, were differentially expressed. Most upregulated genes were related to energy metabolism in mitochondria, mitochondrial biogenesis, central metabolism, and avoidance of apoptotic cell death. The gene coding for rh-tPA was not differentially expressed, but fluctuations were detected in the transcripts encoding proteins involved in the secretory machinery, particularly in glycosylation. Through NGS the dynamic processes caused by TDS were assessed in this biological system.
The mineral greigite presents similar surface structures to the active sites found in many modern-day enzymes. We show that particles of greigite can reduce CO2 under ambient conditions into ...chemicals such as methanol, formic, acetic and pyruvic acid. Our results also lend support to the Origin of Life theory on alkaline hydrothermal vents.
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