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Biopharmaceutical drugs have strong therapeutic effect in various diseases such as autoimmune diseases, rheumatism and cancer due to their target specific recognition and low side effects. In particular, the most representative antibodies among biopharmaceuticals are widely used for targeted drug delivery, diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) have been developed by many researchers and biopharmaceutical companies. An antibody-drug conjugate, one of the new bio anticancer drugs is composed of an antibody, cytotoxic drug and chemical linker. Antibodies accurately recognize the target cancer, and drugs induce apoptosis or death of the cancer cells. Linkers stably connects the antibody and drug until ADC go to the target cancer cells. In order to develop an ADC, it is important to correctly configure each component. Recently, the 9th ADC was approved by food and drug administration (FDA) and a lot of development of new ADC is underway. The development of ADC is expected through the introduction of new antibodies including bi-specific and drugs with new anticancer mechanisms.

Mutant sugar transporter ScGAL2-N376F was overexpressed in Kluyveromyces marxianus for efficient utilization of xylose, which is one of the main components of cellulosic biomass. K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F, the ScGAL2-N376F-overexpressing strain, exhibited 47.04 g/l of xylose consumption and 26.55 g/l of xylitol production, as compared to the parental strain (24.68 g/l and 7.03 g/l, respectively) when xylose was used as the sole carbon source. When a mixture of glucose and xylose was used as the carbon source, xylose consumption and xylitol production rates were improved by 195% and 360%, respectively, by K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F. Moreover, the glucose consumption rate was improved by 27% as compared to that in the parental strain. Overexpression of both wild-type ScGAL2 and mutant ScGAL2-N376F showed 48% and 52% enhanced sugar consumption and ethanol production rates, respectively, when a mixture of glucose and galactose was used as the carbon source, which is the main component of marine biomass. As shown in this study, ScGAL2-N376F overexpression can be applied for the efficient production of biofuels or biochemicals from cellulosic or marine biomass.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of extracurricular program, and to draw implications for the subject curriculum environment through the case study by the biotechnology major among the interdisciplinary comparative course programs conducted by K University. The research data used for the study are student grade data gathered from three subjects in the biotechnology major from the second semester of 2018 and the first semester of 2019, and the survey results of participating students in the extracurricular program. As a result, professor’s intended instructional goal, learner’s extracurricular learning objectives, and core competencies were consistent, and participants’ academic achievement was higher than non-participants. In addition, it was shown that the experience of extracurricular program in connection with the major subject helped the participants to increase their interest in the major subjects and explore their career. Therefore, extracurricular program is composed of competency development education suitable for learner’s characteristics. However, it is necessary to study the effect of extracurricular program experiences related to major subjects on the learning continuity of participating students.

Background Simultaneous cofermentation of glucose and xylose mixtures would be a cost-effective solution for the conversion of cellulosic biomass to high-value products. However, most yeasts ferment glucose and xylose sequentially due to glucose catabolite repression. A well known thermotolerant yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus, was selected for this work because it possesses cost-effective advantages over Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biofuel production from cellulosic biomass. Results In the present study, we employed a directed evolutionary approach using 2-deoxyglucose to develop a thermotolerant mutant capable of simultaneous cofermentation of glucose and xylose by alleviating catabolite repression. The selected mutant, K. marxianus SBK1, simultaneously cofermented 40 g/L glucose and 28 g/L xylose to produce 23.82 g/L ethanol at 40 °C. This outcome corresponded to a yield of 0.35 g/g and productivity of 0.33 g/L h, representing an 84% and 129% improvement, respectively, over the parental strain. Interestingly, following mutagenesis the overall transcriptome of the glycolysis pathway was highly downregulated in K. marxianus SBK1, except for glucokinase-1 (GLK1) which was 21-fold upregulated. Amino acid sequence of GLK1 from K. marxianus SBK1 revealed three amino acid mutations which led to more than 22-fold lower enzymatic activity compared to the parental strain. Conclusions We herein successfully demonstrated that the cofermentation of a sugar mixture is a promising strategy for the efficient utilization of cellulosic biomass by K. marxianus SBK1. Through introduction of additional biosynthetic pathways, K. marxianus SBK1 could become a chassis-type strain for the production of fuels and chemicals from cellulosic biomass. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-019-1431-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disorder commonly occurred in the central nervous system and is an autoimmune disease. Corticosteroids are used as a short-term treatment for multiple sclerosis, but they cause side effects. Therefore, interferon beta having antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, is...

Antioxidant activities of blackberry juice and aronia juice were enhanced when fermentation was performed by acetic acid bacteria. Acetobacter pasteurianus exhibited 19.84% improvement of antioxidant activity (from 198.12 ± 2.03 to 237.42 ± 7.32 μmol TE/g) after 12 h fermentation of blackberry juice among four acetic acid bacteria. And A. pasteurianus sub sp. Pasteurianus exhibited 9.62% improvement of antioxidant activity (from 204.25 ± 3.98 to 223.89 ± 5.52 μmol TE/g) after 12 h fermentation of aronia juice. Metabolites of blackberry juice were analyzed to investigate the enhancement of antioxidant activity before and after fermentation. As results, Quercetin 7-(rhamnosylglucoside), nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide, and quercetin 3-O-(6”-acetyl-glucoside) were significantly increased after fermentation by A. pasteurianus.

The objectives of this study were to analyze antioxidant activities and identify volatile compounds in mixed berry juice after fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Antioxidant activity of the mixed berry juice increased significantly from 209.57±2.93 to 268.30±1.75 μmol TE/g after 24 h of fermentation. After LAB fermentation, 34 volatile compounds were identified. Among them, three compounds-benzoic acid, benzaldehyde, and vitispirane-showed significant changes in their concentrations. Peak areas of benzoic acid and benzaldehyde, which are known to possess antioxidant activities, increased by 64 and 188%, respectively, after fermentation. However, the peak area of vitispirane, which is the most abundant terpene compound in berry juices, decreased by 92% after fermentation.

The multiple sclerosis caused by multiple inflammatory disease or immune system disorder, is usually treated by interferon β through adjusting the abnormal immune reactions. For high production of human interferon β using recombinant E. coli, codon optimized and wild type genes were synthesized. When pET-15b or pET-21a vector was used as an expression vector with each gene, there was no target protein expression. When pQE30 vector was used as an expression vector, human interferon β was expressed by recombinant E. coli XL1-blue and E. coli JM109. Using the codon optimized gene, the expression of human interferon β was slightly increased as compared to that from wild type gene. However, most of expressed human interferon β was insoluble form.

Additional file 3: Fig. S3. Comparisons of xylose consumption rate and ethanol production rate of the selected 2-DG-resistant candidates from glucose and xylose mixture fermentation experiments at 96 h. Symbols: xylose consumption rate (green-filled square) and ethanol production rate (red-filled square).

Xylitol is a valuable substance utilized by food and biochemical industries. NAD(P)H-dependent xylose reductase (XR)—encoded by the yeast KmXYL1 gene—is the key enzyme which facilitates reduction of xylose to xylitol. Multi-copy integration of a mutant KmXYL1 (mKmXYL1) gene was carried out using thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus KCTC17555ΔURA3, in order to enhance xylitol production. After multi-copy integration, the highest xylitol producing strain was isolated and named K. marxianus 17555-JBP2. This strain exhibited 440% higher xylitol production than the parental strain at 30 °C. Due to a multi-copy integration of the mKmXYL1 gene, various additional differences between K. marxianus 17555-JBP2 and the parental strain were observed, including a 66% increase in NAD(P)H-dependent XR activity at high temperature (45 °C). Quantitative real-time PCR and transcriptome analysis demonstrated that, relative to the parent strain, K. marxianus 17555-JBP2 exhibited two more copies of mKmXY1 genes and a 9.63-fold elevation in transcription of NAD(P)H-dependent XR. After optimization of bioreactor fermentation conditions (agitation speed), high-temperature (40 °C) xylitol productivity of K. marxianus 17555-JBP2 exhibited an 81% improvement relative to the parental strain. In this study, we demonstrated that the overexpression of endogenous XR could enhance xylitol productivity at 40 °C by thermotolerant K. marxianus.

A number of polysaccharides exhibit pharmacological activities. Polysaccharides derived from Inonotus obliquus (PLIO) appear to have various potential pharmacological properties, including anti‑tumor activity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these properties remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the anti‑metastatic potential of PLIO and the underlying signaling pathways in B16‑F10 murine melanoma cells using the MTT colorimetric assay, in vitro migration and invasion assays, and flow cytometric and western blot analyses. PLIO inhibited the invasion of B16‑F10 cells and suppressed the expression of matrix metalloproteinases. PLIO treatment inhibited nuclear factor‑κB (NF‑κB) nuclear translocation in B16‑F10 cells. In addition, PLIO treatment inhibited the phosphorylation of c-Jun N‑terminal kinases and AKT. These results suggest that PLIO may suppress the invasion of highly metastatic melanoma cells via inhibition of the AKT/NF-κB signaling pathways.

Kluyveromyces marxianus has the capability of producing xylitol from xylose because of the endogenous xylose reductase (KmXYL1) gene. In this study, we cloned KmXYL1 genes and compared amino acid sequences of xylose reductase (XR) from four K. marxianus strains (KCTC 7001, KCTC 7155, KCTC 17212, and KCTC 17555). Four K. marxianus strains showed high homologies (99%) of amino acid sequences with those from other reported K. marxianus strains and around 60% homologies with that from Scheffersomyces stipitis. For XR enzymatic activities, four K. marxianus strains exhibited thermostable XR activities up to 45°C and K. marxianus KCTC 7001 showed the highest XR activity. When reaction temperatures were increased from 30 to 45°C, NADH-dependent XR activity from K. marxianus KCTC 7001 was highly increased (46%). When xylitol fermentations were performed at 30 or 45°C, four K. marxianus strains showed very poor xylitol production capabilities regardless fermentation temperatures. Xylitol productions from four K. marxianus strains might be limited because of low xylose uptake rate or cell growth although they have high thermostable XR activities.

Pretreatment steps are necessary for the bioconversion of corn stover (CS) to xylitol. In order to optimize the pretreatment parameters, the sulfuric acid concentration, sulfuric acid residence time, and solid slurry concentration were evaluated, based on the glucose and xylose recovered from CS at the relatively low temperature of 120°C. The optimum conditions were found to be pretreatment with 2.5% (w/v) sulfuric acid for 1.5 h, with a solid slurry concentration of 90 g/L. Under these conditions, the hydrolysis rates of glucan and xylan were approximately 26.0 and 82.8%, respectively. High xylitol production (10.9 g/L) and conversion yield (0.97 g/g) were attained from corn stover hydrolysate (CSH) without detoxification and any nutrient addition. Our results were similar for xylitol production in synthetic medium under the same conditions. The non-necessity of both the hydrolysate detoxification step and nutrient addition to the CSH is undoubtedly promising for scale-up application on an industrial scale, because this medium-based manufacturing process is expected to reduce the production cost of xylitol. The present study demonstrates that value-added xylitol could be effectively produced from CS under optimized pretreatment conditions, especially with CSH as the substrate material.

Directed evolutionary approach and random mutagenesis were performed on thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus KCTC17694 for isolating a yeast strain producing ethanol from xylose efficiently. The isolated mutant strain, K. marxianus 17694-DH1, showed 290% and 131% improvement in ethanol concentration and ethanol production yield from xylose, respectively, as compared with the parental strain. Sequencing of the KmXYL1 gene of K. marxianus 17694-DH1 revealed substitutions of arginine and tryptophan with lysine and leucine at positions 25 and 202, respectively, as compared to the parental strain. In addition, sequencing of the KmXYL2 gene uncovered a substitution of glutamate with leucine at position 232. When enzymatic assays of xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) from the parental strain and K. marxianus 17694-DH1 were performed, XR activities were not significantly different whereas XDH activities were significantly improved in the mutant strain up to 50 °C of reaction temperatures. RNA-Seq based transcriptome analysis showed that alcohol dehydrogenases and glucose transporters were up-regulated while TCA cycle involved enzymes were down-regulated in K. marxianus 17694-DH1.

The antibacterial activity from Tricholoma matsutake extracts were confirmed by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test against various bacteria. Tricholoma matsutake extracts was applied for manufacturing low salted Jeot-gal with sodium DL-malate and sodium nitrite as food preservatives. Due to antibacterial activity from Tricholoma matsutake extracts, MIC of sodium DL-malate and sodium nitrite were significantly reduced to 0.025 g/L and 0.25 g/L, respectively. As a result of this study, a premium low salted Jeot-gal can be developed with low concentration of food preservatives by adding Tricholoma matsutake extracts.

A starch degrading fungi was isolated from nuruk, a Korean traditional starter culture made with wheat flour. This newly isolated fungi was identified as Rhizopus oryzae WCS-1 via internal transcribed spacer region sequencing. Enzymatic assays for starch degradation activities indicated an optimum temperature and pH of 55°C and pH 4.0, respectively, using partially purified enzymes from R. oryzae WCS-1. Mixed cultures with S. cerevisiae CEN-PK 2-1D, L2612, BY4742, and D452-2 were performed. S. cerevisiae CEN-PK 2-1D has a maltose utilization pathway and showed the highest ethanol production rate with low maltose concentrations. Addition of 5 mM NaCl to mixed cultures of R. oryzae WCS-1 and S. cerevisiae CEN-PK 2-1D resulted in 21 and 33% improvements in the starch consumption rate and the ethanol production rate, respectively, because Na+ stimulated the starch degradation activity of partially purified enzymes from R. oryzae WCS-1.

Escherichia coli was engineered to produce 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) from glycerol, an inexpensive carbon source. This was done by introducing a synthetic pathway consisting of glycerol dehydratase, glycerol dehydratase reactivation factor, and 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme. The JM-30BY15AB harboring pQE30/dhaB123, yqhD and pQE15A/gdrA, gdrB produced 1,3-PDO (7.2 g/L) from glycerol, at a level higher than that produced by JM-30BY harboring pQE30/dhaB123, yqhD (4.1 g/L). When 10mM succinate was added to the medium, the titer of 1,3-PDO and the glycerol consumption increased to 9.9 and 23.84 g/L, respectively. In addition, the ratio of NADH to NAD+ increased by 43%. The titer of 1,3-PDO and glycerol consumption were 145.6 and 86.6% higher, respectively, than those from the control which harbors one vector system without gdrAB and did not include succinate addition. Under fed-batch fermentation conditions, the titer of 1,3-PDO and its conversion yield from glycerol were 13.11 g/L and 0.49 g/g, respectively. This dual-vector system may be a useful approach for the co-expression of recombinant proteins. Further, succinate addition is a promising route for the biotechnological production of NADH-dependent microbial metabolites.

Kluyveromyces marxianus is a well-known thermotolerant yeast. Although Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most commonly used yeast species for ethanol production, the thermotolerant K. marxianus is more suitable for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) processes. This is because enzymatic saccharification usually requires a higher temperature than that needed for the optimum growth of S. cerevisiae. In this study, we compared the fermentation patterns of S. cerevisiae and K. marxianus under various temperatures of fermentation. The results show that at a fermentation temperature of 45°C, K. marxianus exhibited more than two fold higher growth rate and ethanol production rate in comparison to S. cerevisiae. For SSF using starch or corn stover as the sole carbon source by K. marxianus, the high temperature (45°C) fermentations showed higher enzymatic activities and ethanol production compared to SSF at 30°C. These results demonstrate the potential of the thermotolerant yeast K. marxianus for SSF in the industrial production of biofuels.

A directed evolution and random mutagenesis were carried out with thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus ATCC 36907 for efficient xylitol production. The final selected strain, K. marxianus 36907-FMEL1, exhibited 120 and 39 % improvements of xylitol concentration and xylitol yield, respectively, as compared to the parental strain, K. marxianus ATCC 36907. According to enzymatic assays for xylose reductase (XR) activities, XR activity from K. marxianus 36907-FMEL1 was around twofold higher than that from the parental strain. Interestingly, the ratios of NADH-linked and NADPH-linked XR activities were highly changed from 1.92 to 1.30 when K. marxianus ATCC 36907 and K. marxianus 36907-FMEL1 were compared. As results of KmXYL1 genes sequencing, it was found that cysteine was substituted to tyrosine at position 36 after strain development which might cause enhanced XR activity from K. marxianus 36907-FMEL1.

Corn stover is one of the most promising lignocellulosic biomass that can be utilized for producing 1,3-propanediol and 2,3-butanediol. The pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis steps are essential for the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to diols. For optimizing the pretreatment step, temperature, time, and NaOH concentration were evaluated based on total sugar recovery. Enzymatic hydrolysis for cellulose and hemicellulose were investigated at different solid-to-liquid ratios. The optimum conditions were found to be alkaline pretreatment with 0.25 mol dm−3 NaOH for 1 h at 60 °C followed by enzymatic hydrolysis at 50 °C for 48 h, with a solid slurry concentration of 100 g dm−3. Under these conditions, conversion rates of 92.55% and 78.82% were obtained from glucan and xylan, respectively. Diol production from fermentable sugars was 14.8 g dm−3, with a conversion yield and productivity of 0.46 g g−1, and 0.98 g dm−3 h−1, respectively. Our results are similar for diol production obtained using pure sugars under the same conditions. Therefore, mild alkaline pretreatment of corn stover facilitates delignification, significantly improving the rate of enzymatic saccharification and sugar recovery.

It is well known that Phellinus linteus, which produces hispidin and its derivatives, possesses antioxidant activities. In this study, we investigated whether hispidin has protective effects on palmitate-induced oxidative stress in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells. Our results showed that palmitate treatment in C2C12 myotubes increased ROS generation and cell death as compared with the control. However, pretreatment of hispidin for 8 h improved the survival of C2C12 myotubes against palmitate-induced oxidative stress via inhibition of intracellular ROS production. Hispidin also inhibited palmitate-induced apoptotic nuclear condensation in C2C12 myotubes. In addition, we found that hispidin can suppress cleavage of caspase-3, expression of Bax, and NF-κB translocation. Therefore, these results suggest that hispidin is capable of protecting C2C12 myotubes against palmitate-induced oxidative stress.

Hexanoic acid can be used for diverse industrial applications and is a precursor for fine chemistry. Although some natural microorganisms have been screened and evolved to produce hexanoic acid, the construction of an engineered biosynthetic pathway for producing hexanoic acid in yeast has not been reported. Here we constructed hexanoic acid pathways in Kluyveromyces marxianus by integrating 5 combinations of seven genes (AtoB, BktB, Crt, Hbd, MCT1, Ter, and TES1), by which random chromosomal sites of the strain are overwritten by the new genes from bacteria and yeast. One recombinant strain, H4A, which contained AtoB, BktB, Crt, Hbd, and Ter, produced 154 mg/L of hexanoic acid from galactose as the sole substrate. However, the hexanoic acid produced by the H4A strain was re-assimilated during the fermentation due to the reverse activity of AtoB, which condenses two acetyl-CoAs into a single acetoacetyl-CoA. This product instability could be overcome by the replacement of AtoB with a malonyl CoA-acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCT1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our results suggest that Mct1 provides a slow but stable acetyl-CoA chain elongation pathway, whereas the AtoB-mediated route is fast but unstable. In conclusion, hexanoic acid was produced for the first time in yeast by the construction of chain elongation pathways comprising 5–7 genes in K. marxianus.

Among members of the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family, sucrose isomerase (SIase) and oligo-1,6-glucosidase (O16G) are evolutionarily closely related even though their activities show different specificities. A gene (Avin_08330) encoding a putative SIase (AZOG: Azo tobacter g lucocosidase) from the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii is a type of pseudo-SIase harboring the “RLDRD” motif, a SIase-specific region in 329–333. However, neither sucrose isomerization nor hydrolysis activities were observed in recombinant AZOG (rAZOG). The rAZOG showed similar substrate specificity to Bacillus O16G as it catalyzes the hydrolysis of isomaltulose and isomaltose, which contain α-1,6-glycosidic linkages. Interestingly, rAZOG could generate isomaltose from the small substrate methyl-α-glucoside (MαG) via intermolecular transglycosylation. In addition, sucrose isomers isomaltulose and trehalulose were produced when 250 mM fructose was added to the MαG reaction mixture. The conserved regions I and II of AZOG are shared with many O16Gs, while regions III and IV are very similar to those of SIases. Strikingly, a shuffled AZOG, in which the N-terminal region of SIase containing conserved regions I and II was exchanged with the original enzyme, exhibited a production of sucrose isomers. This study demonstrates an evolutionary relationship between SIase and O16G and suggests some of the main regions that determine the specificity of SIase and O16G.

Functional expression of a cellodextrin transporter and an intracellular β-glucosidase from Neurospora crassa in Saccharomyces cerevisiae enables simultaneous co-fermentation of cellobiose and non-glucose sugars such as xylose. Here we investigate the functional role of aldose 1-epimerase (AEP) in engineered cellobiose utilization. One AEP (Gal10) and two putative AEPs (Yhr210c and Ynr071c sharing 50.6% and 51.0% amino acid identity with Gal10, respectively) were selected. Deletion of GAL10 led to complete loss of both AEP activity and cell growth on cellobiose, while GAL10 complementation restored the AEP activity and cell growth. In addition, deletion of YHR210C or YNR071C resulted in improved cellobiose utilization. These results suggest that the intracellular mutarotation of β-glucose to α-glucose might be a rate controlling step and Gal10 play a crucial role in cellobiose fermentation by engineered S. cerevisiae.

Amylosucrase (AS), maltooligosyltrehalose synthase (MTS), and maltooligosyltrehalose trehalohydrolase (MTH) were used in combined cross-linked enzyme aggregates (combi-CLEAs) to achieve one-step bioconversion of sucrose to trehalose. Combi-CLEAs of three enzymes were successfully established with acetone and glutaraldehyde (GA) as a precipitant and a cross-linker, respectively. The optimum enzyme ratio was 8:0.5:0.5 (AS, 4 mg:MTS, 0.25 mg:MTH, 0.25 mg). To improve trehalose production, bovine serum albumin was co-aggregated with enzymes as a proteic feeder. The trehalose production yield of combi-CLEAs was about 8% in each cycle on the basis of substrate added up to 400 mM. Finally, the combi-CLEAs used in this experiment showed reusability of about five cycles without any activity loss.

As Saccharomyces cerevisiae cannot utilize xylose as a carbon source, expression of XYL1 coding for xylose reductase (XR) from Scheffersomyces (Pichia) stipitis enabled production of xylitol from xylose with a high yield. However, insufficient supply of NAD(P)H for XR and inhibition of xylose uptake by glucose are identified as major constraints for achieving high xylitol productivity. To overcome these problems, we engineered S. cerevisiae capable of converting xylose into xylitol through simultaneous utilization of xylose and cellobiose. An engineered S. cerevisiae (D-10-BT) expressing XR, cellodextrin transporter (cdt-1) and intracellular β-glucosidase (gh1-1) produced xylitol via simultaneous utilization of cellobiose and xylose. The D-10-BT strain exhibited 40% higher volumetric xylitol productivity with co-consumption of cellobiose and xylose compared to sequential utilization of glucose and xylose. Furthermore, the overexpression of S. cerevisiae ALD6, IDP2, or S. stipitis ZWF1 coding for cytosolic NADP(+)-dependent dehydrogenases increased the intracellular NADPH availability of the D-10-BT strain, which resulted in a 37-63% improvement in xylitol productivity when cellobiose and xylose were co-consumed. These results suggest that co-utilization of cellobiose and xylose can lead to improved xylitol production through enhanced xylose uptake and efficient cofactor regeneration.

A gene (acas) designated as alpha-amylase was cloned from Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6. The multiple amino acid sequence analysis and functional expression of acas revealed that this gene really encoded an amylosucrase (ASase) instead of alpha-amylase. In fact, the recombinant enzyme exhibited typical ASase activity by showing both sucrose hydrolysis and glucosyltransferase activities. The purified enzyme has a molecular mass of 72 kDa and exhibits optimal hydrolysis activity at 45 degrees C and a pH of 8.0. The analysis of the oligomeric state of ACAS with gel permeation chromatography revealed that the ACAS existed as a monomer.

α-Arbutin (α-Ab) is a powerful skin whitening agent that blocks epidermal melanin biosynthesis by inhibiting the enzymatic oxidation of tyrosine and l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA). α-Ab was effectively synthesized from hydroquinone (HQ) by enzymatic biotransformation using amylosucrase (ASase). The ASase gene from Deinococcus geothermalis (DGAS) was expressed and efficiently purified from Escherichia coli using a constitutive expression system. The expressed DGAS was functional and performed a glycosyltransferase reaction using sucrose as a donor and HQ as an acceptor. The presence of a single HQ bioconversion product was confirmed by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The HQ bioconversion product was isolated by silica gel open column chromatography and its chemical structure determined by 1H and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The product was determined to be hydroquinone-O-α-d-glucopyranoside with a glucose molecule linked to HQ through an α-glycosidic bond. However, the production yield of the transfer reaction was significantly low (1.3%) due to the instability of HQ in the reaction mixture. The instability of HQ was considerably improved by antioxidant agents, particularly ascorbic acid, implying that HQ is labile to oxidation. A maximum yield of HQ transfer product of 90% was obtained at a 10:1 molar ratio of donor (sucrose) and acceptor (HQ) molecules in the presence of 0.2 mM ascorbic acid.

The gene encoding sucrose isomerase from Enterobacter sp. FMB-1 species (ESI) was displayed on the cell surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae EBY100 using a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor attachment signal sequence. Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis and immunofluorescence microscopy confirmed the localization of ESI on the yeast cell surface. The displayed ESI (dESI) was stable at a broad range of temperatures (35-55 °C) and pHs (pH 5-7) with optimal temperature and pH at 45 °C and pH 7.0, respectively. In addition, the thermostability of the dESI was significantly enhanced compared with the recombinant ESI expressed in Escherichia coli. Biotransformation of sucrose to isomaltulose was observed in various ranges of substrate concentrations (50-250 mM) with a 6.4-7.4% conversion yield. It suggested that the bioconversion of sucrose to isomaltulose can be successfully performed by the dESI on the surface of host S. cerevisiae.

We demonstrate improved ethanol yield and productivity through cofermentation of cellobiose and galactose by an engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain expressing genes coding for cellodextrin transporter ( cdt-1 ) and intracellular β-glucosidase ( gh1 - 1 ) from Neurospora crassa . Simultaneous fermentation of cellobiose and galactose can be applied to producing biofuels from hydrolysates of marine plant biomass.

Efficient fermentation of xylose, which is abundant in hydrolysates of lignocellulosic biomass, is essential for producing cellulosic biofuels economically. While heterologous expression of xylose isomerase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been proposed as a strategy to engineer this yeast for xylose fermentation, only a few xylose isomerase genes from fungi and bacteria have been functionally expressed in S. cerevisiae. We cloned two bacterial xylose isomerase genes from anaerobic bacteria (Bacteroides stercoris HJ-15 and Bifidobacterium longum MG1) and introduced them into S. cerevisiae. While the transformant with xylA from B. longum could not assimilate xylose, the transformant with xylA from B. stercoris was able to grow on xylose. This result suggests that the xylose isomerase (BsXI) from B. stercoris is functionally expressed in S. cerevisiae. The engineered S. cerevisiae strain with BsXI consumed xylose and produced ethanol with a good yield (0.31 g/g) under anaerobic conditions. Interestingly, significant amounts of xylitol (0.23 g xylitol/g xylose) were still accumulated during xylose fermentation even though the introduced BsXI might not cause redox imbalance. We investigated the potential inhibitory effects of the accumulated xylitol on xylose fermentation. Although xylitol inhibited in vitro BsXI activity significantly (K(I) = 5.1 ± 1.15 mM), only small decreases (less than 10%) in xylose consumption and ethanol production rates were observed when xylitol was added into the fermentation medium. These results suggest that xylitol accumulation does not inhibit xylose fermentation by engineered S. cerevisiae expressing xylA as severely as it inhibits the xylose isomerase reaction in vitro.