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Asymmetric reduction of (R)‐carvone and ketoisophorone by an engineered ene‐reductase from Galdieria sulphuraria (GsOYE) combined with glucose dehydrogenase for NADPH regeneration were studied. A semi‐rational protein engineering was used to enhance the activity and selectivity of GsOYE. Upon the sequence alignment and molecular docking results, two amino acid residues at positions 66 and 270 were selected as saturation mutation sites. Finally, a single substitution variant of GsOYE‐N270A with complete conversion (100%) and diastereoselectivity (dep>99%) for reduction of (R)‐carvone and a double substitution variant GsOYE‐Y66P/N270H with improved stereoselectivity for reduction of ketoisophorone were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is a global paradigm that raises concern in relation to environment and human health. In order to investigate the molecular toxicity mechanisms of MPs, transcriptomic analyses were performed on in vitro Caco‐2 cell model. After observing that polystyrene microplastics (PS‐MPs) decreased cell viability in a dose‐dependent manner, the responsible genes and involved pathways that might make contribution to PS‐MBs‐induced toxicity to Caco‐2 cells were identified with Illumina RNA seq. A total of 442 genes including, 210 up‐regulated ones and 232 down‐regulated ones, showed differential expression after treatment by PS‐MPs with a concentration of 12.5 mg L−1 or 50.0 mg L−1 for 24 hours. Gene Ontology (GO) annotation enriched unigenes can be grouped into three separated clusters: cellular component (CC), biological process (BP), and molecular function (MF). The dominate pathways related to NF‐κB, MAPK signaling, cytokine‐cytokine receptor interaction, and toll‐like receptor were strongly influenced by PS‐MBs. These pathways are involved in modulating cell inflammatory and proliferation. The qPCR were applied to investigate the transcriptional level of five proliferation related genes (Ras, ERK, MER, CDK4, Cyclin D1) and four inflammation related genes (TRPV1, iNOS, IL‐1β, IL‐8), and the results were consistent with RNA‐seq data. This study has provided new insight into the understanding of the toxicity effects of PS‐MBs‐induced intestinal inflammatory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lubricant bridge connecting the slider and the disk will significantly deteriorate the read–write stability of the hard disk drive. This paper builds a model of disk-lubricant-slider system. The coarse-grained bead-spring model is used to represent perfluoropolyethers molecules. And the molecular dynamic method is used to study the formation time and the molecule number of the lubricant bridge under different disk rotation speeds and slider flying heights. Furthermore, the influence of lubricant bridge on the pressure acting on the slider pad is also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute toxicity effects of dichloromethane and dichloroethane on Chlorella vulgaris at the physiological and molecular level. Data showed that the cell number, chlorophyll a, and total protein content gradually decreased with increasing dichloromethane and dichloroethane concentrations over a 96-h exposure. Lower doses of two organic solvents had stimulatory effects on catalase and superoxide dismutase activity. Malondialdehyde showed a concentration-dependent increase in response to dichloromethane and dichloroethane exposure. Electron microscopy also showed that there were some chloroplast abnormalities in response to different concentrations of dichloromethane and dichloroethane exposure. Real-time polymerase chain reaction assay demonstrated that dichloromethane and dichloroethane reduced the transcript abundance of psaB, whereas that of psbC changed depending on the toxicant after 24 h of exposure. Dichloromethane and dichloroethane affected the activity of antioxidant enzymes, disrupted the chloroplast ultrastructure, and reduced transcription of photosynthesis-related genes in C. vulgaris, leading to metabolic disruption and cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a widely used supplement in heart diseases treatment or antioxidative dietary. The microbial production of CoQ10 was enhanced by addition of solanesol and novel precursors recovered from waste tobacco. The novel precursors were separated by silica gel and identified as alpha-linolenic acid (LNA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) based on the effect on CoQ10 production and GC-MS. The effects of novel precursors on CoQ10 production by Sphingomonas sp. ZUTE03 were further evaluated in a two-phase conversion system. The precursor's combination of solanesol (70 mg/l) with BHT (30 mg/l) showed the best effect on the improvement of CoQ10 yield. A maximal CoQ10 productivity (9.5 mg l-1 h-1) was achieved after 8 h conversion, with a molar conversion rate of 92.6% and 92.4% on BHT and solanesol, respectively. The novel precursors, BHT and LNA in crude extracts from waste tobacco leaves, might become potential candidates for application in the industrial production of CoQ10 by microbes.