The growth and pigment production of 47 strains on casein medium were studied comparatively.T4 and Neurospora crassa AS 3.1602 were selected for their capacity of producing melanin on five different culture media. Melanin produced by T4 was investigated, and T4 was identified as Proteus mirabilis primarily.

Objective The aim of the study was to detect the mutation of Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-1TD) rate in older de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, to evaluate the role of FLT3-ITD in AML and its clinical significance. Methods The mutations of FLT3-1TD in bone marrow mononuelear cells (MNCS) from 30 cases of older AML were screened by polymerase chain reaction denaturing-high performance liquid chromatography (PCR-DHPLC). Results FLT3-1TD mutations were identified in 26.67 %(8/30) patients, while there were no mutations identified in control cases. And these kinds of mutations were likely to attend in M3 types. All mutations of FLT3-ITD were heterozygous and rearrangement fragment located in reading frame. Different karyomite groups had different FLT3-ITDmutations rate. We could see that FLT3-ITD positive patients were more prevalent in patients with normal karyotype. Clinical researches indicated that FLT3-ITD mutations had the characteristics of a higher peripheral white cell count, higher blast cells and lower complete remission rate in older AMKA Conclusion FLT3-ITD positive older AML patients conferred a poor prognosis and were likely to attend in normal karyomite group. The detection of FLT3-ITD mutations could make up for the deficiency of cytogenetics to some extent, and may become a routine examination of AML in older, which can direct their treatment and predict their prognosis.

The technique of double-layered plate was developed for screening the library of mutant endoglucanase III from Trichoderma reesei generated by the method of directed evolution.The enzyme activity was determined according to the velocity of the formation of halos on the plates.Several mutants with higher activity than the wild type at low temperature or alkaline pH were obtained by using this strategy under different screening conditions.Further results of spectrophotometric determination of the activities of these mutants were consistent with the results of plate screening.The establishment of such strategy will broaden the applications of the directed evolution methods for improving the existing proteins to obtain useful enzymes with new properties for industrial applications.

More than 80 strains producing lipases were screened from oily soil of vegetable oil plant, meat processing factory and dairy factory in Jinan city, Shandong Province, which included bacteria, moulds and yeast. Conditions for lipase production and properties of some enzymes were studied. One drug-resistant mutant strain Y-11 with higher lipase activity was from Trichosporon sp. Y-1. In addition, Optimization of lipase production and characterization of enzymes were carried out. On the basis of above experiments, a characteristic library of stains producing lipases was established.

A white-rot fungi Rigidoporus sp.W-1 which could produce laccase was isolated. The fermentation conditions in shaking flasks were investigated. The optimal carbon source was wheat bran and (NH 4) 2SO 4 was the optimal nitrogen source. The components of the medium were optimized by orthogonal experiment. When W-1 was cultured under the optimum conditions, the activity of laccase could get to 7.1U/mL in 7 days.A great amount of crude laccase could be obtained by adding fresh medium to the 7 days old mycelium.

Fermentation condition optimization of P. decumbens Ju-A10 for production of CMCase using three kinds of plant cellulosic wastes as carbon sources was made using RSA method. The result was that CMCase was the highest when the level of carbon source was 9. 77 % , 8. 69 % and 9. 97% , and liquid volume was 64. 7 mL, 54. 2 mL, 40. 8 mL for carbon sources of millet straw, wheat straw and paper sludge, respectively. The value of CMCase was 29. 26IU/mL, 29. 14 IU/mL, 29. 81 IU/mL, respectively, in the above cases. The value of R2 is 0. 9117 , 0. 9246, 0. 8655 , respectively. It could be concluded that the fermentation models were quite reliable. The method can be applied in optimization of fungi fermentation medium.

Pathway engineering was the third generation of gene engineering. Its main goals were to change metabolic flux and open a new metabolic pathway in organism. Application of recombinant DNA methods to restructure metabolic networks can improve production of metabolite and protein products by altering pathway distributions and rates. Ethanol is the most advanced liquid fuel because it is environmentally friendly. Enhancing fuel ethanol production will require developing lower-cost feedstock, and only lignocellulosic feedstock is available in sufficient quantities to substitute for corn starch. Xylose is the major pentose found in lignocellulosic materials and after glucose the most abundant sugar available in nature. Recently a lot of attentions have been focused on designing metabolic pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in order to expand the substrate of ethanol fermentation, because it is a traditional ethanol producing strain and has wonderful properties for ethanol industry. However, it can not utilize xylose but convert the isomer, xylulose. Many attempts are based on introducing the genes in the pathway of xylose metabolism. The further research includes overexpressing the key enzyme or decreasing the unimportant flux. The sugars in lignocellulose hydrolyzates, therefore, could be efficiently utilized. Here, we describe the ethanol pathway engineering progress in ethanol fermentation from xylose with recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Ethanol ; metabolism ; Fermentation ; genetics ; physiology ; Recombination, Genetic ; genetics ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; genetics ; metabolism ; Xylose ; metabolism

Lignin peroxidase (LiP) hosted in Brij 30/cyclohexane/water nonionic reversed micelle could express its catalytic activity, but in Triton X-100/n-pentanol/cyclohexane/water nonionic reversed micelle LiP didn't show any catalytic activity. Some key factors that affected the catalytic activity of LiP in Brij 30 reversed micelle were studied at 20 degrees C. The optimum conditions were:omega0 = 8.5, pH = 2.2, [Brij30] = 600 mmol/L; under these conditions the half time of LiP was ca. 50 hours. As compared with the properties of LiP in aqueous solution, the activity of LiP hosted in Brij 30 reversed micelle dropped, but its stability improved greatly. To reveal the role of normal alcohol, which was a necessary component for forming Triton X-100 reversed micelles, the effect of n-pentanol on the catalytic activity of LiP in Brij 30 reversed micelle was investigated. Results indicated that high concentration of the alcohol deactivated LiP. So it was deduced that the phenomenon that LiP hosted in the Triton X-100 reversed micelles could not express its activity was mainly due to the alcohol co-surfactant.
Catalysis ; Cyclohexanes ; chemistry ; Enzyme Activation ; drug effects ; Micelles ; Octoxynol ; chemistry ; Pentanols ; chemistry ; Peroxidases ; metabolism ; Surface-Active Agents ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the correlation between programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in primary lung cancer cells, tumor associated macrophages (TAM) and patients' clinicopathological characteristics.

METHODSFrom 2008 to 2010, 208 non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent surgery or CT-guided biopsy were recruited from Huadong Hospital, Fudan University. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed to evaluate the PD-L1 expression in both primary lung cancer cells and CD68 positive TAM. The relationship between PD-L1 expression and the clinical pathology was evaluated using χ(2) test. Spearman's rank correlations were used to determine the correlation between PD-L1 expression in tumor cells and macrophages.

RESULTSPositive PD-L1 expression in primary cancer cells was found in 136 (65.3%) patients, which were negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.009) and smoking history (P=0.036). Besides, TAM with PD-L1 expression (found in 116 patients) was positively associated with smoking history (P=0.034), well-differentiation (P=0.029) and negative lymph node metastasis (P=0.0096). A correlation between PD-L1 expression in primary tumor cells and non-small cell lung cancer associated macrophages was found (r=0.228, P=0.021).

CONCLUSIONPD-L1, secreted from TAM, might induce cancer cells apoptosis, and decrease lymph node metastasis.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Apoptosis ; B7-H1 Antigen ; secretion ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; pathology ; secretion ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; pathology ; secretion ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Macrophages ; pathology ; secretion ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies

Based on the characteristics of metabolism of photosynthetic bacteria and the major kinds of organic compounds produced in wastewater degradation, eleven kinds of organic compounds were chosen for hydrogen photoproduction using Rhodopseudomonas palustris Z strain. The maximal volumetric H2 productivity was obtained using acetate as the sole carbon source and electron donor. The kinetics of cell growth and H2 liberation, and the influences of several major limiting factors on photoevolution of H2 were examined using acetate as carbon source. It was shown that hydrogen production was partially correlated with cell growth. The medium composition of the preculture, the preculture time, and inoculation volume were confirmed to have big effects on hydrogen photoevolution. The time delay of H2 production was evidently shortened using the inoculum of late exponential growth phase or stationary phase using ammonium sulfate as nitrogen source or with the inoculum of middle exponential growth phase using glutamate as the nitrogen source. The identity of temperature and light intensity for H2 evolution and cell growth has significant potential application in the technology of splitting organic acid into H2 by photosynthetic bacteria. The concentrations of acetate and glutamate in the medium affected hydrogen photoevolution and cell growth significantly. The productivity of H2 increased with substrate concentrations when substrate concentrations of sodium acetate and sodium glutamate were lower than 70 mmol/L and 15 mmol/L, respectively. Hydrogen production was inhibited but the cell growth was faster when the concentration of sodium glutamate over 15 mmol/L due to forming free NH4+. The highest rate of hydrogen production was 19.4 mL.L-1.h-1 using 30 mmol/L of sodium acetate as hydrogen donor under the standard conditions, respectively. The optimal conditions for hydrogen production were 35-37 degrees C, 6000-8000 lx and pH 7.3-8.3. The effects of oxygen and inoculation volume on photoproduction of hydrogen were also discussed.
Acetates ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Cell Division ; drug effects ; radiation effects ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Glutamic Acid ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Hydrogen ; metabolism ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Light ; Oxygen ; pharmacology ; Rhodopseudomonas ; drug effects ; metabolism ; radiation effects ; Temperature ; Time Factors