The regions suitable for growing cassava include five provinces in Southern China, with Guangxi alone accounting for over 65% of the total cassava production in the country. In this article, the state-of-the-art development of fuel ethanol production from cassava in China is illustrated by the construction of the cassava fuel ethanol plant with its annual production capacity of 200 000 metric tons. And in the meantime, problems and challenges encountered in the development of China's cassava fuel ethanol are highlighted and the strategies to address them are proposed.
Biofuels ; China ; Conservation of Energy Resources ; Ethanol ; metabolism ; Manihot ; metabolism

Functional improvement to one component of the cellulase, endo-beta-1, 4-glucanase, has been a focus of the recent research in this area. We report here the saturation mutagenesis of the active site of an endoglucanase (CfEG) from termite Coptotermes formosanus. First, three dimensional structure of CfEG was built via homology modeling by using a close-related (79% homology in sequence) endo-beta-1,4-glucanase (NtEG PDB id = 1ks8) from higher termite Nasutitermes takasagoensis as a template. Second, we identified three corresponding amino acid positions at the active site of CfEG by structural superposition onto NtEG. These three putative amino acids for the active site of CfEG, i.e., Asp53, Asp56 and Glu411, were subjected to saturation mutagenesis using degenerate primers. Among the mutants, Asp53Glu and Asp56Cys showed somewhow higher activities than the wildtype, with the latter having more than 3-fold decrease in Km. Double mutation Asp53Leu/Asp56IIe showed nearly 2-fold increase in specific activity and in the same time 2-fold decrease in Km. Saturation mutagenesis to the position Glu411 produced no active mutant, even changing Glu411 explicitly into its similar amino acids such as Glu411Asp and Glu411Gln could not result in any active mutant. These imply that position Glu411 could be extremely important and therefore indispensable for CfEG functionality.
Amino Acids ; genetics ; Animals ; Cellulase ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Isoptera ; enzymology ; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed ; Mutation

By combining interleukin2 (IL-2) with a tumor specific antibody, immunotherapy of tumors may become more effective in the future. Anti-GD2 single chain antibody directed to the extracellular domain of GD2 disialoganglioside can result in an antitumor response in some pateins with tumors expressing GD2. In this study, the fusion protein consisting of GD2 single chain antibody (ScFv) and IL-2(Ala125) was constructed. Anti-GD2 ScFv and IL-2 genes were obtained by PCR, then the ScFv-IL-2 gene was constructed by over lap PCR. The gene was inserted into the pMD18-T easy vector. Genes from pMD18-T -vector were inserted into expression vector pSE380. Recombinant expression vector was identified by restriction enzyme-cutting and then was transformed into BL21. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis confirmed that the transformed E. Coli BL21 could express ScFv-IL-2 fusion-proteins and the molecular weight is 43 kDa. The fusion protein was purified by affinity chromatograph and Sephacryl S-200HR then was identified through ELISA. The results show that the fusion protein retains the activities of both antigen binding and IL-2.
Antibodies ; genetics ; metabolism ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Base Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gangliosides ; immunology ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Fragments ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; immunology ; Interleukin-2 ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics

Exploring excellent new pullulanase genes, and enriching pullulanase theory are of great importance to realize the industrialization of pullulanase. Three genes, pulA, pulB and pulC, encoding pullulanases, were cloned from Bacillus cereus GXBC-3 by bioinformatics analyzing the open reading frame in Bacillus cereus, annotated as putative I and II pullulanases in the GenBank database. Characteristics of these recombinant enzymes were inducible intracellular expressed in Escherichia coli, the results showed PulA was typical II pullulanase. Recombinant PulA could hydrolyze alpha-1,4- and alpha-1,6-glycosidic bonds. Its specific activity was 32.89 U/mg with an optimum temperature of 40 degrees C and optimum pH 6.5 using pullulan as substrate. And for soluble starch substrate, its specific activity was 25.71 U/mg with an optimum temperature of 50 degrees C and optimum pH 7.0. PulB and PulC were I pullulanases and only hydrolyzed alpha-1,6-glycosidic bond. The specific activities, optimum temperature and optimum pH of PulB and PulC for pullulan substrate were 228.54 U/mg, 45 degrees C, 7.0 and 229.65 U/mg, 45 degrees C, 6.5, respectively.
Bacillus cereus ; enzymology ; genetics ; Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; Glucans ; metabolism ; Glycoside Hydrolases ; genetics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism

This study sought to construct a recombinant vector that expresses anti-GD2/anti-CD16 bispecific single-chain antibody(sc-BsAb), and to assess its biological activities. The anti-GD2 gene and the anti-CD16 gene (NM3E2) were obtained using PCR amplification technique, and then the fusion gene was constructed by overlapping PCR. The sc-BsAb gene was subcloned into the pET-22b(+) plasmid from the pMD18-T easy vector by digestion with NcoI, Hind III restriction endonucleases, whose sites exist in both the vectors. Then the combinant plasmids were transferred into E. coli BL21 (DE3). The expression product in the periplasmic was analyzed by both SDS-PAGE and Western blot technique, then was purified with Ni2+ -NTA superflow affinity chromatography. It was demonstrated that the linker in the sc-BsAb fusion protein is SerGly4Ser. and the molecular is 53 KD.
Antibodies, Bispecific ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Antibodies, Neoplasm ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Base Sequence ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gangliosides ; immunology ; HeLa Cells ; Humans ; Melanoma ; pathology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Receptors, IgG ; immunology ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics