Bioinformatic characterization of the extracellular lipases from Kluyveromyces marxianus

Lipases are hydrolytic enzymes that break the ester bonds of triglycerides, generating free fatty acids and glycerol. Extracellular lipase activity has been reported for the nonconventional yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus, grown in olive oil as a substrate, and the presence of at least eight putative lipases has been detected in its genome. However, to date, there is no experimental evidence on the physiological role of the putative lipases nor their structural and catalytic properties. In this study, a bioinformatic analysis of the genes of the putative lipases from K. marxianus L-2029 was performed, particularly identifying and characterizing the extracellular expected enzymes, due to their biotechnological relevance. The amino acid sequence of 10 putative lipases, obtained by in silico translation, ranged between 389 and 773 amino acids. Two of the analysed putative proteins showed a signal peptide, 25 and 33 amino acids long for KmYJR107Wp and KmLIP3p, and a molecular weight of 44.53 and 58.23 kDa, respectively. The amino acid alignment of KmLIP3p and KmYJR107Wp with the crystallized lipases from a patatin and the YlLip2 lipase from Yarrowia lipolytica, respectively, revealed the presence of the hydrolase characteristic motifs. From the 3D models of putative extracellular K. marxianus L-2029 lipases, the conserved pentapeptide of each was determined, being GTSMG for KmLIP3p and GHSLG for KmYJR107Wp; besides, the genes of these two enzymes (LIP3 and YJR107W) are apparently regulated by oleate response elements. The phylogenetic analysis of all K. marxianus lipases revealed evolutionary affinities with lipases from abH15.03, abH23.01, and abH23.02 families.     

Intersecting Xenobiology and Neometabolism To Bring Novel Chemistries to Life

The diversity of life relies on a handful of chemical elements (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus) as part of essential building blocks; some other atoms are needed to a lesser extent, but most of the remaining elements are excluded from biology. This circumstance limits the scope of biochemical reactions in extant metabolism – yet it offers a phenomenal playground for synthetic biology. Xenobiology aims to bring novel bricks to life that could be exploited for (xeno)metabolite synthesis. In particular, the assembly of novel pathways engineered to handle nonbiological elements (neometabolism) will broaden chemical space beyond the reach of natural evolution. In this review, xeno-elements that could be blended into nature's biosynthetic portfolio are discussed together with their physicochemical properties and tools and strategies to incorporate them into biochemistry. We argue that current bioproduction methods can be revolutionized by bridging xenobiology and neometabolism for the synthesis of new-to-nature molecules, such as organohalides.     

Identification of vivianite,an unusual blue pigment,in a sixteenth century painting and its implications

Vivianite, a blue pigment employed in the past practically only in Northern and Central Europe, but with very limited use, was identified in an early sixteenth century painting, stylistically with Flemish features, from a church in Portugal. The identification of this iron phosphate mineral was made by SEM‐EDS based on the atomic ratio between phosphorus and iron in layers of blue paint (area analysis) and in particles of these same layers (spot analysis). This painting, about which there is no document to prove its authorship, becomes the first case, known in detail, of a sixteenth century painting containing vivianite. Moreover, this find and the presence of a chalk ground, also identified, strongly support the hypothesis of being a Flemish painting.     

Enzyme activity and partial characterization of proteases obtained from Bromelia karatas fruit and compared with Bromelia pinguin proteases

Food Science and Biotechnology - The enzymatic activity and partial characterization of proteases from Bromelia karatas fruits were evaluated and compared with Bromelia pinguin proteases. The...     

Demonstration of a tool for automatic learning and re-use of knowledge in the activated sludge process.

Wastewater treatment plant operators encounter complex operational problems related to the activated sludge process and usually respond to these by applying their own intuition and by taking advantage of what they have learnt from past experiences of similar problems. However, previous process experiences are not easy to integrate in numerical control, and new tools must be developed to enable re-use of plant operating experience. The aim of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to apply learning and re-use of knowledge gained during past incidents to confront actual complex problems through the IWA/COST Benchmark protocol. A case study shows that the proposed CBR system achieves a significant improvement of the benchmark plant performance when facing a high-flow event disturbance.     

Josef Maria Bro?ek (1913-2004).

Presents an obituary and information about the life and accomplishments of Josef Maria Bro?ek. Born August 14, 1913, in the ancient town of Melnik, in central Bohemia, today the Czech Republic, Josef spent his childhood in Poland (Warsaw, 1913- 1915) and in Siberia (1915-1920). His education in Czechoslovakia culminated with a thesis on "Memory, Its Measurement and Structure" and a PhD awarded in June 1937. In the history of psychology, his lifetime project bore the title "Historiography of Psychology Around the World," and it covered about 20 geographical areas. Extensive attention was devoted to institutional and organizational developments as journals, academic settings, archives, museums, research groups, conferences, and institutes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implementation of RNS-Based Distributed Arithmetic Discrete Wavelet Transform Architectures Using Field-Programmable Logic

Currently there are design barriers inhibiting the implementation of high-precision digital signal processing (DSP) objects with field programmable logic (FPL) devices. This paper explores overcoming these barriers by fusing together the popular distributed arithmetic (DA) method with the residue number system (RNS) for use in FPL-centric designs. The new design paradigm is studied in the context of a high-performance filter bank and a discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The proposed design paradigm is facilitated by a new RNS accumulator structure based on a carry save adder (CSA). The reported methodology also introduces a polyphase filter structure that results in a reduced look-up table (LUT) budget. The 2C-DA and RNS-DA are compared, in the context of a FPL implementation strategy, using a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) filter bank as a common design theme. The results show that the RNS-DA, compared to a traditional 2C-DA design, enjoys a performance advantage that increases with precision (wordlength).