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Topic Review
Epigenetics for Crop Improvement
Heritable epigenetic changes can arise independently of DNA sequence alterations and have been associated with altered gene expression and transmitted phenotypic variation. By modulating plant development and physiological responses to environmental conditions, epigenetic diversity—naturally, genetically, chemically, or environmentally induced—can help optimise crop traits in an era challenged by global climate change. Beyond DNA sequence variation, the epigenetic modifications may contribute to breeding by providing useful markers and allowing the use of epigenome diversity to predict plant performance and increase final crop production
  • 1.3K
  • 17 Nov 2021
Topic Review
New Glycosylated Polyene Macrolides
Polyene macrolides are antifungal agents that are synthesized by actinomycetes and other bacteria. These compounds consist of macrolactone rings containing between three and eight conjugated double bonds. Most are glycosylated with a single aminodeoxysugar and specifically bind ergosterol in fungal cell membranes.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Action of Maltol
Maltol, 3-hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone (Figure 1A), a naturally occurring compound, can be isolated from various types of plants, such as bark and leaves of Larix deciduas, Evodiopanax innovans, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Citharexylum spinosum, Passiflora incarnata, Panax ginseng, and different kinds of pine plants [1,2,3,4]. 
  • 1.3K
  • 22 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Drinking Water Microbiome
Microbial communities interact with us and affect our health in ways that are only beginning to be understood. Microorganisms have been detected in every ecosystem on Earth, as well as in any built environment that has been investigated. Drinking water sources, drinking water treatment plants and distribution systems provide peculiar microbial ecological niches, dismantling the belief of the “biological simplicity” of drinking water. The assemblage of microbes within drinking water is referred to as the drinking water microbiota (“microbiome” when referring to the associated genetic information), and it accounts for about 106–108 cells/L. Recent DNA sequencing and meta-omics advancements allow a deeper understanding of drinking water microbiota.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Targeted Drug-Delivery Systems with Aptamers
The field of drug delivery has witnessed remarkable progress, driven by the quest for more effective and precise therapeutic interventions. Among the myriad strategies employed, the integration of aptamers as targeting moieties and stimuli-responsive systems has emerged as a promising avenue, particularly in the context of anticancer therapy. The conventional chemotherapy paradigm often suffers from systemic toxicity, as potent cytotoxic agents are indiscriminately delivered throughout the body, causing adverse effects on healthy tissues. To address this limitation, the integration of smart targeting mechanisms has gained prominence. Within this paradigm, aptamers, short nucleic acid sequences with a unique ability to bind specifically to target molecules, have emerged as valuable targeting ligands. Aptamers share similarities with antibodies as they exhibit a high affinity for specific targets, making them a focus of research in disease-targeted therapy owing to their remarkable selectivity. Regarded as promising therapeutic agents, aptamers possess attributes such as non-immunogenicity, high specificity, and stability.
  • 1.3K
  • 24 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Terpene Mini-Path for Terpenoids Bio-Production
Terpenoids constitute the largest class of natural compounds and are extremely valuable from an economic point of view due to their extended physicochemical properties and biological activities. An alternative to produce terpenoids is the use of biotechnological tools involving, for example, the construction of enzymatic cascades (cell-free synthesis) or a microbial bio-production thanks to metabolic engineering techniques. 
  • 1.3K
  • 22 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Cap-Independent Circular mRNA Translation
The mRNA platform has become the method of choice in vaccine development to find new ways to fight infectious diseases.  This instability is due to the fact that the five-prime and three-prime ends of the mRNA are a substrate for the ubiquitous exoribonucleases. To address the problem, circular mRNAs have been proposed for transgene delivery as they lack these ends. Notably, circular RNAs do not have a capped five-prime end, which makes it impossible to initiate translation canonically.
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Bioactive Metabolites from Terrestrial and Marine Actinomycetes
Actinomycetes inhabit both terrestrial and marine ecosystems and are highly proficient in producing a wide range of natural products with diverse biological functions, including antitumor, immunosuppressive, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities.
  • 1.3K
  • 22 Aug 2023
Topic Review
One Health Tomato Probiotics
Based on the literature and knowledge on the “One Health” concept, a new term for probiotics: “One Health probiotics”, beneficial for the unity of people, animals, and the environment, is suggested. Strains of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, having an ability to ferment a broad spectrum of plant carbohydrates, probiotic effects in human, and animal health, as well as being found in dairy products, vegetables, sauerkraut, pickles, some cheeses, fermented sausages, fish products, and rhizospheric soil, might be suggested as one of the probable candidates for “One Health” probiotics (beneficial for the unity of people, animals, and the environment) for the utilization in agriculture, food processing, and healthcare.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Fish Waste as Resource
Following the growth of the global population and the subsequent rapid increase in urbanization and industrialization, the fisheries and aquaculture production has seen a massive increase driven mainly by the development of fishing technologies. Accordingly, a remarkable increase in the amount of fish waste has been produced around the world; it has been estimated that about two-thirds of the total amount of fish is discarded as waste, creating huge economic and environmental concerns.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Computational Approaches to Enzyme Inhibition by Natural Products
The exploration of biologically relevant chemical space for the discovery of small bioactive molecules present in marine organisms has led not only to important advances in certain therapeutic areas, but also to a better understanding of many life processes. The still largely untapped reservoir of countless metabolites that play biological roles in marine invertebrates and microorganisms opens new avenues and poses new challenges for research. Computational technologies provide the means to (i) organize chemical and biological information in easily searchable and hyperlinked databases and knowledgebases; (ii) carry out cheminformatic analyses on natural products; (iii) mine microbial genomes for known and cryptic biosynthetic pathways; (iv) explore global networks that connect active compounds to their targets (often including enzymes); (v) solve structures of ligands, targets, and their respective complexes using X-ray crystallography and NMR techniques, thus enabling virtual screening and structure-based drug design; and (vi) build molecular models to simulate ligand binding and understand mechanisms of action in atomic detail.
  • 1.3K
  • 23 Feb 2023
Topic Review
S-Layer Ultrafiltration Membranes
Surface layers (S-layers) are the most common outermost cell envelope components of prokaryotic organisms (bacteria and archaea). The lattice formed by S-layer proteins are highly porous structures with identical pores in the nm-range. This feature can be utilized to fabricate ultrafiltration membranes with a very sharp specific molecular weight cut off. Moreover, S-layer lattices reveal an intrinsic antifouling characteristics, which results in a negligible clogging of the filter.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Raman Spectroscopy in Biosensing
The effect of Raman scattering is a result of inelastic light scattering processes, which lead to the emission of scattered light with a different frequency associated with molecular vibrations of the identified molecule. Spontaneous Raman scattering is usually weak, resulting in complexities with the separation of weak inelastically scattered light and intense Rayleigh scattering. These limitations have led to the development of various techniques for enhancing Raman scattering, including resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) and nonlinear Raman spectroscopy (coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy and stimulated Raman spectroscopy). Furthermore, the discovery of the phenomenon of enhanced Raman scattering near metallic nanostructures gave impetus to the development of the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as well as its combination with resonance Raman spectroscopy and nonlinear Raman spectroscopic techniques. The combination of nonlinear and resonant optical effects with metal substrates or nanoparticles can be used to increase speed, spatial resolution, and signal amplification in Raman spectroscopy, making these techniques promising for the analysis and characterization of biological samples.
  • 1.3K
  • 07 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Flexible Optical Biosensors
Optical biosensors based on nanostructured materials have obtained increasing interest since they allow the screening of a wide variety of biomolecules with high specificity, low limits of detection, and great sensitivity. Among them, flexible optical platforms have the advantage of adapting to non-planar surfaces, suitable for in vivo and real-time monitoring of diseases and assessment of food safety. 
  • 1.3K
  • 19 May 2021
Topic Review
Nanotechnologies for Drug Delivery to the Brain
Drug delivery to the brain has been one of the toughest challenges researchers have faced to develop effective treatments for brain diseases. Owing to the blood–brain barrier (BBB), only a small portion of administered drug can reach the brain. A consequence of that is the need to administer a higher dose of the drug, which, expectedly, leads to a variety of unwanted side effects. Research in a variety of different fields has been underway for the past couple of decades to address this very serious and frequently lethal problem. One area of research that has produced optimistic results in recent years is nanomedicine. Nanomedicine is the science birthed by fusing the fields of nanotechnology, chemistry and medicine into one. Many different types of nanomedicine-based drug-delivery systems are currently being studied for the sole purpose of improved drug delivery to the brain.
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Integrated Multi-Omics
Advancements in high-throughput technology provide new opportunities for omics research to understand the pathological process of various complex human diseases. The integration of multi-omics technologies can systematically reveal the interactions among aging molecules from a multidimensional perspective.
  • 1.3K
  • 07 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Next-Generation Sequencing and Fungal Sequencing
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has become a widely used technology in biological research. Pathogenic fungi with high virulence and drug resistance cause life-threatening clinical infections. There is a particularly urgent clinical need to use NGS to help identify fungi causing infections and prevent negative impacts.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Virus-Like Particles-Based COVID-19 Vaccines
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are a versatile, safe, and highly immunogenic vaccine platform. The use of a very flexible vaccine platform in COVID-19 vaccine development is an important feature that cannot be ignored. Incorporating the spike protein and its variations into VLP vaccines is a desirable strategy as the morphology and size of VLPs allows for better presentation of several different antigens. 
  • 1.2K
  • 18 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Enzymes for Lignin Depolymerization
Lignin, a rigid polymer composed of phenolic subunits with high molecular weight and complex structure, ranks behind only cellulose in the contribution to the biomass of plants. Therefore, lignin can be used as a new environmentally friendly resource for the industrial production of a variety of polymers, dyes and adhesives. Since laccase was found to be able to degrade lignin, increasing attention had been paid to the valorization of lignin. The enzymes involved in lignin depolymerization are mainly divided into four categories: laccase, lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and versatile peroxidase (VP).
  • 1.2K
  • 05 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Molecular Display Technology
Molecular display technology or cell-surface engineering is a biotechnological method of genetic engineering that is focused on the cell surface.
  • 1.2K
  • 13 Jan 2023
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