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Topic Review
Anthraquinones and Derivatives from Marine-Derived Fungi
Anthraquinones and their derivatives constitute a large group of quinoid compounds with about 700 molecules described. They are widespread in fungi and their chemical diversity and biological activities attracted attention of industries in such fields as pharmaceuticals, clothes dyeing, and food colorants.  As marine microorganisms appeared as producers of an astonishing variety of structurally unique secondary metabolites, they may represent a promising resource for identifying new candidates for therapeutic drugs or daily additives. 
  • 2.2K
  • 07 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Biological Control of Bulb Mites
Mites of the genus Rhizoglyphus (Acari: Acaridae) are serious pests of plants belonging to the orders Liliales and Asparagales such as onions, garlic, lilies, and tulips. Their control by synthetic pesticides is becoming problematic as a result of resistance development in these mites and environmental and health issues. New pest control methods thus need to be developed. Efforts to develop biological control programs for bulb mites have taken place in a number of countries. Several biocontrol agents have been tested against Rhizoglyphus spp. under laboratory and some also under field conditions. The most promising results have been obtained with acaropathogenic/entomopathogenic fungi and predatory mites as described below. Other possible prospective control agents attacking mites are viruses, bacteria, and protista, but except for some bacteria their efficacy against bulb mites has not been investigated yet.
  • 2.2K
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Probiotic Lactobacillus in Anti-Ageing
Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host when administered adequately. The most common probiotic strains are associated with the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Recent advancements have witnessed significant achievements in using Lactobacillus during animal studies in ageing models.
  • 2.1K
  • 22 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Blood Ethanol Levels
In the interplay of the gut microbiota and endogenous ethanol production, the production of ethanol through the endogenous fermentation of carbohydrates is an inevitable result. “Alcohol-producing” processes may be succinctly abstracted to ethanol’s constant formation from acetaldehyde in the human body through various metabolic processes. In such cases where it is not introduced from the environment, it is called “endogenous ethanol”.
  • 2.1K
  • 28 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Volatile Fatty Acid recovery
Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are low-molecular-weight carboxylic acids containing two to six carbon atoms that are produced as the final product of acidogenic fermentation in anaerobic digestion process.
  • 2.1K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
C-to-U RNA Editing
The restoration of genetic code by editing mutated genes is a potential method for the treatment of genetic diseases/disorders. Genetic disorders are caused by the point mutations of thymine (T) to cytidine (C) or guanosine (G) to adenine (A), for which gene editing (editing of mutated genes) is a promising therapeutic technique. In C-to-Uridine (U) RNA editing, it converts the base C-to-U in RNA molecules and leads to nonsynonymous changes when occurring in coding regions; for G-to-A mutations, A-to-I editing occurs. Editing of C-to-U is not as physiologically common as that of A-to-I editing.
  • 2.1K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Innovative Uses of Polyhydroxyalkanoates
Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a biodegradable polymer obtained from microorganisms and plants, have been widely used in biomedical applications and devices, such as sutures, cardiac valves, bone scaffold, and drug delivery of compounds with pharmaceutical interests, as well as in food packaging. The novel applications are based on the production and composition of the polymer, which can be modified by genetic engineering, a semi-synthetic approach, by changing feeding carbon sources and/or supplement addition, among others. The future of PHA is promising, and despite its production costs being higher than petroleum-based plastics, tools given by synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and machine learning, among others, have allowed for great production yields, monomer and polymer functionalization, stability, and versatility, a key feature to increase the uses of this interesting family of polymers.
  • 2.1K
  • 13 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Non-Antibiotic Antibacterial Agents
Antimicrobial resistance is a significant threat to human health worldwide, forcing scientists to explore non-traditional antibacterial agents to support rapid interventions and combat the emergence and spread of drug resistant bacteria. Many new antibiotic-free approaches are being developed while the old ones are being revised, resulting in creating unique solutions that arise at the interface of physics, nanotechnology, and microbiology. Specifically, physical factors (e.g., pressure, temperature, UV light) are increasingly used for industrial sterilization. Nanoparticles (unmodified or in combination with toxic compounds) are also applied to circumvent in vivo drug resistance mechanisms in bacteria. Recently, bacteriophage-based treatments are also gaining momentum due to their high bactericidal activity and specificity. 
  • 2.1K
  • 07 May 2021
Topic Review
d-Tagatose by l-Arabinose Isomerase
d-tagatose is a low-calorie alternative to sucrose natural monosaccharide that is nearly as sweet. As a ketohexose, d-tagatose has disease-relieving and health-promoting properties. Due to its scarcity in nature, d-tagatose is mainly produced through chemical and biological methods.
  • 2.1K
  • 29 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, a Gram-positive bacterium, has emerged as a versatile microorganism with significant applications in various fields, including industry, medicine, and agriculture.
  • 2.1K
  • 16 Nov 2023
Topic Review
P(3HB-co-3HV)
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (P(3HB-co-3HV)) is the most studied short-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) with high application importance in various fields owing to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, renewability and thermoplastic properties. PHA are biopolyesters with plastic-like properties accumulated by microorganisms as a reserved energy source in the form of granules under carbon-excess and nitrogen-limited conditions. P(3HB-co-3HV) can be produced through microbial fermentation and has great potential as an alternative for non-biodegradable synthetic plastics.
  • 2.1K
  • 24 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Rhizopus oryzae Lipase
Lipases are biocatalysts with a significant potential to enable a shift from current pollutant manufacturing processes to environmentally sustainable approaches. The main reason of this prospect is their catalytic versatility as they carry out several industrially relevant reactions as hydrolysis of fats in water/lipid interface and synthesis reactions in solvent-free or non-aqueous media such as transesterification, interesterification and esterification. Because of the outstanding traits of Rhizopus oryzae lipase (ROL), 1,3-specificity, high enantioselectivity and stability in organic media, its application in energy, food and pharmaceutical industrial sector has been widely studied. Significant advances have been made in the biochemical characterisation of ROL particularly in how its activity and stability are affected by the presence of its prosequence. In addition, native and heterologous production of ROL, the latter in cell factories like Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris), have been thoroughly described. Therefore, in this review, we summarise the current knowledge about R. oryzae lipase (i) biochemical characteristics, (ii) production strategies and (iii) potential industrial applications.
  • 2.1K
  • 10 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Biomass-Based Biohydrogen Production
Biohydrogen is a sustainable energy form and a preferable substitute for fossil fuel. Biohydrogen production is eco-friendly compared to other methods of hydrogen production. It has the potential to replace conventional fossil fuels without releasing greenhouse gases. Hydrogen production from biomass depends upon the type of feedstock utilized.
  • 2.1K
  • 09 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Advanced Hydrogels as Wound Dressings
Skin is the largest organ of the human body, protecting it against the external environment. Despite high self-regeneration potential, severe skin defects will not heal spontaneously and need to be covered by skin substitutes. Tremendous progress has been made in the field of skin tissue engineering, in recent years, to develop new skin substitutes. Among them, hydrogels are one of the candidates with most potential to mimic the native skin microenvironment, due to their porous and hydrated molecular structure. They can be applied as a permanent or temporary dressing for different wounds to support the regeneration and healing of the injured epidermis, dermis, or both. Based on the material used for their fabrication, hydrogels can be subdivided into two main groups—natural and synthetic. Moreover, hydrogels can be reinforced by incorporating nanoparticles to obtain “in situ” hybrid hydrogels, showing superior properties and tailored functionality. In addition, different sensors can be embedded in hydrogel wound dressings to provide real-time information about the wound environment. This review focuses on the most recent developments in the field of hydrogel-based skin substitutes for skin replacement. In particular, we discuss the synthesis, fabrication, and biomedical application of novel “smart” hydrogels.
  • 2.1K
  • 31 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Interferon-Based Biopharmaceuticals
Interferons are secreted autocrine and paracrine proteins, which by regulating several biochemical pathways have a spectrum of clinical effectiveness against viral infections, malignant diseases, and multiple sclerosis. 
  • 2.1K
  • 16 May 2021
Topic Review
Probiotics for Freshwater Fish Farming
Probiotics for freshwater fish farming can be administered as single or multiple mixtures. The expected benefits of probiotics include disease prophylaxis, improved growth, and feed conversion parameters, such as the feed conversion rate (FCR) and specific growth rate (SGR).
  • 2.0K
  • 20 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Drosophila melanogaster Olfactory System
Drosophila melanogaster has provided a new dimension to the discipline of neuroscience. The research on olfactory and gustatory systems using fruit flies has grown rapidly during the last few years due to the strong genetic similarity that humans share with them.
  • 2.0K
  • 23 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Double-Stranded Break Repair
In mammalian cells, double-strand breaks (DSBs) are repaired predominantly by error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), but less prevalently by error-free template-dependent homologous recombination (HR). DSB repair pathway selection is the bedrock for genome editing. NHEJ results in random mutations when repairing DSB, while HR induces high-fidelity sequence-specific variations, but with an undesirable low efficiency.
  • 2.0K
  • 12 May 2022
Topic Review
Purification Strategies of Microbial Lipases
Lipases are versatile biocatalysts and are used in different bioconversion reactions. Microbial lipases are attracting a great amount of attention due to the rapid advancement of enzyme technology and its practical application in a variety of industrial processes. Lipase purification is a meticulous technique that requires great care to retain the bioactive state of the lipase.
  • 2.0K
  • 27 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Processing of Fab Fragments in E. coli
Monoclonal antibody fragments (Fab) are a rising class of biotherapeutics and their production has been optimised using coexpression of molecular chaperones such as DsbC or DnaK–DnaJ–GrpE, as well as strain engineering for post-translational modifications such as disulphide bridging. Different media systems such as EnBase and combining nitrogen source supplementation with low-temperature cultivation have resulted in improvement in cell integrity, protein expression, and protein refolding. The recovery of native proteins from insoluble inclusion bodies can be improved by adjusting refolding conditions, as well as by incorporating multimodal and affinity chromatography for achieving high product yields in purification.
  • 2.0K
  • 27 Apr 2022
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