Dual-functional berberine-magnolol co-assembled nanoparticles inhibit Fusarium graminearum growth and mycotoxin production.

Fusarium graminearum, a major fungal pathogen of cereal crops, causes severe yield losses and widespread contamination with deoxynivalenol (DON), a heat-stable and persistent mycotoxin that threatens food safety and human health. F. graminearum has developed resistance to single-target azole fungicides, necessitating the development of multi-target antifungal agents.

Contemplating Bioproduction of Type-I Insect Sex Pheromones in .

Insect sex pheromones (ISPs) can act as baits to trap heterosexual insects, representing a promising biocontrol strategy. However, current industrial production of ISPs relies largely on conventional chemical synthesis, which shows drawbacks, such as low yield and environmental pollution. Fortunately, remarkable progress in metabolic pathway engineering opens the possibility of biomanufacturing ISPs in microbial cell factories, which seems to be superior to chemical synthesis.

Activity and stability improvement: structure-function insights into CotA from Bacillus subtilis.

CotA, a bacterial multicopper oxidase, exhibits exceptional thermal stability, alkali resistance, and substrate versatility, making it valuable for industrial biocatalysis, environmental remediation, and dye degradation. Extensive research has enhanced its activity and stability through directed evolution, semi-rational design, and rational design, yet the underlying structural features remain largely unclear. In this study, we performed site-directed mutagenesis on CotA from Bacillus subtilis and analyzed its effects on stability.

Berberine Degradation Characteristics and its Degradation Pathway by a Newly Isolated Berberine-Utilizing Agrobacterium.

Berberine (BBR) is widely used as a botanical pesticide due to its broad-spectrum antibacterial and antifungal activities. However, BBR degradation pathway in soil microorganisms, which determines its impact on soil environment, remains poorly understood. Herein, a novel BBR-degrading bacterium Agrobacterium sp.

Identification of the Major Facilitator Superfamily Efflux Pump KpsrMFS in That Is Down-Regulated in the Presence of Multi-Stress Factors.

Efflux pumps play important roles in bacterial detoxification and some of them are stress-response elements that are up-regulated when the host is treated with antibiotics. However, efflux pumps that are down-regulated by stimulations are rarely discovered. Herein, we analyzed multiple transcriptome data and discovered a special (Major Facilitator Superfamily) MFS efflux pump, KpsrMFS, from , which was down-regulated when treated with antibiotics or extra carbon sources.

Role of Berberine as a Potential Efflux Pump Inhibitor against MdfA from Escherichia coli: and Studies.

Infections by Gram-negative pathogens are usually difficult to manage due to the drug export by efflux pumps. With the evolution and horizontal transfer of efflux pumps, there is an urgent need to discover safe and effective efflux pump inhibitors. Here, we found that the natural compound berberine (BBR), a traditional medicine for intestinal infection, is an inhibitor against the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) efflux pump MdfA in Escherichia coli.

Molecular Dynamics Investigation of MFS Efflux Pump MdfA Reveals an Intermediate State between Its Inward and Outward Conformations.

Multidrug resistance poses a major challenge to antibiotic therapy. A principal cause of antibiotic resistance is through active export by efflux pumps embedded in the bacterial membrane. Major facilitator superfamily (MFS) efflux pumps constitute a major group of transporters, which are often related to quinolone resistance in clinical settings.

Enhanced internal ionic interaction of MFS efflux pump MdfA contributes to its elevated antibiotic export.

Infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens are difficult to manage due to their antibiotic resistance. Efflux pumps, which transport intracellular toxins out of the cytoplasm, play an important role in the detoxification of bacteria when treated with antibiotics. The major facilitator superfamily (MFS) is a kind of widely distributed efflux pumps and can actively export clinically important antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, while the role of internal ionic interactions in regulating drug export remains poorly understood.

Tetrahydroisoquinoline N-methyltransferase from Is an Essential Enzyme for the Biodegradation of Berberine in Soil Water.

Berberine (BBR), a Chinese herbal medicine used in intestinal infection, has been applied as a botanical pesticide in the prevention of fungal disease in recent years. However, its degradation in the environment remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated BBR's degradation in soil water from different sources accompanied by its effect on bacterial diversity.

Discovering interrelated natural mutations of efflux pump KmrA from Klebsiella pneumoniae that confer increased multidrug resistance.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a notorious pathogen that can cause multiorgan infections, which is difficult to treat mainly due to the widely distributed efflux pumps. Our previous research discovered the upregulation of efflux pump KmrA conferred enhanced antibiotic resistance, while the export mechanism and its natural mutations across K. pneumoniae isolates remain unclear.

Opposite motion of the Central Helices of efflux pump KmrA is important for its export efficiency.

Efflux pump of Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) is widely distributed in bacteria, while its role in regulating antibiotic resistance of nosocomial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae remains unclear. Herein we analyzed the effect of amino acid substitution of MFS efflux pump KmrA on its export efficiency via molecular biology and molecular dynamics (MD). After searching across the 804 sequenced K.

Saprophytic Accelerates the Release of Effective Components in Agarwood by Degrading Cellulose.

The value of Agarwood increases with time due to the gradual release of its major components, but the mechanism behind this remains unclear. Herein we reveal that the potential driving force of this process is the degradation of cellulose in Agarwood by its saprophytic  . We selected 10-year-old Agarwood from different places and then isolated the saprophytic bacteria.

Molecular Basis of the Reinforced Effect of Berberine against Cutinase from by Supplying Sodium Stearate as Dispersant.

Berberine (BBR) is a promising botanical pesticide that can reduce the enzyme activity of secreted cutinase from fungal pathogens. However, only less than 15% of total activity was prohibited. Herein we researched BBR's self-aggregation in water via molecular dynamics simulations, and further investigated the effect of dispersant on blocking the aggregation together with the impact on cutinase.

Hormesis Effect of Berberine against Is Mediated by Up-Regulation of the Efflux Pump KmrA.

Berberine (BBR) is an effective drug for human intestinal inflammation by preventing intestinal adhesion of bacterial pathogens, while its antibacterial activity is ineffective. Although the antimicrobial mechanisms of BBR are intensively studied at high concentrations, the response of pathogens to its low concentrations remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrated that low concentrations of BBR (3 and 6 μg/mL) conferred by hormesis accelerated cell growth of an important Gram-negative pathogen, , , while higher concentrations (25 and 50 μg/mL) resulted in the opposite.

[Pathway design and key enzyme analysis of diosgenin biosynthesis].

As a naturally occurring steroid sapogenin, diosgenin acts as the precursor of hundreds of steroid medicines, and thereby has important medicinal value. Currently, industrial production of diosgenin relies primarily on chemical extraction from plant materials. Clearly, this strategy shows drawbacks of excessive reliance on plant materials and farmland as well as environment pollution.

Molecular dynamics investigation of the interaction between Colletotrichum capsici cutinase and berberine suggested a mechanism for reduced enzyme activity.

Berberine is a promising botanical pesticide against fungal plant pathogens. However, whether berberine inhibits the invasion of fungal pathogen across plant surface remains unclear. Here we demonstrated that the enzyme activities of purified cutinase from fungal pathogen Colletotrichum capsici were partially inhibited in presence of berberine toward different substrates.

Metabolic Checkpoint Aldehyde Dehydrogenases Are Important for Diverting β-Oxidation into 1-Butanol Biosynthesis from Kitchen Waste Oil in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

1-Butanol (1-BD) is a promising fuel additive which can be biosynthesized via reversed β-oxidation pathway in bacteria. However, heterologous reversed β-oxidation pathway is a carbon chain prolongation process with several genes overexpressed in most of bacterial hosts, leading to low titer of 1-BD and high cost for production. Here we displayed a forward β-oxidation pathway for 1-BD production in a kitchen waste oil (KWO) degrading Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA-3, and we proved that aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) is a checkpoint for diverting metabolic flux into 1-BD biosynthesis.

Overview of Membrane Proteins.

species are mainly saprophytic fungi, but some pathotypes of infect economically important plants including cereal crops, vegetables and fruits. Specially, . generates toxins which contaminate food and feed.

Development of orthogonal T7 expression system in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Most expression systems are tailored for model organisms rather than nonmodel organisms. However, heterologous gene expression in model organisms constrains the innate advantages of original strain carrying gene of interest. In this study, T7 expression system was developed in nonmodel bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae for production of chemicals.

Co-production of 1,3-Propanediol and 2,3-Butanediol from Waste Lard by Co-cultivation of Pseudomonas alcaligenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The platform chemicals 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) and 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) are important raw materials for polyesters and biofuels. However, the biosynthesis of the compounds relies on massive consumption of glucose or glycerol, leading to the uneconomical production in industrial scale. In this work, we developed a new method for co-production of 1,3-PD and 2,3-BD from waste lard to reduce the cost in carbon source supply.

Isolation and characterization of a novel bacterium for biofertilizer production from kitchen waste oil.

Kitchen waste oil is composed of long chain triglycerides (LCTs) that has high energy density. However, it is hard to be degraded by microbes, thereby leading to increasing levels of environmental pollution due to landfill disposition. In this study, we isolated and characterized a novel bacterium PA-3 that could convert kitchen waste oil into biofertilizer.

Expression of the TetA gene encoding TetA efflux protein in E. coli contributes to its increased bacterial resistance toward berberine.

Berberine (BBR) is a traditional Chinese medicine in various applications due to its antibacterial effect. Here we investigated the increased bacterial resistance of E. coli toward BBR.

Evaluation of berberine as a natural fungicide: biodegradation and antimicrobial mechanism.

Berberine (BBR) is a traditional Chinese medicine which recently was applied as a biological pesticide. Here, we studied the antimicrobial mode of BBR and its impact on soil bacterial diversity. BBR was more effective against fungi than bacteria due to the specific interaction between BBR and glucan.

High Production of 3-Hydroxypropionic Acid in Klebsiella pneumoniae by Systematic Optimization of Glycerol Metabolism.

3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is an important platform chemical proposed by the United States Department of Energy. 3-HP can be converted to a series of bulk chemicals. Biological production of 3-HP has made great progress in recent years.