Reducing sugars production from pretreated rapeseed straw

Lignocellulosic biomass, being treated only with ammonia, treated with ammonia and then autoclaved, and treated with white-rot fungi after being mechanically chipped, were carried out to access the effects of lignocellulose degradation by white-rot fungi cultured on rapeseed straw. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis was used to show that the white-rot fungus Bjerkandera sp. strain increase the susceptibility of straw to enzymatic saccharification by modifying the lignin component, revealing the effect of these pretreatments on enzymatic saccharification. Reducing sugar production from straws pretreated by ammonia/mechanical chipping/fungi degradation was 29.80% higher than the samples treated with ammonia/autoclaving, indicating an effective degradation of phenolic compounds. After ammonia pretreatment 41% of the straw was converted to RS (reducing sugars) (glucose 50%). After 5 weeks pretreatment with the white-rot fungus, 54.8% of rapeseed straw was further converted to RS, 74% of which was glucose; while only 12% of the control straw was converted (glucose 42%). The white-rot fungus Bjerkandera sp. strain degraded rapeseed straw preferentially at the early stage (before 20 d), and the degradation selectivity was 0.181 1 (cellulose), 0.364 1 (hemicellulose), and 0.454 8 (lignin), suggesting that removal of the phenolic barriers enhanced reducing sugar yield, and the efficiency of fungal pretreatment was comparable with that after alkali treatment, resulting a higher proportion of glucose in the hydrolysates.

Expression and self-assembly of Heterocapsa circularisquama RNA virus-like particles synthesized in Pichia pastoris

Heterocapsa circularisquama RNA virus(HcRNAV) is the first single-stranded RNA virus to be characterized that infects dinoflagellates.The ability of HcRNAV coat protein(HcRNAV CP) to self-assemble into virus-like particles(VLPs) in vitro suggested that heterologous expression was possible,and that the VLPs might be ideal nanocontainers for the targeted delivery of genes and chemicals.In this paper,we report the expression of a codon-optimized HcRNAV 109 CP gene in Pichia pastoris and the production of self-assembled HcRNAV VLPs using large-scale fermentation.The HcRNAV 109 CP gene was synthesized according to the codon preference of P.pastoris and cloned into a pPICZA vector.The recombinant plasmid pPICZA-CPsyns was transformed into P.pastoris by electroporation.The resulting yeast colonies were screened by PCR and analyzed for protein expression by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.After large-scale fermentation,the yield of HcRNAV CPsyns reached approximately 2.5 g L 1 within 4 d.The HcRNAV VLPs were purified using PEG precipitation followed by cesium chloride density gradient ultracentrifugation,and were subsequently analyzed using UV spectrophotometry and transmission electron microscopy.Fluorescence dye-labeled myoglobin was loaded into the cages of the HcRNAV VLPs and the encapsulation was confirmed by fluorescence spectroscopy.The results point to the possible utilization in pharmacology or nanotechnology of HcRNAV VLPs produced by P.pastoris fermentation.