Recent advances in microbial production of phenolic compounds

Phenolic compounds(PCs)are a group of compounds with various applications in nutraceutical,pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.Their supply by plant extraction and chemical synthesis is often limited by low yield and high cost.Microbial production represents as a promising alternative for efficient and sustainable production of PCs.In this review,we summarize recent advances in this field,which include enzyme mining and engineering to construct artificial pathways,balance of enzyme expression to improve pathway efficiency,coculture engineering to alleviate metabolic burden and side-reactions,and the use of genetic circuits for dynamic regulation and high throughput screening.Finally,current challenges and future perspectives for efficient production of PCs are also discussed.

An influencing mechanism for ecological asset gains and losses and its optimization and promotion pathways in China

Accounting for the gains and losses of ecological assets holds scientific significance in sustaining human well-being.Based on related research on ecological assets,we established a county-scale ecological asset accounting technology system by analyzing the temporal and spatial variations of county-level ecological assets in China from 1990 to 2018 and clarified the factors which caused the gains and losses of ecological assets.On these bases,optimization and promotion pathways were proposed.The results show that the number of counties dominated by farmland and forest ecological resources accounted for about 45%and 37%of the total counties,respectively.From 1990 to 2018,the quality of county-level ecological stock assets showed an increasing trend,while the water conservation volume decreased in nearly 70%of the counties.The number of counties with the gains(47%)and losses(37%)of ecological flow assets demonstrated spatial patterns which showed the same segmentation characteristics as the“Hu Huanyong Line”,that is,the counties in the vastness of northwest China experienced significant gains,while decreases were widespread in eastern and southern China.The change of ecological assets in more than 70%of the counties was driven by climate change and human activities.The average degree of impact of human activities driving the ecological asset gains in counties was about 80%,while that of climate change causing the ecological asset losses was about 60%.According to various ecological resource types,gain and loss status,and its driving factors,counties in China can be classified into five types:climate change mitigation,climate change adaptation,ecological resources restoration,ecological resources protection,and ecological resources management.Our results indicate that differentiated optimization and promotion pathways can be adopted to achieve desired ecological asset gains.

Engineering Saccharomyces cerevisiae for efficient production of recombinant proteins

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an excellent microbial cell factory for producing valuable recombinant proteins because of its fast growth rate,robustness,biosafety,ease of operability via mature genomic modification technologies,and the presence of a conserved post-translational modification pathway among eukaryotic organisms.However,meeting industrial and market requirements with the current low microbial production of recombinant proteins can be challenging.To address this issue,numerous efforts have been made to enhance the ability of yeast cell factories to efficiently produce proteins.In this review,we provide an overview of recent advances in S.cerevisiae engineering to improve recombinant protein production.This review focuses on the strategies that enhance protein production by regulating transcription through promoter engineering,codon optimization,and expression system optimization.Additionally,we describe modifications to the secretory pathway,including engineered protein translocation,protein folding,glycosylation modification,and vesicle trafficking.Furthermore,we discuss global metabolic pathway optimization and other relevant strategies,such as the disruption of protein degradation,cell wall engineering,and random mutagenesis.Finally,we provide an outlook on the developmental trends in this field,offering insights into future directions for improving recombinant protein production in S.cerevisiae.

Comparison of indicators for agricultural green development and the Sustainable Development Goals,and mapping the way forward

While agricultural green development(AGD)is highly recognized and has become a national strategy in China,it is imperative to bridge the knowledge gaps between AGD and the UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs),and to evaluate the contribution of AGD to meeting the SDGs.The first aim of this study was to compare the AGD goals and indicators with those of the SDGs so as to identify their relationship.The next aim was to examine the historical evolution of AGD indicators and analyze the gaps between the current status of various indicators and their benchmarks.Limiting factors were identified in China's transition toward AGD.These findings reveal that the indicators of AGD align with those of the SDGs,but have greater specificity to the context in China and are more quantifiable.There has been a significant increase per capita calorie and protein intakes in China,as well as a notable rise in agricultural output per unit of arable land and rural incomes from 1980 to the 2010s.However,these achievements have been accompanied by a high resource use and environmental pollution,highlighting the need for a more sustainable,environmentally responsible agriculture in China.

Developing China's roadmap for air quality improvement:A review on technology development and future prospects

Air pollution control policies in China have been experiencing profound changes,highlighting a strategic transformation from total pollutant emission control to air quality improvement,along with the shifting targets starting from acid rain and NO_(x)emissions to PM_(2.5)pollution,and then the emerging O_(3)challenges.The marvelous achievements have been made with the dramatic decrease of SO_(2)emission and fundamental improvement of PM_(2.5)concentration.Despite these achievements,China has proposed Beautiful China target through 2035 and the goal of 2030 carbon peak and 2060 carbon neutrality,which impose stricter requirements on air quality and synergistic mitigation with Greenhouse Gas(GHG)emissions.Against this background,an integrated multi-objective and multi-benefit roadmap is required to provide decision support for China’s long-term air quality improvement strategy.This paper systematically reviews the technical system for developing the air quality improvement roadmap,which was integrated from the research output of China’s National Key R&D Program for Research on Atmospheric Pollution Factors and Control Technologies(hereafter Special NKP),covering mid-and long-term air quality target setting techniques,quantitative analysis techniques for emission reduction targets corresponding to air quality targets,and pathway optimization techniques for realizing reduction targets.The experience and lessons derived from the reviews have implications for the reformation of China’s air quality improvement roadmap in facing challenges of synergistic mitigation of PM_(2.5)and O_(3),and the coupling with climate change mitigation.

Cell-free protein synthesis enabled rapid prototyping for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology

Advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology have facilitated the manufacturing of many valuable-added compounds and commodity chemicals using microbial cell factories in the past decade.However,due to complexity of cellular metabolism,the optimization of metabolic pathways for maximal production represents a grand challenge and an unavoidable barrier for metabolic engineering.Recently,cell-free protein synthesis system(CFPS)has been emerging as an enabling alternative to address challenges in biomanufacturing.This review summarizes the recent progresses of CFPS in rapid prototyping of biosynthetic pathways and genetic circuits(biosensors)to speed up design-build-test(DBT)cycles of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology.