While much is known about how enzymes and molecules are involved in cellular respiration, the understanding of the respiration system as a whole remains limited. Researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have gained insight into how cellular respiration is affected by the membrane environment in which it occurs. By engineering lipid synthesis to carefully control the membrane composition, researchers found that lipids, which consist of fatty acid molecules and determine membrane viscosity, also tightly control the rate of bacterial and yeast respiration. As lipid synthesis in these hosts is often engineered in order to produce molecules, these findings suggest new ways by which the pathways to produce biofuels and bioproducts could be optimized to maintain proper respiratory function, thereby increasing production. For more, read the JBEI news story.
Biosciences Researchers Take Part in DOE’s Energy I-Corps Program
Two teams of Biosciences Area researchers are representing Berkeley Lab as part of cohort eight of the U.S. Department of Energy’s I-Corps program, an intensive two-month training course that pairs national laboratory researchers with industry mentors to develop viable market pathways for their technologies. The teams, led by Deepti Tanjore and Esther Singer, presented their projects during the opening session held October 1–5 in Golden, Colorado.
Scientists Mining JGI’s Metagenomes Find Miniature Molecular Scissors
By mining JGI’s massive database of microbial genomes and metagenomes, a team led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab has identified a new family of CRISPR-associated (Cas) enzymes found in an ancient branch of the microbial tree of life. Just one-third the size of the seminal Cas9 protein – the business end of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 – the new enzymes, dubbed Cas14, are the smallest functional CRISPR system discovered to date. Owing to its compact size and single-stranded DNA cutting activity, Cas14 may improve rapid CRISPR-based diagnostic systems now under development for infectious diseases, genetic mutations, and cancer.
JGI Builds Genetic Profile of Aspergillus section Nigri
In Nature Genetics, a team led by scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, the JGI, and JBEI present the first large analysis of an Aspergillus fungal subgroup, section Nigri. The results are part of a long-term project to sequence, annotate and analyze the genomes of more than 300 Aspergillus fungi.
In choosing to focus on section Nigri, the researchers recognized the myriad of industrial applications for the fungi within this subgroup. They serve as production organisms for 49 of 260 industrial enzymes and are also very efficient producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites. JGI Fungal Program head Igor Grigoriev said that one of the aims in sequencing the genomes within the Aspergillus genus is to increase the catalog of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAzymes), which can degrade plant cell walls and thus have applications in the DOE mission to develop industrial processes for producing sustainable alternative fuels using candidate bioenergy feedstock crops. Click to read more on the JGI website.
Plant Protection Plan: When Too Much of a Good Thing is Bad
When plants absorb more light energy than they can use—such as during a brief period of intense illumination—they have mechanisms to dissipate the excess energy as heat, thereby avoiding damage to their light-harvesting pigment complexes. Research has suggested that engineering plants’ photoprotection capabilities to minimize productivity loss could increase crop yields by up to 30 percent. And that would go a long way toward meeting future global food demand. However, significant gaps remain in scientists’ understanding of the molecular details underlying these mechanisms, including how they are triggered and their activation dynamics. Now, work by Berkeley Lab scientists, reported in pair of recent papers, provides several key insights into the mechanisms underlying one type of photoprotection.
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