BackgroundLignocellulosic substrates and pulping process streams are of increasing relevance to biorefineries for second generation biofuels and biochemical production. They are known to be rich in sugars and inhibitors such as phenolic compounds, organic acids and furaldehydes. Phenolic compounds are a group of aromatic compounds known to be inhibitory to fermentative organisms. It is known that inhibition of Sacchromycescerevisiae varies among phenolic compounds and the yeast is capable of in situ catabolic conversion and metabolism of some phenolic compounds. In an approach to engineer a S. cerevisiae strain with higher tolerance to phenolic inhibitors, we selectively investigated the metabolic conversion and physiological effects of coniferyl aldehyde, ferulic acid, and p-coumaric acid in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Aerobic batch cultivations were separately performed with each of the three phenolic compounds. Conversion of each of the phenolic compounds was observed on time-based qualitative analysis of the culture broth to monitor various intermediate and final metabolites.ResultConiferyl aldehyde was rapidly converted within the first 24 h, while ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid were more slowly converted over a period of 72 h. The conversion of the three phenolic compounds was observed to involved several transient intermediates that were concurrently formed and converted to other phenolic products. Although there were several conversion products formed from coniferyl aldehyde, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid, the conversion products profile from the three compounds were similar. On the physiology of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the maximum specific growth rates of the yeast was not affected in the presence of coniferyl aldehyde or ferulic acid, but it was significantly reduced in the presence of p-coumaric acid. The biomass yields on glucose were reduced to 73 and 54 % of the control in the presence of coniferyl aldehyde and ferulic acid, respectively, biomass yield increased to 127 % of the control in the presence of p-coumaric acid. Coniferyl aldehyde, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid and their conversion products were screened for inhibition, the conversion products were less inhibitory than coniferyl aldehyde, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid, indicating that the conversion of the three compounds by Saccharomyces cerevisiae was also a detoxification process.ConclusionWe conclude that the conversion of coniferyl aldehyde, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid into less inhibitory compounds is a form of stress response and a detoxification process. We hypothesize that all phenolic compounds are converted by Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the same metabolic process. We suggest that the enhancement of the ability of S. cerevisiae to convert toxic phenolic compounds into less inhibitory compounds is a potent route to developing a S. cerevisiae with superior tolerance to phenolic compounds.
One of the major applications for dielectrophoresis is selective trapping and fractionation of particles. If the surrounding medium is of low conductivity, the trapping force is high, but if the conductivity increases, the attraction decreases and may even become negative. However, high-conductivity media are essential when working with biological material such as living cells. In this paper, some basic calculations have been performed, and a model has been developed which employs both positive and negative dielectrophoresis in a channel with interdigitated electrodes. The finite element method was utilized to predict the trajectories of Escherichia coli bacteria in the superpositioned electrical fields. It is shown that a drastic improvement of trapping efficiency can be obtained in this way, when a high conductivity medium is employed.
The general molecular properties and in particular, the molar mass of lignin are of central importance for industrial applications, as these data govern important thermal and mechanical characteristics. The focus of the present paper is pulsed field gradient-nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR), which is suitable for determination of lignins’ weight-average molar mass, based on diffusion constants. The method is calibrated by lignin fractions characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). It could be demonstrated on a set of softwood kraft lignins that the PFG-NMR approach gives results in very good agreement with those obtained using conventional size exclusion chromatography (SEC).
We have developed an iterative procedure for predicting the retention times of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and n-alkanes during separations by temperature-programmed gas chromatography. The procedure is based on estimates of two thermodynamic properties for each analyte (the differences in enthalpy and entropy associated with movements between the stationary and mobile phases) derived from data acquired experimentally in separations under isothermal conditions at temperatures spanning the range covered by the temperature programs in ten-degree increments. The columns used for this purpose were capillary columns containing polydimethylsiloxane-based stationary phases with three degrees of phenyl substitution (0%, 5%, and 50%). Predicted values were mostly within 1% of experimentally determined values, implying that the method is stable and precise.
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