The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is becoming one of the largest global public health crises in modern history. The race for an effective drug to prevent or treat the infection is the highest priority among health care providers, government officials, and the pharmaceutical industry. Recent evidence reports that the use of low‐molecular‐weight heparin reduces mortality in patients with severe coronavirus with coagulopathy. Although the full scope of the benefits from heparin for COVID‐19 patients is unfolding, encouraging clinical data suggest that heparin‐like molecules may represent a useful approach to treat or prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection. The intent of this article is to offer our opinions on the mechanism(s) by which heparin may attenuate the course of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Furthermore, we propose a novel strategy to treat or prevent SARS‐CoV‐2 infection using “designer” heparin molecules that are fabricated using a synthetic biology approach.

Streptomyces is studied intensively for its outstanding ability to produce bioactive secondary metabolites and for its complicated morphological differentiation process. A classical genetic manipulation system for Streptomyces has been developed and widely used in the community for a long time, using antibiotic resistance markers to select for double-crossover mutants. The screening process is always laborious and time-consuming. However, the lack of a suitable chromogenic reporter for Streptomyces has limited the use of color-based screening system to simplify the selection process for double-crossover mutants. In this study, a blue reporter system for Streptomyces has been established by mining an indigoidine synthetase gene (idgS) from Streptomyces lavendulae CGMCC 4.1386, leading to the development of a time-saving gene inactivation system for Streptomyces by simple blue-white screening. A series of Streptomyces suicide and temperature-sensitive plasmids containing the idgS reporter cassette were constructed and used successfully to inactivate genes in Streptomyces, allowing a simple and efficient screening method to differentiate the colonies for double-crossover (white) and single-crossover (blue) mutants. Inactivation of the putative γ-butyrolactone synthase gene afsA-y via the idgS-based blue-white screening method revealed that the paulomycin production is negatively controlled by afsA-y in Streptomyces sp. YN86.

The mammalian stomach is structurally highly diverse and its organ functionality critically depends on a normal embryonic development. Although there have been several studies on the morphological changes during stomach development, a system-wide analysis of the underlying molecular changes is lacking. Here, we present a comprehensive, temporal proteome and transcriptome atlas of the mouse stomach at multiple developmental stages. Quantitative analysis of 12,108 gene products allows identifying three distinct phases based on changes in proteins and RNAs and the gain of stomach functions on a longitudinal time scale. The transcriptome indicates functionally important isoforms relevant to development and identifies several functionally unannotated novel splicing junction transcripts that we validate at the peptide level. Importantly, many proteins differentially expressed in stomach development are also significantly overexpressed in diffuse-type gastric cancer. Overall, our study provides a resource to understand stomach development and its connection to gastric cancer tumorigenesis.

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a sulfated polysaccharide that plays essential physiological roles. Here, we report to utilize an enzyme-based method to synthesize a library of CS oligosaccharides consisting of 15 different CS oligosaccharides. The library covers 4-O-sulfated and 6-O-sulfated oligosaccharides with the size ranging from trisaccharide to nonasaccharide. We also demonstrate the synthesis of unnatural 6-O-sulfated CS pentasaccharides containing either a 6-O-sulfo 2-azido galactosamine or a 6-O-sulfo galactosamine residue. The availability of structurally defined CS oligosaccharides offers a novel approach to investigate the biological functions of CS.

BackgroundNikkomycins are a group of peptidyl nucleoside antibiotics produced by Streptomyces ansochromogenes. They are competitive inhibitors of chitin synthase and show potent fungicidal, insecticidal, and acaricidal activities. Nikkomycin X and Z are the main components produced by S. ansochromogenes. Generation of a high-producing strain is crucial to scale up nikkomycins production for further clinical trials.ResultsTo increase the yields of nikkomycins, an additional copy of nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster (35 kb) was introduced into nikkomycin producing strain, S. ansochromogenes 7100. The gene cluster was first reassembled into an integrative plasmid by Red/ET technology combining with classic cloning methods and then the resulting plasmid(pNIK)was introduced into S. ansochromogenes by conjugal transfer. Introduction of pNIK led to enhanced production of nikkomycins (880 mg L-1, 4 -fold nikkomycin X and 210 mg L-1, 1.8-fold nikkomycin Z) in the resulting exconjugants comparing with the parent strain (220 mg L-1 nikkomycin X and 120 mg L-1 nikkomycin Z). The exconjugants are genetically stable in the absence of antibiotic resistance selection pressure.ConclusionA high nikkomycins producing strain (1100 mg L-1 nikkomycins) was obtained by introduction of an extra nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster into the genome of S. ansochromogenes. The strategies presented here could be applicable to other bacteria to improve the yields of secondary metabolites.

The paulomycins are a group of glycosylated compounds featuring a unique paulic acid moiety. To locate their biosynthetic gene clusters, the genomes of two paulomycin producers, Streptomyces paulus NRRL 8115 and Streptomyces sp. YN86, were sequenced. The paulomycin biosynthetic gene clusters were defined by comparative analyses of the two genomes together with the genome of the third paulomycin producer Streptomyces albus J1074. Subsequently, the identity of the paulomycin biosynthetic gene cluster was confirmed by inactivation of two genes involved in biosynthesis of the paulomycose branched chain (pau11) and the ring A moiety (pau18) in Streptomyces paulus NRRL 8115. After determining the gene cluster boundaries, a convergent biosynthetic model was proposed for paulomycin based on the deduced functions of the pau genes. Finally, a paulomycin high-producing strain was constructed by expressing an activator-encoding gene (pau13) in S. paulus, setting the stage for future investigations.

We previously demonstrated anaerobic conversion of the greenhouse gas methane into acetate using an engineered archaeon that produces methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr) from unculturable microorganisms from a microbial mat in the Black Sea to create the first culturable prokaryote that reverses methanogenesis and grows anaerobically on methane. In this work, we further engineered the same host with the goal of converting methane into butanol. Instead, we discovered a process for converting methane to a secreted valuable product, L-lactate, with sufficient optical purity for synthesizing the biodegradable plastic poly-lactic acid. We determined that the 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase (Hbd) from Clostridium acetobutylicum is responsible for lactate production. This work demonstrates the first metabolic engineering of a methanogen with a synthetic pathway; in effect, we produce a novel product (lactate) from a novel substrate (methane) by cloning the three genes for Mcr and one for Hbd. We further demonstrate the utility of anaerobic methane conversion with an increased lactate yield compared to aerobic methane conversion to lactate. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 852-861. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Liver organogenesis and development are composed of a series of complex, well-orchestrated events. Identifying key factors and pathways governing liver development will help elucidate the physiological and pathological processes including those of cancer. We conducted multidimensional omics measurements including protein, mRNA, and transcription factor (TF) DNA-binding activity for mouse liver tissues collected from embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) to postnatal week 8 (W8), encompassing major developmental stages. These data sets reveal dynamic changes of core liver functions and canonical signaling pathways governing development at both mRNA and protein levels. The TF DNA-binding activity data set highlights the importance of TF activity in early embryonic development. A comparison between mouse liver development and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) proteomic profiles reveal that more aggressive tumors are characterized with the activation of early embryonic development pathways, whereas less aggressive ones maintain liver function–related pathways that are elevated in the mature liver. This work offers a panoramic view of mouse liver development and provides a rich resource to explore in-depth functional characterization.