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Morinda citrifolia L. (NONI) fruits have been used for thousands of years for the treatment of many health problems including cancer, cold, diabetes, flu, hypertension, and pain. Plant extracts have reported several therapeutic benefits, but extraction of individual compound from the extract often exhibits limited clinical utility as the synergistic effect of various natural ingredients gets lost. They generally constitute polyphenols and flavonoids. Studies have suggested that these phytochemicals, especially polyphenols, display high antioxidant properties, which help to reduce the risk of degenerative diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Several in-vitro and in-vivo studies have shown that Noni fruits have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-dementia, liver-protective, anticancer, analgesic, and immunomodulatory effects. Till date about 7 in vitro cancer studies have been done, but a detailed in vitro study including cell cycle and caspase activation assay on breast cancer cell line has not been done. In the present study different Noni fruit fractions have tested on cancer cell lines MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 (breast adenocarcinoma) and one non-cancer cell line HEK-293 (Human embryonic kidney). Out of which ethylacetate extract showed a higher order of in vitro anticancer activity profile. The ethylacetate extract strongly inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and HEK-293 cell lines with IC50 values of 25, 35, 60 µg/ml respectively. The extract showed increase in apoptotic cells in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells and arrested the cell cycle in the G1/S phase in MCF-7 and G0/G1 phase in MDA-MB-231 cells. Noni extract also decreases the intracellular ROS generation and mitochondrial membrane potential.

The bacterial type rhodopsins are present in all the three domains of life. In contrast to the animal type rhodopsin that performs mainly sensory functions in higher eukaryotes, the bacterial type rhodopsin could function as ion channel, pumps and as sensory proteins. The functioning of rhodopsin in higher eukaryotes requires the transport of rhodopsin from its site of synthesis to the ciliated outer segment of the photoreceptive cells. However, the trafficking of bacterial type rhodopsin from its site of synthesis to the position of action is not characterized. Here we present the first report for the existence of an IFT-interactome mediated trafficking of the bacterial type rhodopsins into eyespot and flagella of the Chlamydomonas. We show that there is a light-dependent, dynamic localization of rhodopsins between flagella and eyespot of Chlamydomonas. The involvement of IFT components in the rhodopsin trafficking was elucidated by the use of conditional IFT mutants. We found that rhodopsin can be co-immunoprecipitated with the components of IFT machinery and with other protein components required for the IFT-cargo complex formation. These findings show that light-regulated localization of rhodopsin is not restricted to animals thereby suggesting that rhodopsin trafficking is an IFT dependent ancient process.

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The textile industry has caused severe water pollution by using many toxic chemicals for producing fabric dyes. In response to this problem, indigoidine has attracted attention as an alternative natural blue dye, but it is necessary to achieve a high-level production to compete with synthetic blue dyes. Here we report a metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum capable of producing indigoidine to a high concentration with high productivity. First, the blue-pigment indigoidine synthetase (bpsA) gene from Streptomyces lavendulae was expressed in C. glutamicum, which carries strong fluxes toward L-glutamate, a precursor of indigoidine. Production performance of this base strain, already producing 7.3 ± 0.3 g/L indigoidine from the flask, was further improved by streamlining the intracellular supply of the precursors L-glutamate and L-glutamine, strengthening the phosphotransferase system-independent glucose uptake system, channeling carbon fluxes from glycolysis to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and minimizing byproducts formation. Fedbatch fermentation of the final strain BIRU11 produced 49.30 g/L indigoidine with a productivity of 0.96 g/L/h, the highest titer and productivity to date. Finally, indigoidine from the fed-batch fermentation of the BIRU11 strain was used to dye white cotton fabrics to examine its color and performance. This study demonstrates the potential of producing fabric dyes in a sustainable manner by using a metabolically engineered bacterium.