International Sugar Journal

Yeast metabolically engineered to synthesize precursors of powerful anti-cancer drug vinblastine [Registered]

The chemical synthesis of the potent anticancer drug Vinblastine poses significant challenges owing to its complex three-dimensional structure. Vinblastine is a heterodimer of the chemical compounds catharanthine and vindoline, and currently available methods for the mass production of vinblastine are both costly and unsustainable.

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Discovering biosynthetic pathway for limonoids production opens door for producing it at commercial scale [Full subscriber]

Using ground-breaking methods, researchers at the John Innes Centre and Stanford University have revealed the biosynthetic pathway of these useful molecules, which certain plant families make, including mahogany and citrus.

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E. coli engineered to produce itaconic acid [Registered]

Researchers at Spain’s Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), in collaboration with researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology in Korea, have developed an improved itaconic acid production process through metabolic engineering.

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Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered to produce the prized fragrance molecule sclareol [Registered]

Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce sclareol.

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LanzaTech engineers microbe to produce ethylene from CO2 [Registered]

LanzaTech recently announced that it has successfully engineered a bacterium to produce specialized biocatalysts to produce ethylene from CO2 in a continuous process directly.

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Microalgae engineered to produce medium-chain triacylglycerols [Full subscriber]

Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have engineered marine microalgae to produce medium-chain triacylglycerols (MCT), which is a kind of plant oil conferring a variety of health benefits.

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Camelina engineered to produce moth pheromones for insect pest control [Full subscriber]

Researchers at Lund University, Sweden, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, China, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, ISCA Inc, Brazil and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences bioengineered Camelina, a flowering plant related to canola with seeds rich in fatty acids, to produce a sex pheromone molecule secreted by two damaging pest species: female diamondback moths (Plutella xylostella) and cotton bollworms (Helicoverpa armigera). This will likely pave the way for reducing the cost of producing pheromones.

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A comprehensive map of biochemicals production via metabolic engineering [Full subscriber]

Researchers at The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), led by Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, organized and distributed via the web an all-inclusive listing of chemical substances that can be synthesized using microorganisms which researchers can source.

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Escherichia coli engineered to produce lutein [Full subscriber]

Researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a bacterial strain that can produce lutein. The researchers applied systemic metabolic engineering strategies, including substrate and electron channelling, to increase lutein production in a genetically engineered Escherichia coli strain.

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Tobacco plants metabolically engineered to produce strychnine [Full subscriber]

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have unravelled the complete biosynthetic pathway for forming strychnine in poison nut. They identified all genes involved in the biosynthesis of strychnine and other metabolites and expressed them in the tobacco plant via the metabolic engineering toolbox.

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