Prochlooroccus is the most abundant phototroph on earth. Based on extensive transcriptome analysis, it was found that gene expression, gene necessity, and mRNA turnover contribute to core genome maintenance during cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus genus evolution. Bang WANG et al., BMC Microbiology 2014, 14:11
Major corn breeding program started within 973 program
Corn is China’s largest crop and maintains an important position in China’s grdain security. The program which covers more than 10 R&D institutions including CAAS Institute of Crop Science and CAAS Institute of Biotechnology will focus on corn yield and quality traits based on genome analysis. CAS news release, February 27, 2014
CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology develops E. coli cell factory for i-butanol production
The study was done by Professor ZHANG Xueli’s group at TIB. The pathway engineering involved is based on a synergistic effect of transhydrogenase and NAD kinase to increase NADPH supply and led to 10.8 g/L isobutanol production in 24 hrs with a yield of 0.62 mol/mol glucose CAS news release, February 26, 2014
CAAS Hubei Oil Crops Research Institute wins CAAS prize
Rapeseed oil is China’s largest source of edible vetetable oil (55 % of total), but oil content of rape is 4 % lower compared to Canadian rapeseed oil (41 %). The Hubei institute has started a breeding program to bridge this gap and reports good progress, with up to 65 % oil content varieties. China […]
Jilin Fuel Ethanol LLC opens non-grain bioethanol plant, target is at several million tons of bioethanol production
Jilin Fuel Ethanol LLC is a joint venture of China Petroleum (55 %), Jilin Alcohol Industry (25 %) and the COFCO group (20 %) started in 2001. By the end of 2003, a 300.000 to fuel ethanol plant was started with a total investment of 2.09 billion Yuan. Meanwhile, proprietary technology has been developed for […]
China’s soil remediation market is expected to grow to nearly 700 billion Yuan by 2020.
Jiangsu Province Enviromental Industry Technology Research Institute published a report indicating that the number of soil remediation sites in China will grow quickly from 42 in 2013 (2 billion Yuan) to 685 billion Yuan in 2020. A group of well-capitalized companies have already started to get involved in soil remediation industry. China Bio news release, […]
Beijing announces “yellow warning” on heavily polluted air
“Yellow warning” implies reduced outdoor activities and health protection. It is a level 2 warning which can be aggravated to “orange” or “red” alerts. Science and Technology Daily, February 20, 2103
Protein engineers at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University show procedure to stabilize enzyme through active site
Using Candida antarctica lipase B as a model, researchers around Yan FENG have shown that increasing the rigidity of flexible segments within the active site of the enzyme improved enzymatic kinetic stability. Yuan XIE et al., JBC 2014, 10.1074/jbc.M113.536045
China reaches 5 years’ plan goal of large patent increase early, now at 825.000 for 2013
With an annual increase of over 25 % for three consecutive years, China has now established leadership in 21 out of 35 WIPO technology areas. Invention patent applications in 2013 were 825.000, domestic invention patents were 144.000, 4.02 per million people. Science and Technology News, February 20, 2013
CAS Beijing Institute of Genomics researchers suggest molecular mechanism of bacterial water-to-land expansion
Based on a comprehensive analyses based of a large variety of bacteria by integrating taxonomic, phylogenetic and metagenomic data it is suggested that a single-gene sweep, that is, the emergence of dnaE2 derived from an early duplication event of the primordial dnaE, followed by a series of niche-specific genomic adaptations, including GC content increase, intensive […]