Month: April 2018

The group around ZHAO Guang has engineered E. coli to produce a range of value-added chemicals starting from D-xylose, a sugar which makes up about 25 % of biomass. The researchers introduced the xylose metabolism pathway of Caulobacter crescentus into E. coli, thereby establishing a new biosynthetic pathway to glycolic acid and ethylene glycol. The yield of glycolic acid was 43.6 g/L, the xylose conversion rate 46.4%, and production efficiency reached 0.91 g/L/h. The yield of ethylene glycol was 72g/L, the conversion rate of xylose 40%, and the production rate 1.38g/L/h. In a previous study, the group achieved efficient biotransformation of xylose to xylonate and 1,2,4-butanetriol. CAS news release, April 25, 2018

During a visit at Optical Valley in Wuhan, president Xi stressed that core technologies that are important to the country should always be fully mastered by the country itself. When visiting FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co, a pioneer in the optical communications sector, Xi said the industry is of great importance, as the country strives for a major global role in cyberspace. China has proved strong in being able to accomplish major tasks through concerted and concentrated efforts, and by doing so the country can achieve more breakthroughs in science and technology, Xi said. CAS news release, April 28, 2018

The excellent bipolar conjugated polymer material can both conduct electrons and holes and thus is an interesting base material for organic FETs. WAN Xiaobo and colleagues at QIBEBT used a large hindered base to successfully synthesize the thiazole isoindigo precursor, thiazole bismuth, and transformed it to thiazole Isoindigo. They further optimized the synthesis and polymerization routes, successfully synthesized polymer P (TzII-TTT) of isothiazole blue and thiophene, and studied the material’s photophysical properties and field effect transistor performance. The hole mobility of a P(TzII-TTT) bipolar field-effect transistor was 3.93 cm2V-1S-1, and the electron mobility 1.07 cm2V-1S-1, exceeding the performance of the similarly-structured pyridine isoindigo blue polymer. CAS news release, April 28 2018

LI Ning and colleagues have developed a biomimetic route to synthesize pyromellitic acid from lignocellulose. Based on this reagent, a three-component cycloaddition reaction catalyzed by proline using formaldehyde, crotonaldehyde or acrylate/fumarate as raw materials led to 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid (CHDA) or 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylate in yields of more than 70%. CAS news release, April 28, 2018

China has over 3.5 million new cases of cancer every year, and the anti-tumor drug market has exceeded 100 billion yuan, about half of which is imported. In order to meet urgent needs, in recent years, China has introduced a number of policies to encourage and accelerate the listing of anti-cancer and other innovative drugs. As an example, there is a shortage of drugs and methods for the treatment of multiple myeloma. The domestic marketed drugs are far from meeting the needs of patients. The application for registration of anticancer drugs with obvious clinical advantages has now been included into the scope of priority review and approval, in order to accelerate the import of innovative drugs by changing the application of clinical trials from an approval system to a default one. China Bio news release, April 28, 2018

The group of JIN Gongsheng identified four potential Na+/H+ antiporters (Mrp1-2, NhaP and ChaA), and systematically described the physiological adaptation strategies of Corynebacterium glutamicum under saline and alkali stress conditions. They found that the Mrp1 protein of C. glutamicum has the most significant Na+/H+ ion transport activity, and this protein mainly plays a role under alkaline conditions. In vivo experiments further confirmed that the Mrp1 antiporter is mainly involved in the tolerance response of the strain under high NaCl and alkaline stress conditions, and the Mrp2 antiporter is mainly involved in the tolerance response of the strain under high KCl stress conditions. Loss at the same time will seriously affect the normal survival ability of the strain under high saline conditions. CAS news release, April 26, 2018

The group of ZHANG Xiumin has found that urea+nitrate pretreatment of straw could destroy its physical structure and increase the neutral-detergent soluble content that degrades easily and fast in the rumen. Using wheat and rice straw, such pretreatment increased in vitro degradation by ruminant cultures. Also, CH4 production was decreased because the population of methanogens was reduced. CAS news release, April 26, 2018

According to PEI Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the Chang’e-5 lunar probe will contain four parts: an orbiter, a returner, an ascender and a lander. The lander will put moon samples into a vessel in the ascender after the moon landing. Then the ascender will take off from the Moon to dock with the orbiter and the returner which orbit the moon, and transfer the samples to the returner. The orbiter and returner then head back to the earth, separating from each other several thousands off the earth. Finally, the returner will make its way back to the earth. CAS news release, April 25, 2018

The program, launched on April 23, 2018, by an US consortium, https://www.earthbiogenome.org/organization/, plans to decipher the genomes of all known eukaryotic species in the next 10 years, and use genomics techniques to help discover the remaining 80% to 90% of species unknown in the scientific community. It will include major contributions from BGI in Shenzhen. The total project funding is expected to be US$4.7 billion, which is lower than the current cost of the Human Genome Project. A major challenges is sample collection. The EBP project needs to develop a global strategy for collecting sample vouchers sufficiently preserved to produce high quality genomic sequences. The geographical distribution of biodiversity and the presence of biodiversity hotspots in remote areas of the world, such as the Amazon Basin or Borneo, will also make the collection of many organisms a significant challenge. China Bio news release, April 25, 2018

CAS TIB was elected the 22nd International Centre of Excellence in Science and Technology at COMSATS, and will host COMSATS Coordination Committee meeting in 2019. CAS TIB is actively preparing for the establishment of a National Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Center. COMSATS is an intergovernmental organization with its permanent Secretariat based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Established in 1994, the organization comprising 26 Member States, strives to promote South-South cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology that are most relevant to socio-economic development. CAS news release, April 24, 2018