Trans-aconitic acid from Aspergillus terreus – a new biopesticide and bio-based plasticizer

Trans-aconitic acid TAA (CAS RN 4023-65-8) is an unsaturated tricarboxylic acid that occurs in various plants. Although it exhibits broad application potential in agriculture, food, biomaterials, and green chemistry, its practical use remains limited. This is primarily because the traditional production processes of plant extraction (from sugar cane)and chemical synthesis (complex and inefficient) cannot achieve large-scale production at a low cost.

Researchers around LU Xuefeng, director of the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have now established a cell factory for the production of TAA based on a genome-edited industrial strain of Aspergillus terreus. Several rounds of metabolic engineering resulted in strains which produced 57 g/L TAA in shake flask cultures. Scale-up to tank fermentations up to 120 kL – in cooperation with Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.– then led to yields of 88 g/L after 100 hours. A simple recovery procedure combining membrane concentration and crystallization provided TAA crystals with a purity of 98.4%. Given its superior nematicidal properties, QIBEBT and Lukang Pharmaceutical are now in the process of registering TAA as a new nematicide biopesticide.

The QIBEBT team has further found that TAA esters (trans-Aconitates) can be used as plasticizers and could replace the ambiguous phthalates widely used in plastic products. Haier Blood Technology Co., a Qingdao-based company, plans to use TAA esters as plasticizers in its PVC-based blood bags and other products.

TAA ester’s wide temperature stability, from -46°C to 120°C, might also find applications in automotive cable materials as they exhibit excellent resistance to high-temperature volatilization and low-temperature brittle cracking.

In summary, biomanufacturing based on smart cells of A. terreus has provided a new material, TAA and TAA esters, which offer exciting application potentials as a biopesticide and a non-toxic bioplasticizer.

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An offshore platform for coastal ecosystem research near Qingdao

https://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0711/c90000-20476703.html

China put into operation a large offshore platform for controlled in-situ experiments regarding coastal ecosystems. Developed by the CAS Institute of Oceanology (IOCAS), the facility is deployed in the Yellow Sea off Rongcheng in Shandong Province.

With a total area of 2,000 square meters and an experimental sea zone of 30,000 square meters, the platform is designed to support a wide range of ecological studies under real marine conditions. Under real seawater conditions, key factors such as temperature, nutrients and dissolved oxygen can be precisely regulated, enabling continuous, full-cycle observation and breaking the technical barrier between natural-sea observation and indoor controlled experiments.

The platform comprises modules for automated monitoring, water regulation, mesocosm ecosystems and logistics support. It enables precise single-factor or multi-factor regulation of temperature, nutrients, dissolved oxygen and other variables, allowing researchers to reproduce scenarios like ocean warming, acidification and eutrophication in a real marine environment. This capability is crucial for understanding how coastal ecosystems respond to both gradual climate trends and extreme events.

China’s coastal waters, where most marine economic activities and ports are concentrated, are hotspots for ecological disasters and risks. These waters, notably, are under mounting stress from climate change, land-based inputs and human activities. The new lab is located in a typical mariculture area of northern China, offering conditions for both natural and farmed ecosystem studies. Researchers can conduct scenario experiments on carrying capacity, ecological resilience, marine heatwaves and hypoxia to identify risk thresholds and optimize aquaculture management. Beyond serving the aquaculture industry, it can provide technical support for disaster prevention, precision restoration and coastal health management, said Sun.

The platform is designed for open international collaboration and will be made available to global research institutions, facilitating joint efforts to tackle pressing marine environmental challenges.

Photo: An aerial drone photo taken on July 10, 2026 shows the large offshore platform for controlled in-situ experiments on coastal ecosystems after being deployed in the Yellow Sea off Rongcheng in east China’s Shandong Province. China on Friday put into operation a large offshore platform for controlled in-situ experiments regarding coastal ecosystems, marking a new phase of systematic, intelligent and open coastal ecological research in the country. Developed by the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), the facility is deployed in the Yellow Sea off Rongcheng in east China’s Shandong Province. It is the country’s largest open-access facility for in-situ coastal experiments, the IOCAS said. (IOCAS/Handout via Xinhua)

Green Carbon journal reaches impact factor 14.2 in less than 3 years

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/green-carbon

Green Carbon has received its first Impact Factor of 14.2 in the 2025 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) released by Clarivate on June 17, 2026. This places Green Carbon in Q1 in both the “Engineering, Chemical” category (Ranked 10/183) and the “Green & Sustainable Science & Technology” category (Ranked 8/114). Achieving this in less than three years since its launch is a testament to the journal’s academic quality, rigorous publishing standards, and growing international influence.

A deep-sea isopod uses horizontal gene transfer with a symbiotic bacterium to withstand ultra-long starvation

https://english.news.cn/20260606/de8eff009a94407c8eeeb1fdab13d675/c.html

https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(26)00571-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867426005714%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

A joint research led by the CAS Institute of Oceanology in collaboration with the Hong Kong-based Chinese University of Hong Kong and Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an deciphered the mechanism of ultra-long starvation tolerance in deep-sea isopods and provides an important paradigm for understanding how life balances growth and survival in extreme environments.

The deep sea is cold, dark, and almost entirely devoid of reliable nutrition, making long-term survival a remarkable evolutionary feat. To survive the abyss, the isopod possesses an enormous stomach that occupies about two-thirds of its body and acts like a deep-freeze pantry, allowing it to gorge when food is available and store the haul for months or even years. Second, it maintains an exceptionally low basal metabolic rate, essentially putting itself on permanent energy-saving mode. Together, these traits turn opportunistic binge eating into an ultra-long energy reserve.

In addition, a key gene involved in this metabolic slowdown, named ND1, is not originally part of the isopod’s own genome. The isopod “hijacks” it from an external symbiotic bacterium through horizontal gene transfer.

To verify ND1’s function, the researchers inserted the gene into zebrafish, nematodes, and human cells in the lab. Under normal temperatures, the gene recipients burned energy faster and became less tolerant of starvation. However, under cold conditions that mimic the isopod’s deep-sea home, ND1 suppressed energy metabolism, reduced mitochondrial activity, and boosted starvation endurance in zebrafish by a remarkable 37 percent.

This temperature-dependent switch solves the so-called “energy paradox” — how can a giant animal with high energy demands survive where food is extremely scarce? The ND1 acts as a metabolic thermostat, fine-tuning energy burn in response to environmental conditions. It provides a solution to the trade-off between body size and food scarcity.

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