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Powder metallurgy (PM) involves processes of mechanical milling, pressing, and sintering. The last of these can be done by different methods. One promising such method is hot isostatic pressing (HIP), which improves on conventional powder metallurgy by eliminating pores, thereby achieving full density with enhanced properties. This study seeks to show the effect of HIP on the characteristics of PM processed Mg-based alloys. High energy milled powders of commercially pure magnesium, AZ91 magnesium alloy and zinc were mixed and compacted in rectangular forms and then sintered by HIP, at constant temperature and pressure. After HIP, relative density of up to 97% was achieved. For the AZ magnesium alloys processed at 900 rpm, homogeneous precipitation of the β-Mg17Al12phase was found, while for the specimens milled at 600 rpm this phase was observed in a lamellar form, with these morphological changes suggesting differences in the hardness of the processed materials.

Globally, diabetes and obesity are two of the most common metabolic diseases of the 21st century. Increasingly, not only adults but children and adolescents are being affected. New approaches are needed to prevent and treat these disorders and to reduce the impact of associated disease-related complications. Industrial-scale production using plant-root cultures can produce quantities and quality of inexpensive bioactive small molecules with nutraceutical and pharmaceutical properties. Using this approach, and targeting these diseases, a next generation approach to tackling this emerging global health crisis may be developed. Adventitious roots cultured in bioreactors under controlled and reproducible conditions have been shown effective for production of natural products. The liquid-phase airlift bioreactor in particular has been used successfully for culturing roots on an industrial-scale and thus may provide an economical production platform for expressing promising plant-based antidiabetic and antioxidant molecules. This review focuses on a next-generation, scalable, bioprocessing approach for adventitious and hairy root cultures that are a pesticide-free, seasonally-independent, plant-based source of three molecules that have shown promise for the therapeutic management of diabetes and obesity: corosolic acid, resveratrol and ginsenosides.

Camptothecin (CPT) is an anticancer and antiviral alkaloid produced by the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata (Nyssaceae) and some other species belonging to the families Apocynaceae, Olacaceae, and Rubiaceae. Bark and seeds are currently used as sources for the drug. Several attempts have been made to produce CPT from cell suspensions; however, the low yields obtained limit this approach. Cultures of differentiated cell types may be an alternative source of alkaloid production. Hairy root cultures of C. acuminata were established from tissue transformed with Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains ATCC 15834 and R-1000. Integration of the genes responsible for the hairy-root phenotype ( rol genes) into the plant genome was verified by DNA gel blot analysis. The hairy roots produce and secrete CPT as well as the more potent and less toxic natural derivative, 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT), into the medium. Remarkably, the cultures were able to synthesize the alkaloids at levels equal to, and sometimes greater than, the roots in planta, i.e., 1.0 and 0.15 mg/g dry weight for CPT and the HCPT, respectively.

The growth kinetics of an Escherichia coli wild type strain and two derivative mutants were examined in batch cultures and in glucose-limited chemostats. One mutant (PB12) had an inactive phosphotranferase transport system and the other (PB25) had interrupted pykA and pykF genes that code for the two pyruvate kinase isoenzymes. In both batch and continuous culture, important differences in acetic acid accumulation and other metabolic activities were found. Compared to the wild type strain, we observed a reduction in acetic acid accumulation of 25 and 80% in PB25 and PB12 strains respectively, in batch culture. Continuous culture experiments revealed that compared to the other two strains, PB25 accumulated less acetic acid as a function of dilution rate. In continuous cultures, oxidoreductase metabolic activities were substantially affected in the two mutant strains. These changes in turn were reflected in different levels of biomass and CO2production, and in oxygen consumption.

The phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) node represents a metabolic crossroad where carbon is distributed into several metabolic pathways. This node is specially important for the industrial production of several metabolites. Depending on the organism and its habitat, the enzymes that utilize PEP are regulated by different effectors, and each branch of the node is important in PEP consumption. In this review we will focus our attention on the metabolic diversity of this node.

A small (approximately 1100 base pairs) ColE1-type plasmid, pBR345, was constructed from plasmid pMB1 by a series of in vitro recombinant manipulations. Approximately 9% of the supercoiled pBR345 DNA obtained from cultures amplified with chloramphenicol appears to be replicative intermediates with replicating "eye" structures of uniform size. Results obtained from electron microscopy and biochemical analyses have enabled us to localize the origin of replication at the same position as that reported for ColE1. A sequence of 420 nucleotides surrounding this origin has been determined. A comparison between this sequence and the one determined for the origin of replication of ColE1 is presented.

A hybrid deoxyribonucleic acid molecule, plasmid pRSP20, which was isolated from the Clarke and Carbon Escherichia coli gene bank, was shown to complement the gltB31 mutation, which affects the synthesis of glutamate synthase in E. coli strain PA340. We present evidence which demonstrates that plasmid pRSP20 carries an 8-megadalton E. coli chromosomal fragment, including the genes encoding the two unequal glutamate synthase subunits. Polypeptides with molecular weights of about 135,000 and 53,000, which comigrated with purified E. coli glutamate synthase subunit polypeptides and immunoprecipitated with antibodies to E. coli glutamate synthase, were synthesized by minicells carrying the pRSP20 plasmid.

Fermentation conditions were developed in order to achieve simultaneously a high biomass concentration and high-level expression of a hybrid cI-human insulin B peptide gene. In our system, this hybrid gene is under control of the Escherichia coli trp promoter, in a trp- derivative strain of E. coli W3110. The dual role of tryptophan concentration on cellular growth and hybrid gene regulation was studied in 10-l batch fermentations. In the best batch conditions, a biomass concentration of 12 g dry weight/l can be obtained, and 0.53 g/l of cI-insulin B hybrid protein is produced. Tryptophan in the culture medium is consumed by the growing culture, until a level is reached that causes induction of the hybrid gene. Plasmid loss was detected, as only 62% of the cells retained the recombinant plasmid. In order to increase the hybrid protein production level, a fed-batch culture strategy was developed whereby the specific growth rate of the cells was restrained. Using the same amount of nutrients as in the batch fermentations, it was possible to increase the final biomass concentration to 20 g/l, plasmid-bearing cells in the population to 90% and recombinant hybrid protein to 1.21 g/l.

Synthetic genes for human insulin A and B chains were cloned separately in plasmid pBR322. The cloned synthetic genes were then fused to an Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase gene to provide efficient transcription and translation and a stable precursor protein. The insulin peptides were cleaved from beta-galactosidase, detected by radioimmunoassay, and purified. Complete purification of the A chain and partial purification of the B chain were achieved. These products were mixed, reduced, and reoxidized. The presence of insulin was detected by radioimmunoassay.

An abbreviated procedure has been developed for the purification of restriction endonucleases. This procedure uses chromatography on phosphocellulose and hydroxylapatite and results in enzymes of sufficient purity to permit their use in the sequencing, molecular cloning, and physical mapping of DNA.

The gene encoding toxin gamma from the scorpion, Tityus serrulatus, was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA employing synthetic oligonucleotides designed from the reported cDNA sequence. The nucleotide sequence of this gene reveals the presence of an intron of 475 base pairs (bp) which interrupts the region that encodes the signal peptide of the precursor toxin. A comparison of the intron boundary sequences of the gamma toxin gene with ones from other arachnid genes is also presented.

By employing a system of RNA polymerase binding and restriction endonuclease digestion, we demonstrate that the region in and around the Hind III site of pBR3l3 and pBR322 is the promoter for the tetracycline (Tc) resistance gene(s). Furthermore, it is shown that this region was transferred intact from pSC101 during the construction of the latter plasmids. The in vitro insertion of a few base pairs at the Hind III site produces a series of “down” promoter mutations in which the level of in vivo Tc resistance is reduced. Sequence analysis of the various promoter mutations revealed significant base pair rearrangements in the region between −40 and −12 of the promoter. While these base alterations do not appear to affect the firm binding of RNA polymerase, they do affect the ability of mutant promoters to initiate transcription. These observations suggest that the region from −40 to −12, previously designated as the “recognition region”, is actually involved in the process of initiation of transcription.