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Current concepts regarding the biology of aging are primarily based on studies aimed at identifying factors regulating lifespan. However, lifespan as a sole proxy measure for aging can be of limited value because it may be restricted by specific pathologies. Here, we employ large-scale phenotyping to analyze hundreds of markers in aging male C57BL/6J mice. For each phenotype, we establish lifetime profiles to determine when age-dependent change is first detectable relative to the young adult baseline. We examine key lifespan regulators (putative anti-aging interventions; PAAIs) for a possible countering of aging. Importantly, unlike most previous studies, we include in our study design young treated groups of animals, subjected to PAAIs prior to the onset of detectable age-dependent phenotypic change. Many PAAI effects influence phenotypes long before the onset of detectable age-dependent change, but, importantly, do not alter the rate of phenotypic change. Hence, these PAAIs have limited effects on aging., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Petroleum-based plastics are durable and accumulate in all ecological niches. Knowledge on enzymatic degradation is sparse. Today, less than 50 verified plastics-active enzymes are known. First examples of enzymes acting on the polymers polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyurethane (PUR) have been reported together with a detailed biochemical and structural description. Furthermore, very few polyamide (PA) oligomer active enzymes are known. In this article, the current known enzymes acting on the synthetic polymers PET and PUR are briefly summarized, their published activity data were collected and integrated into a comprehensive open access database. The Plastics-Active Enzymes Database (PAZy) represents an inventory of known and experimentally verified enzymes that act on synthetic fossil fuel-based polymers. Almost 3000 homologs of PET-active enzymes were identified by profile hidden Markov models. Over 2000 homologs of PUR-active enzymes were identified by BLAST. Based on multiple sequence alignments, conservation analysis identified the most conserved amino acids, and sequence motifs for PET- and PUR-active enzymes were derived., (© 2022 The Authors. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Modified atmosphere (MA) packaging plays an important role in improving food quality and safety. By using different gas mixtures and packaging materials the shelf life of fresh produce can significantly be increased. A Gram-negative-staining, rod-shaped, orange-pigmented strain DH-B6 T , has been isolated from MA packed raw pork sausage (20% CO 2 , 80% O 2 ). The strain produced biofilms and showed growth at high CO 2 levels of up to 40%. Complete 16S rRNA gene and whole-genome sequences revealed that strain DH-B6 T belongs to the genus Chryseobacterium , being closely related to strain Chryseobacterium indologenes DSM 16777 T (98.4%), followed by Chryseobacterium gleum NCTC11432 T (98.3%) and Chryseobacterium lactis KC1864 T (98.2%). Average nucleotide identity value between DH-B6 T and C. indologenes DSM 16777 T was 81.1% and digital DNA-DNA hybridisation was 24.9%, respectively. The DNA G+C content was 35.51 mol%. Chemotaxonomical analysis revealed the presence of the rare glycine lipid cytolipin, the serine-glycine lipid flavolipin and the sulfonolipid sulfobacin A, as well as phosphatidylethanolamine, monohexosyldiacylglycerol and ornithine lipid, including the hydroxylated forms. Major fatty acids were iC 15 : 0 (50.7%) and iC 17 : 1 cis 9 (28.7%), followed by iC 15 : 0 2-OH (7.0%) and iC 17 : 0 3-OH (6.2%). The isolated strain contained MK-6 as the only respiratory quinone and flexirubin-like pigments were detected as the major pigments. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, the strain DH-B6 T (=DSM 110542 T =LMG 31915 T ) represents a novel species of the genus Chryseobacterium , for which the name Chryseobacterium capnotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. Emended descriptions of the genus Chryseobacterium and eight species of this genus based on polar lipid characterisation are also proposed.