Life as we know it heavily relies on biological catalysis, in fact, in a very nonromantic version of it, life could be considered as a series of chemical reactions, regulated by the guarding principles of thermodynamics. In ancient times, a beating heart was a good sign of vitality, however, to me, it is actually the presence of active enzymes that counts… Though we do not usually pay attention...

Abstract Xylooligosaccharides (XOSs) are increasingly being explored as prebiotics in fish diets; however, their effects and modes of action have not been well evaluated. Reports shown that dietary XOS has the potential to improve proliferation beneficial gut microbes, metabolites, enhance disease resistance several species. In contrast, other studies report no substantial changes immune growth...

The present work explores the best conditions for the enzymatic synthesis of poly (ethylene glutarate) for the first time. The start-up materials are the liquids; diethyl glutarate and ethylene glycol diacetate, without the need of addition of extra solvent. The reactions are catalyzed by lipase B from Candida antarctica immobilized on glycidyl methacrylate-ter-divinylbenzene-ter-ethylene glyco...

Enzymatic polymerization of lignin is an environmentally-friendly and sustainable method that is investigated for its potential in opening-up new applications of one of the most abundant biopolymers on our planet. In this work, the laccase from Myceliophthora thermophila was successfully immobilized onto Accurel MP1000 beads (67% of protein bound to the polymeric carrier) and the biocatalyzed o...

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a phytohormone critical for plant growth, development, and adaptation to various stress conditions. Plants have to adjust ABA levels constantly to respond to changing physiological and environmental conditions. To date, the mechanisms for fine-tuning ABA levels remain elusive. Here we report that AtBG1, a beta-glucosidase, hydrolyzes glucose-conjugated, biologically inact...

Biodegradable or bioresorbable polymers are commonly used in various pharmaceutical fields (e.g., as drug delivery systems, therapeutic systems or macromolecular drug conjugates). Polyesters are an important class of polymers widely utilized in pharmacy due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility features. In recent years, there has been increased interest in enzyme-catalyzed ring-openin...

Reverse transcriptase (RT) catalyzes the conversion of the viral RNA into an integration-competent double-stranded DNA, with a variety of enzymatic activities that include the ability to displace a non-template strand concomitantly with polymerization. Here, using high-resolution optical tweezers to follow the activity of the murine leukemia Virus RT, we show that strand-displacement polymeriza...