Fine chemicals that are physiologically active, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, flavoring agents as well as additives for foods, feed, and fertilizer are produced by enzymatically or through microbial fermentation. The identification of enzymes that catalyze the target reaction makes possible the enzymatic synthesis of the desired fine chemical. The genes encoding t...

Production of fatty acid-derived biofuels and chemicals have garnered attention in recent years owing to their potential to replace petroleum and plant oil-derived products. Through the metabolic engineering of the fatty acid metabolism pathway, advanced fuels and chemicals such as free fatty acid, triacylglycerol, biodiesel, fatty alcohols, alkanes/alkene, R-3-hydroxybutyric acid, polyhydroxya...

The present work assessed the alliance of microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) and fermentation in a two-step process for electro-bioconversion carbon dioxide (CO2) into elongated chemical building blocks. electro bio-reduction CO2 acetic acid ethanol (EtOH:HAc) at 1-to-1 ratio is linked to subsequent elongation step produce C4 C6 compounds. Key operational conditions each were assesse...

H-Phosphinic acid and pyruvic acid, both plausible prebiotic chemicals, react selectively in water to build structural complexity including amide bond formation under remarkably mild conditions and oxidative coupling of P(1) compounds to condensed pyrophosphorus compounds.

A challenge in recent years has been the rational use of forest and agriculture residues for the production of bio-fuel, biochemical, and other bioproducts. In this study, potentially useful compounds from pyrolytic lignins were identified by HPLC-MS/MS and untargeted metabolomics. The metabolites identified were 2-(4-allyl-2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1-propanol, benzyl benz...

Chemicals designated as "priority pollutants" or "toxics" have received special attention recently because the discharge of these compounds into public water is to be restricted to the maximum possible with little regard to water quality or economics. The selection of many of the 129 priority cemicals was not based on an objective scientific assessment of the exposure and effect data. In fact, ...

A criterion frequently used to group chemicals in risk assessment is “mode of toxic action” (MoA). Routinely, structure-based approaches are used for the MoA categorization of chemicals, but they can produce conflicting results or fail to classify compounds. Biological activity-based approaches such as toxicogenomics which provide an unbiased overview of the transcriptomic changes after exposur...

We have utilized a validated (standardized) estrogen receptor (ER) competitive-binding assay to determine the ER affinity for a large, structurally diverse group of chemicals. Uteri from ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats were the ER source for the competitive-binding assay. Initially, test chemicals were screened at high concentrations to determine whether a chemical competed with [3H]-estradi...

The chemical transformation of natural oils provides alternatives to limited fossil fuels and produces compounds with added value for the industries. selective deoxygenation diesel-ranged hydrocarbons, bio-jet fuels, or fatty alcohols controllable selectivity is especially attractive in oil feedstock biorefineries. This review presents recent progress catalytic related model (e.g., acids) renew...

Phenolic compounds are widely distributed in the natural environment, typically existing as a mixture at the nanogram or microgram per liter level. Among the phenolic compounds, 4-nonylphenol, 4-t-octylphenol, bisphenol A and 2,4-dichlorophenol attract the most concern due to their abundance and risks within the natural environment. The former three chemicals are known as endocrine disruptors c...