Consolidated bioprocessing, or CBP, the conversion of lignocellulose into desired products in one step without added enzymes, has been a subject of increased research effort in recent years. In this review, the economic motivation for CBP is addressed, advances and remaining obstacles for CBP organism development are reviewed, and we comment briefly on fundamental aspects. For CBP organism deve...

In the title compound, (C(10)H(24)N)[FeCl(4)], no classical hydrogen bonds are observed. The butyl-triethyl-ammonium cations inter-act with the tetra-hedral [FeCl(4)](-) anion through weak C-H⋯Cl inter-actions, forming a three-dimensional network.

Sphingobium yanoikuyae TJ is a halotolerant di-n-butyl-phthalate-degrading bacterium, isolated from the Haihe estuary in Bohai Bay, Tianjin, China. Here, we report the 5.1-Mb draft genome sequence of this strain, which will provide insights into the diversity of Sphingobium spp. and the mechanism of phthalate ester degradation in the estuary.

The title compound, (C(6)H(8)N(4))[Mn(H(2)O)(6)](SO(4))(2), was obtained by cocrystallization of 2,2'-biimidazolium sulfate and bis-(tetra-butyl-ammonium) tetra-chlorido-manganate(II). The asymmetric unit contains one isolated (SO(4))(2-) anion, one half of an octa-hedral [Mn(H(2)O)(6)](2+) dication and one half of a 2,2'-biimidazolium dication, each of which lies on an inversion centre. Mol-ec...

Frustration of crystallisation by locally favoured structures is critically important in linking the phenomena of supercooling, glass formation, and liquid-liquid transitions. Here we show that the putative liquid-liquid transition in n-butanol is in fact caused by geometric frustration associated with an isotropic to rippled lamellar liquid-crystal transition. Liquid-crystal phases are general...

Clostridium aceticum DSM 1496 is a Gram-negative anaerobic chemolithoautotrophic acetogenic bacterium that is capable of producing commodity chemicals from syngas fermentation. In this study, we report the draft genome sequence of the C. aceticum DSM 1496 strain (4.16 Mb) to elucidate the syngas fermentation metabolic pathway.

BACKGROUND Traditional approaches to phenotype improvement include rational selection of genes for modification, and probability-driven processes such as laboratory evolution or random mutagenesis. A promising middle-ground approach is semi-rational engineering, where genetic modification targets are inferred from system-wide comparison of strains. Here, we have applied a metabolomics-based, se...