10 The fate of the benthic bacterial biomass is a topic of major importance in understanding 11 how soft-bottom environments function. Because of their high abundance, production and 12 nutritional value, benthic bacteria may constitute an important food resource for benthic 13 fauna. The trophic role of bacteria for a nematode community on the Brouage mudflat 14 (Marennes-Oléron-France), domin...

Efficient xylose utilization is one of the most important pre-requisites for developing an economic microbial conversion process of terrestrial lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and biochemicals. A robust ethanol producing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been engineered with heterologous xylose assimilation pathways. A two-step oxidoreductase pathway consisting of NAD(P)H-linked xylose r...

Nitrogen is essential for plant survival and growth. Excessive application of nitrogenous fertilizer has generated serious environment pollution and increased production cost in agriculture. To deal with this problem, tremendous efforts have been invested worldwide to increase the nitrogen use ability of crops. However, only limited success has been achieved to date. Here we report that NLP7 (N...

Background: Methanol is regarded as a biorenewable platform feedstock because nearly all bioresources can be converted into methanol through syngas. Biological conversion of methanol using synthetic methylotrophs has thus gained worldwide attention. Results: Herein, to endow Escherichia coli with the ability to utilize methanol, an artificial linear methanol assimilation pathway was assembled i...

Photosynthesis is the process to convert solar energy to biomass and biofuels, which are the only major solar energy storage means on Earth. To satisfy the increased demand for sustainable energy sources, it is essential to understand the process of solar energy storage, that is, the carbon metabolism in photosynthetic organisms. It has been well-recognized that one bottleneck of photosynthesis...

Polyphosphate (Poly-P) accumulation has been reported in Chlorella vulgaris under nitrogen deficiency conditions with sufficient P supply, and the process has been demonstrated to have great impact on lipid productivity. In this article, the utilization of polyphosphates and the regreening process under N resupplying conditions, especially for lipid production reviving, were investigated. This ...

The relevance of inbreeding depression to the persistence of plant populations can depend upon whether stress magnifies inbreeding depression for fitness-related traits. To examine whether drought stress exacerbates inbreeding depression in gas exchange traits and biomass, we grew selfed and outcrossed progeny of inbred lines from two populations of Impatiens capensis in a greenhouse experiment...

BACKGROUND Cellulosic biomass especially agricultural/wood residues can be utilized as feedstock to cost-effectively produce fuels, chemicals and bulk industrial enzymes, which demands xylose utilization from microbial cell factories. While previous works have made significant progress in improving microbial conversion of xylose into fuels and chemicals, no study has reported the engineering of...

The need for medicinal and aromatic plants for industrial uses creates an opportunity for farmers to produce alternative crops. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a perennial shrub originating from Paraguay, is of increasing interest as a source of zero-calorie natural sweeteners: the steviol glycosides (SVglys). The aim of this study was to investigate the relevance of nitrogen (N) supply for leaf yie...