Critical Reviews in Biotechnology最新文献

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play crucial roles in many plant biological processes. ROS have emerged as major signaling molecules mediating various regulatory reactions in response to environmental stimuli. This signaling is mediated by a highly regulated process of ROS accumulation at specific cellular compartments. Therefore, this review focuses on the intricate ROS signaling in plant defense and strategic virulence effectors from pathogens hijacking ROS homeostasis. In addition, the ROS-mediated regulation of plant processes acts through post-translational modifications (PTMs) is discussed. We also provide a valuable roadmap for translating ROS research into climate-resilient cultivars by exploring the manipulation of pathogen effectors, ROS cascade genes through modern biotechnological approaches, and post-translational modifications against various environmental stressors. This framework can advance research in plant stress biology and agricultural practices.

Urease (urea amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.5), first crystallized from jack-bean (Canavalia ensiformis) by James B. Sumner in 1926, has become a cornerstone of biotechnology. The global urease market, dominated by plant-based sources, was valued at USD 1.24 Billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5%, reaching USD 1.94 billion by 2033. However, plant-derived ureases face challenges, such as low extraction efficiency, variability in yield due to plant maturity, and sensitivity to environmental factors, limiting scalability. Microbial ureases, globally embraced due to escalating demand, offer superior stability across extreme pH and temperature ranges. These attributes confer broad potential applications in diverse fields, such as: agriculture, environmental, clinical, and healthcare industries. Nevertheless, the industrial production of microbial urease continues to encounter obstacles, including elevated purification costs and the lack of cost-effective optimization strategies. This review provides quantitative insights into microbial ureases from bacteria, fungi (excluding hemiascomyces), and diatoms, highlighting their catalytic efficiency, Ni-dependencies, and advancements in assay techniques and enhanced purification strategies. It explores applications across agriculture, bioremediation, and self-healing concrete, emphasizing ureolysis-driven microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) as a promising eco-friendly and sustainable approach, thus providing a scientific and reasonable reference for their large-scale application.

Pellets are ultrastructural configurations of filamentous fungal biomass that form during growth in submerged culture. This growth pattern offers advantages for controlling and stabilizing bioprocesses through biomass immobilization, reduced medium viscosity, and facilitated compound extraction. These benefits are particularly valuable for bioremediation, synergistic applications with biomaterials, and industrial metabolite production. However, fungal pellets also present challenges, such as limited oxygen diffusion to the pellet core, inconsistent pellet homogeneity, and decreased productivity. Factors such as electrostatic interactions, hydrophobicity, and culture conditions influence pellet formation. Currently, optimization efforts for pellet production focus on evaluating parameters, such as: pH range, agitation rate, pellet formation time, carbon source, additive agents, trace metals, and inoculum concentration, among others. Fungal pellets are increasingly recognized as promising platforms in emerging environmental biotechnology due to their versatility in pollutant removal and sustainable processing. Unlike previous reviews, this work provides an integrated and up-to-date perspective that combines the fundamentals of pellet formation with recent advances in their environmental and industrial applications, highlighting strategies for optimization and scalability. This review focuses on analyzing the most relevant aspects of fungal pellets, including their formation, optimization, and biotechnological applications. Given the growing importance of fungi in contemporary biotechnology, a state-of-the-art review of fungal pellets is warranted. This includes presenting an updated overview of processes for generating fungal biomass with enhanced handling, based on the use of fungal granules, an essential component for the implementation of efficient biotechnological processes using model fungal pellets with relevant industrial applications.

Tyrosinase is a copper-containing monooxygenase that catalyzes the O-hydroxylation of tyrosine to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine and subsequently to dopaquinone. The enzyme is essential for the formation of melanin in eukaryotes, and its over-activation is linked to hyperpigmentation, which is metabolically associated with severe clinical conditions. The most efficient way to regulate the overproduction of melanin and its harmful effects is to suppress tyrosinase. Endophytic fungi are of immense importance in producing the pharmacologically active and structurally diverse range of secondary metabolites with the host plant and even as sole producers. These fungi have been widely reported to produce a myriad of potent tyrosinase inhibitors, which can pave the path for discovering new treatment approaches, especially for melanin-induced hyperpigmentation. To utilize tyrosinase inhibitors as active pharmaceutical or cosmeceutical ingredients, however, extensive studies are required to evaluate them under in vivo conditions, and there is also a need to explore novel fungal endophytes from diverse sources.

Sugarcane, a leading source of sugar and bio-energy around the globe stands at the cross-road of genome complexity and agricultural innovation, offering the immense potential to fuel a sustainable future. Functional genomics with its precise identification and manipulation of genes could enable researchers unlock this potential and accelerate the breeding efforts. However, the polyploid genome of sugarcane with: high heterozygosity, high-repetitive DNA content, multiple copies of homo(eo)logous gene, epistatic interaction of alleles, etc., challenges the gene annotation, genome sequencing, genome editing, and phenotypic characterization. Similarly long breeding cycle, low transformation efficiency, time-consuming, and labor-intensive transformation methods further complicates the genome editing. Recent advances of functional genomics are transforming this scenario, such as current availability of reference genome "R570," has provided a significant insight of genome architect and function. Genome wide association studies (GWAS)/genome selection (GS) are enhancing trait-mapping and prediction of breeding values to accelerate the breeding cycles. The current era of smart breeding with integrative bio-informatics, advance genome editing tools, i.e., CRISPR/Cas-systems (Cas-proteins, Cas-RNPs, d-Cas-RNPs, and CRISPRa/i), and high-throughput phenomics offers a significant approach to: overcome transformation bottlenecks, explore complex trait architect and address polyploidy challenges. Therefore, this review summarizes the key challenges and focuses on elaborating recent advances and suggests optimized strategies for future improvement in functional genomics of sugarcane breeding.

Prodigiosin is an alkaloid, cell-associated, red pigment extensively produced as a secondary metabolite by Gram negative bacterium, Serratia marcescens. The red pigment holds immense recognition for multifunctional tri-pyrrole structure and as a promising candidate for wide array of industrial applications. The biosynthesis and regulation of prodigiosin in S. marcescens is a complex process, manifesting biological information at multiple cellular levels as genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. The current review delves into molecular biology of S. marcescens highlighting it as a prolific producer of prodigiosin. This review also highlights crucial aspects of regulatory mechanisms for prodigiosin production in S. marcescens, along with recent advancements in strain improvement and heterologous production of pigment in industrially compliant host. In addition, this review integrates current knowledge on molecular biology and regulation of prodigiosin, addressing the approaches employed for high level of prodigiosin production, potential applications, challenges and future perspective for harnessing industrial potential of prodigiosin in future.

The adage "Food is the God of the people" underscores the profound interconnectedness between agriculture and the food industry. Agriculture forms the backbone of the food industry, while evolving consumer preferences continuously shape its progress. The balance between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (SFAs and UFAs) in vegetable oils is critical to human health. As health awareness grows, UFAs have gained significant market traction, prompting extensive research into their biosynthesis, regulation, and improvement. This review focuses on oilseed crops, offering a comprehensive analysis of: fatty acid composition, biosynthesis pathways, gene regulation, and breeding strategies to enhance quality. By integrating theoretical and practical insights, our work aims to provide guidance for promoting sustainable agriculture and advancing the food industry.

Microalgae are desirable candidates for performing about half of the World's organic carbon fixation and its conversion to essential metabolites of human metabolism, including polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). However, the yields of microalgal FAs produced naturally are typically insufficient to cover the expenses of their commercial utilization. To overcome this problem, gene engineering techniques have been used to change the activity of endogenous enzymes. This review aims to find knowledge about the mechanism of regulation of fatty acid (FA) biosynthesis and CO₂ fixation in microalgae. Firstly, this study discusses molecular strategies toward accelerating FA biosynthesis with a main emphasis on a critical review of transcriptional engineering. Some transcription factors (TFs) are known to increase FA content and related gene expression. However, a research gap is revealed toward understanding their regulatory mechanism and finding their role in regulating CO₂ fixation. Secondly, a critical review of studies on CO₂ fixation regulated by Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) and RuBisCo activase (RCA) disclosed that no studies have yet been reported about their transcriptional control. Thirdly, prospects are given on the genetic basis of parallel transcriptional regulation of genes involved in FA biosynthesis and CO₂ fixation in microalgae. This study should potentially provide considerable knowledge on developing eco-friendly and sustainable microalgae genetic resources to maximize the yield of value-added FAs using TF engineering.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) is an essential omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, abundant in the brain and eyes. DHA is crucial for maintaining the structural integrity and physiological functions of these vital organs. Within the brain, DHA is concentrated in the gray matter, synaptic membranes, and hippocampus. Likewise, in the eyes, substantial quantities can be found in the retina, with lower levels in the cornea and lens. Previous studies have outlined the potential for culturing marine heterotrophic protists in ways that provide cost-effective and sustainable DHA biosynthesis. Similarly, our previous work on repurposing slaughterhouse waste has highlighted this underutilized source of brain and ocular tissue, which can support the extraction of valuable nutrients such as DHA. In this review, we will examine the current state of the art related to DHA production from these two sources, explore potential applications, and outline the possible benefits that may be generated from our approaches, with an emphasis on ocular diseases.

The global accumulation of keratin-rich waste, primarily from poultry and livestock industries, presents significant environmental and economic challenges. This review explores the potential of Bacillus-derived keratinases as a sustainable solution for keratin waste valorization and prospects of value-addition. Keratinases, the keratin hydrolyzing proteases produced predominantly by various Bacillus species, exhibit exceptional capability in degrading keratin, a highly stable and recalcitrant protein. This degradation process not only mitigates the environmental impact of keratin waste, but also converts it into valuable by-products with potential industrial applications. We systematically review various aspects, including: the production, properties and the mechanism of keratin degradation by Bacillus keratinases, highlighting their enzymatic properties, substrate specificity, and efficiency in valorizing keratin into peptides and amino acids. Biomolecular aspects and catalytic behavior relevant to the activity and stability of Bacillus keratinases are visited via in silico modeling. The economic and environmental benefits of utilizing keratinases for waste valorization are assessed, including reductions in waste disposal costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential for creating new economic opportunities through the utilization of keratin-derived products. The recent advancements in keratin waste enzyme treatment and their utilization in developing circular bioeconomy are highlighted in the present article.