scholarly journals Metabolic Engineering in the -omics Era: Elucidating and Modulating Regulatory Networks

2005 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goutham N. Vemuri ◽  
Aristos A. Aristidou

SUMMARY The importance of regulatory control in metabolic processes is widely acknowledged, and several enquiries (both local and global) are being made in understanding regulation at various levels of the metabolic hierarchy. The wealth of biological information has enabled identifying the individual components (genes, proteins, and metabolites) of a biological system, and we are now in a position to understand the interactions between these components. Since phenotype is the net result of these interactions, it is immensely important to elucidate them not only for an integrated understanding of physiology, but also for practical applications of using biological systems as cell factories. We present some of the recent “-omics” approaches that have expanded our understanding of regulation at the gene, protein, and metabolite level, followed by analysis of the impact of this progress on the advancement of metabolic engineering. Although this review is by no means exhaustive, we attempt to convey our ideology that combining global information from various levels of metabolic hierarchy is absolutely essential in understanding and subsequently predicting the relationship between changes in gene expression and the resulting phenotype. The ultimate aim of this review is to provide metabolic engineers with an overview of recent advances in complementary aspects of regulation at the gene, protein, and metabolite level and those involved in fundamental research with potential hurdles in the path to implementing their discoveries in practical applications.

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Tetiana Vlasova ◽  
Oleksandr Pshinko ◽  
Olha Vlasova

The problematization of the classical concepts in the postmodern philosophy has created some definite challenges that stipulate the development of the “Theory” in its interdisciplinary conceptual meanings and practical applications. The latter demands a certain “list” of the new notions and implies requirements for theorists to reflect the scientific diversity without reducing it to any kind of “theoretical unity”. For these reasons the purpose of this article is the conceptual reconstruction of the notion of the conflict in the specific postmodern context of its sociocultural, political and ethical meanings and senses. The methods of the research are mainly based on the principle of the anthropocentric paradigm, which stipulates the use of the interdisciplinary comparative-critical approaches and social construction methods in the general problematic field of postmodernism. While analysing conflict theories such schools of philosophy as existententialism, phenomenology and pragmatism are considered to be valid in the descriptions of both the actual conditions of the individual human existence and abstract human qualities. The practical aspects of this paper involve the empirical representation of the principles of the value and the sense in the problematic aspects of conflict resolution with the stress on the concepts of the discoursive communication. The obtained results allow to come to the conclusion that the most influential transformations are connected with such postmodern conflict problems as asymmetrical threats and unstable security architecture. The latter proves that the methodological approaches to conflictology should be evaluated from the point of presumably successful resolutions against the background of different spatial and temporal factors, which, in its turn, means creating new administrative modalities of conflict management. It should be stressed that in the context of the conflictological tendencies of the globalizing societies the special place should be occupied by the principles of K.- O. Apel’s discoursive ethics and M. M. Bakhtin’s doctrine of the “responsible dialogism”. Nowadays political approaches cannot be effective in the conflict resolutions without the classical ideals and the absolutes, without the impact of the Pathos, which means implied significance of the “relatively Utopian” ideas and their application in the conflict resolution, the potential possibilities of their realization in the conflict situations.


Author(s):  
Quentin M. Dudley ◽  
Ashty S. Karim ◽  
Connor J. Nash ◽  
Michael C. Jewett

AbstractMetabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce sustainable chemicals has emerged as an important part of the global bioeconomy. Unfortunately, efforts to design and engineer microbial cell factories are challenging because design-built-test cycles, iterations of re-engineering organisms to test and optimize new sets of enzymes, are slow. To alleviate this challenge, we demonstrate a cell-free approach termed in vitro Prototyping and Rapid Optimization of Biosynthetic Enzymes (or iPROBE). In iPROBE, a large number of pathway combinations can be rapidly built and optimized. The key idea is to use cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) to manufacture pathway enzymes in separate reactions that are then mixed to modularly assemble multiple, distinct biosynthetic pathways. As a model, we apply our approach to the 9-step heterologous enzyme pathway to limonene in extracts from Escherichia coli. In iterative cycles of design, we studied the impact of 54 enzyme homologs, multiple enzyme levels, and cofactor concentrations on pathway performance. In total, we screened over 150 unique sets of enzymes in 580 unique pathway conditions to increase limonene production in 24 hours from 0.2 to 4.5 mM (23 to 610 mg/L). Finally, to demonstrate the modularity of this pathway, we also synthesized the biofuel precursors pinene and bisabolene. We anticipate that iPROBE will accelerate design-build-test cycles for metabolic engineering, enabling data-driven multiplexed cell-free methods for testing large combinations of biosynthetic enzymes to inform cellular design.TOC FigureHighlightsApplied the iPROBE framework to build the nine-enzyme pathway to produce limoneneAssessed the impact of cofactors and 54 enzyme homologs on cell-free enzyme performanceIteratively optimized the cell-free production of limonene by exploring more than 580 unique reactionsExtended pathway to biofuel precursors pinene and bisabolene


THE BULLETIN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (390) ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
A. E. Kokеnova ◽  
A. K. Kupesheva ◽  
T. N. Mashirova ◽  
O. A. Statsenko ◽  
B. O. Zhabayeva

Our country has accumulated considerable experience in the study of quality management problems, and there is also a large number of works on the problems of personnel management. However, very few attempts were made to apply a systematic approach to the problem under study, the analysis of personnel management as the most important factor in quality assurance. Currently, management sciences lack fundamental research that provides a holistic view of quality management. The purpose of the study is to develop the key principles of the Kazakhstan model of personnel management that are adequate to modern requirements for product quality and take into account the specifics of Kazakhstan on the basis of understanding domestic and foreign experience. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was the conceptual provisions on the unity of man and the social environment; on the individual as a subject of joint activity and personal development; on the determinism of the functioning and development of the individual by the system of national value priorities, spiritual and material needs. The scientific article proposes measures to improve personnel management, concerning: reorientation of the worldview of modern Kazakh managers on the quality of products, works and services; creation of a favorable business social and managerial environment for their respective activities; orientation of the main functions of personnel management to the general model of quality management; formation of an effective mechanism for involving employees in the quality management process; motivation of personnel activities to ensure quality.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (14) ◽  
pp. 3136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaobao Wang ◽  
JingXin Sun ◽  
Qun Yang ◽  
Jianming Yang

Lycopene, a potent antioxidant, has been widely used in the fields of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics. However, the production of lycopene extracted from natural sources is far from meeting the demand. Consequently, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have been employed to develop microbial cell factories for lycopene production. Due to the advantages of rapid growth, complete genetic background, and a reliable genetic operation technique, Escherichia coli has become the preferred host cell for microbial biochemicals production. In this review, the recent advances in biological lycopene production using engineered E. coli strains are summarized: First, modification of the endogenous MEP pathway and introduction of the heterogeneous MVA pathway for lycopene production are outlined. Second, the common challenges and strategies for lycopene biosynthesis are also presented, such as the optimization of other metabolic pathways, modulation of regulatory networks, and optimization of auxiliary carbon sources and the fermentation process. Finally, the future prospects for the improvement of lycopene biosynthesis are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 7-28
Author(s):  
Sergey Troitskiy ◽  
◽  
Leena Kurvet-Käosaar ◽  
Liisi Laineste ◽  
◽  
...  

Bringing into focus the ways of how to approach trauma instead of defining the object of research is becoming increasingly important. This also indicates that the range of approaches to trauma that informs cultural inquiry is widening, and is moving away from one singular paradigm posited as universal. Trauma scholars have demonstrated, on the one hand, the importance of particular experiences, specific cases, individual features of experiencing, remembering, and narrating trauma. On the other hand, they have pointed out the impact of cultural “scripts” shaped by broader cultural understandings and social and cultural regulations and preferences that shape the possibilities of the representation of traumatic experience. This special issue seeks to recognize and negotiate the individual and collective dimensions of trauma as well as their interwovenness, with a focus on the (post)-Soviet and Eastern European experience. It does so by addressing the generalizing theoretical models as well as the practical, material, and experimental aspects of trauma. Thus, it seeks to disentangle and clarify the links between the collective and the individual, the theoretical and the practical, and finally, the universal and the specific, the global and the local.


Author(s):  
Dean Keith Simonton

Because creativity is often viewed as a highly positive human capacity both at the individual and societal levels, the chapter provides an overview of what psychologists have learned about this phenomenon. After beginning with the definition of creativity in terms of adaptive originality, the review turns to how measurement depends on whether creativity is to be treated as a process, a person, or a product. The next section of the review concentrates on the principal empirical results, with special focus on the two findings that would seem to be especially germane for positive psychology, namely (a) the impact of early trauma on creative development and (b) the relation between creativity and psychopathology. This section is followed by a discussion of the two key theoretical issues that pervade research on creativity: the nature-nurture question and the small-c versus big-C creativity question. Once these empirical and theoretical matters have been discussed, the article can progress to a treatment of some practical applications. These applications concern creativity-improving techniques that can be implemented during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. The chapter closes with a brief discussion of the most fruitful directions for future research on creativity. Despite the tremendous accumulation of knowledge about the phenomenon, a lot of unanswered questions remain.


Author(s):  
Brynne D. Ovalle ◽  
Rahul Chakraborty

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meshan Lehmann ◽  
Matthew R. Hilimire ◽  
Lawrence H. Yang ◽  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder

Abstract. Background: Self-esteem is a major contributor to risk for repeated suicide attempts. Prior research has shown that awareness of stigma is associated with reduced self-esteem among people with mental illness. No prior studies have examined the association between self-esteem and stereotype awareness among individuals with past suicide attempts. Aims: To understand the relationship between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among young adults who have and have not attempted suicide. Method: Computerized surveys were administered to college students (N = 637). Linear regression analyses were used to test associations between self-esteem and stereotype awareness, attempt history, and their interaction. Results: There was a significant stereotype awareness by attempt interaction (β = –.74, p = .006) in the regression analysis. The interaction was explained by a stronger negative association between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among individuals with past suicide attempts (β = –.50, p = .013) compared with those without attempts (β = –.09, p = .037). Conclusion: Stigma is associated with lower self-esteem within this high-functioning sample of young adults with histories of suicide attempts. Alleviating the impact of stigma at the individual (clinical) or community (public health) levels may improve self-esteem among this high-risk population, which could potentially influence subsequent suicide risk.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kopasker

Existing research has consistently shown that perceptions of the potential economic consequences of Scottish independence are vital to levels of support for constitutional change. This paper attempts to investigate the mechanism by which expectations of the economic consequences of independence are formed. A hypothesised causal micro-level mechanism is tested that relates constitutional preferences to the existing skill investments of the individual. Evidence is presented that larger skill investments are associated with a greater likelihood of perceiving economic threats from independence. Additionally, greater perceived threat results in lower support for independence. The impact of uncertainty on both positive and negative economic expectations is also examined. While uncertainty has little effect on negative expectations, it significantly reduces the likelihood of those with positive expectations supporting independence. Overall, it appears that a general economy-wide threat is most significant, and it is conjectured that this stems a lack of information on macroeconomic governance credentials.


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