Developing an enzyme selection tool supporting multiple hosts contexts

Engineering biological organisms that allow the integration of alternative metabolic pathways to natural ones is one of the goals of synthetic biology. Based on this, some of the most attractive applications in terms of synthetic organisms manufacture include the production of a wide range of pharmacologically useful metabolites produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Also, the biostable molecules green-production involves different types of therapeutic processes, e.g. prostheses and grafts stabilisation. Regarding the viability of genetically modified organisms, metabolic pathways must be first properly designed, taking into consideration the type of host organism that will be involved in metabolic production, as well as its biochemical and environmental conditions. To ensure the correct growth of these synthetic organisms, the enzyme selection must guarantee both the organism survival (and proliferation) and the optimal production of the desired metabolite. Developing enzyme selection tools is essential to enhance and make cost-effective the metabolic pathways design. This technical note presents the update of Selenzyme, the enzyme selection tool which is based on organisms taxonomic compatibility and allows appropriate enzyme selection considering its amino acid sequence. The purpose of the update is to allow multiple host input, in order to perform an affinity comparison between target organisms and each host. The affinity differences will depend on which host to be considered, allowing the user to select the optimal host for the enzyme concerned.

The Pragmatic Functions of I think in Different Genres

The present paper aims to examine the occurrence of I think in different genres. A collected data of I think from graduate student research interview and objectivism group study within Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) is analyzed. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are included and the selection tool Antconc 3.4.4 are adopted in the study. By using concordance, all the context including I think are collected. Meanwhile, some phrases (such as I think so, what I think, I think of, etc.) are deleted from the analysis. It is found that I think in different positions and with different collocations fulfill different pragmatic functions respectively. The phrase I think is very frequent in GSRI and OSG, which is due to the nature of the discourse, where the participants are engaged in the communication. From the perspective of syntax and collocation, a lot of examples are analyzed in details. It is found that the interpretation of I think cannot be reached without exploring its linguistic context. In addition, a more detailed observation of linguistic context of I think in OSG and GSRI is explored. Some epistemic certainty (certainly, really, etc.) are included in research interview, with the function of emphasis and deliberation. The study might help to reconsider the functions of I think in different genres.