To improve the production yield of (+)-pinoresinol (Pin), (+)-pinoresinol monoglucoside (PMG), and (+)-pinoresinol diglucoside (PDG), different methods were conducted, including co-culture with resveratrol-producing Alternaria sp. MG1 spores and addition of Tu-chung in a medium at the start of cultivation, ultrasound treatment (40 kHZ, 10 min) on 5-day culture, and addition of ethanol and sodium butyrate on Day 3, followed by cultivation for an additional period of 2 days. At the end of the cultivation period (5 days), the liquid phase was collected for product analysis. Cells were collected for the determination of gene expression levels and then used in bioconversion using resting cells for another period of 2 days. The liquid phase was measured to determine the output of the target products and the expression levels of the key genes related to the biosynthesis of these compounds. Consequently, co-culture with Alternaria MG1 and addition of Tu-chung bark in the medium efficiently increased Pin, PMG, and PDG production yield in the biosynthesis systems using potato dextrose broth medium and resting cells of Phomopsis sp. XP-8. The key genes related to the biosynthesis of these compounds were significantly upregulated. However, in the majority of cases, the addition of ethanol and sodium butyrate, and ultrasound treatment decreased the production yield of Pin, PMG, and PDG. The change in production yield was not consistently accompanied by a change in gene expression.

Crude enzyme from Geotrichum candidum S12 exhibited high activity towards hexanol at pH 4.0, distinguishing it from currently known enzymes. To identify the dominant enzyme contributing to this activity, the crude enzyme extract was separated into different fractions by ammonium sulfate precipitation, MonoQ anion-exchange chromatography, and Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration chromatography. Afraction with high activity towards hexanol at pH 4.0 was obtained, exhibiting 38-fold improved purity and a specific activity of 3802.7 U/mg. After electrophoretic analysis, the fraction showed a molecular weight of 223 kDa by Native-PAGE and 51.4 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The purified fraction was identified as a glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) by peptide mass fingerprinting data. This fraction showed high activity towards glutamate, α-ketoglutarate, hexanol, and isoamyl alcohol with a Km value of 41.74, 4.01, 20.37, and 19.37 mM, respectively, but with no activity towards methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, and isobutanol. As a comparison, the GDH from yeast had no activity towards hexanol and other alcohols. Kinetic analysis revealed that glutamate and hexanol served as competitive inhibitors to each other for the purified GDH. The GDH showed the highest activity towards hexanol at pH 4.0 and 30 °C, and was the most stable at pH 2.2–7.0 and ≤40 °C. The presence of ADP, Fe2+, K+, and Zn2+ increased the enzymatic activity towards hexanol and EDTA, Pb2+, Mn2+, ATP, and DTT decreased the activity. These novel characteristics expand the reported properties of GDH and suggest the newly characterized GDH has unique potential for practical application.

Pea peptides (PPs), as organic compounds, exhibit a variety of biological functions that make them useful for both the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders. This study focused on how PPs modified by steam explosion (SE-PP) may help to treat mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-mediated glucose metabolism disorders. The experimental results indicate that both the 100 mg/kg BW SE-PP (SE-PPL group) and 400 mg/kg BW SE-PP (SE-PPH group) experienced substantial decreases in body weight, epididymal and inguinal fat mass, and blood glucose levels of obese mice (notably, the body weight of the SE-PPH group was decreased by 33.13% when compared with that of the HFD group (p < 0.05)). By stimulating the IRS-1/PI3K/AKT signaling system, SE-PP controlled glucose metabolism disorder in adipose tissue, while also inhibiting the TLR4/MYD88/NF-κB pathway to reduce inflammation. Furthermore, SE-PP restored the diversity of the gut microbiota destroyed by HFD. SE-PPH increased the Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio from 0.042 to 0.26 (p < 0.05), which is a key indicator of microbiota balance. In addition, SE-PP enhanced the synthesis of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as isovalerate, propionate, and acetate, which are essential for maintaining intestinal homeostasis and improving metabolic health (supplementation of SE-PPH increased the levels of total SCFAs by 49.87% in obese mice (p < 0.05)).

To investigate the binding properties of 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde with human serum albumin, as well as the structural changes of human serum albumin under a simulated physiological pH value (a pH of 7.4) and a high 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde concentration, a series of techniques, i.e., fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, ultraviolet-visible absorption, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and molecular docking simulation, were employed. Steady state fluorescence showed that 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde quenched the intrinsic fluorescence of human serum albumin via a static mechanism. The 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde-human serum albumin complex had a strong affinity (Kb = 105 M-1) at various temperatures. It was shown that 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde was bound to the IB subdomain of human serum albumin primarily via hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces at high 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde concentrations, based on the results of the thermodynamic and molecular docking. Furthermore, the fluorescence emission spectrum and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that the binding distance between 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde and human serum albumin was 4.42 nm. In addition, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde induced conformational changes of human serum albumin. These findings provide reasonable evidence for further understanding the distribution of 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde when it spreads into human blood serum, which may be helpful in food and medicine research.

The impact of spacer on the single event response of SOI FinFET at 14 nm technology node is investigated. Based on the device TCAD model, well-calibrated by the experimental data, it is found that the spacer presents the enhancement on single event transient (SET) compared with no spacer configuration. For single spacer configuration, due to enhanced gate control capability and fringing field, the increments in SET current peak and collected charge for HfO₂ are the least with 2.21%, 0.97%, respectively. Four possible dual ferroelectric spacer configurations are proposed. The placement of ferroelectric spacer at S side and HfO₂ spacer at D side brings to weaken SET with the variation in current peak and collected charge by 6.93%, 1.86%, respectively. The reason may be its enhanced gate controllability over the S/D extension region, which improves the driven current. With linear energy transfer increasing, SET current peak and collected charge present the trend of increase while the bipolar amplification coefficient reduces.