Sucrose phosphorylase (SPase), a member of the glycoside hydrolase GH13 family, possesses the ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of sucrose to generate α-glucose-1-phosphate and can also glycosylate diverse substrates, showcasing a wide substrate specificity. This enzyme has found extensive utility in the fields of food, medicine, and cosmetics, and has garnered significant attention as a focal point of research in transglycosylation enzymes. Nevertheless, SPase encounters numerous obstacles in industrial settings, including low enzyme yield, inadequate thermal stability, mixed regioselectivity, and limited transglycosylation activity. In-depth exploration of efficient expression strategies and molecular modifications based on the crystal structure and functional information of SPase is now a critical research priority. This paper systematically reviews the source microorganisms, crystal structure, and catalytic mechanism of SPase, summarizes diverse heterologous expression systems based on expression hosts and vectors, and examines the application and molecular modification progress of SPase in synthesizing typical glycosylated products. Additionally, it anticipates the broad application prospects of SPase in industrial production and related research fields, laying the groundwork for its engineering modification and industrial application.

Sucrose phosphorylase (SPase) is a member of the glycoside hydrolase family 13, catalyzing the reversible phosphorolysis of sucrose to produce α–glucose–1–phosphate and exhibiting transglycosylation activity toward multiple substrates. Its wide substrate specificity enables the synthesis of various glycosides, which are broadly applied in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. However, the industrial application of SPase is constrained by its poor thermostability and limited transglycosylation activity. Therefore, current research focuses on enhancing the thermostability and transglycosylation activity of SPase through efficient engineering strategies based on its crystal structure and catalytic mechanism. This paper systematically reviews the crystal structure and catalytic mechanism of SPase, outlines the application of protein engineering and immobilization strategies in improving the thermostability of SPase, and analyzes how modifications at key amino acid sites affect the synthesis of typical glycosylation products. It also summarizes the limitations of SPase engineering modification strategies and explores the potential of diversified approaches for SPase modification, highlighting its broad application prospects in industrial production and laying a solid foundation for further advancements in SPase engineering modification and its industrial application.

Pentostatin (PNT), a nucleoside antibiotic with a 1,3-diazo ring structure, is distributed in several actinomycetes and fungi species. Its special structure makes PNT possess a wide spectrum of biological and pharmacological properties, such as antibacterial, antitrypanosomal, anticancer, antiviral, herbicidal, insecticidal, and immunomodulatory effects. Because of the promising adenosine deaminase inhibitory activity of PNT, its extensive application in the clinical treatment of malignant tumors has been extensively studied. However, the fermentation level of microbial-derived PNT is low and cannot meet medical needs. Because the biosynthesis pathway of PNT is obscure, only high-yield mutant screening and optimization of medium components and fermentation processes have been conducted for enhancing its production. Recently, the biosynthesis pathways of PNT in actinomycetes and fungi hosts have been revealed successively, and the large-scale production of PNT by systematic metabolic engineering will become an inevitable trend. Therefore, this review covers all aspects of PNT research, in which major advances in understanding the resource microorganisms, mechanism of action, and biosynthesis pathway of PNT were achieved and diverse clinical applications of PNT were emphasized, and it will lay the foundation for commercial transformation and industrial technology of PNT based on systematic metabolic engineering.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a powerful greenhouse gas that degrades ozone. Hypoxia and ocean acidification are becoming more intense as a result of climate change. The former stimulates N₂O emissions, whereas the effects of the latter on N₂O production vary by the ocean. Hypoxia and ocean acidification may play a critical role in the evolution of future oceanic N₂O production. However, the interactive effects of hypoxia and ocean acidification on N₂O production remain unclear. We conducted a research cruise in the Bohai Sea of China to assess the occurrence of ocean acidification in the seasonal oxygen minimum zone of the sea and further conducted laboratory incubation experiments to determine the effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia on N₂O production. When pH decreased by 0.25, N₂O production decreased by 50.77 and 72.38%, respectively. In contrast, hypoxia had a positive impact; when dissolved oxygen (DO) decreased to 3.7 and 2.4 mg L⁻¹, N₂O production increased by 49.72 and 278.68%, respectively. The incubation experiments demonstrated that the coupling of ocean acidification and hypoxia significantly increased N₂O production, but, individually, there was an antagonistic relationship between the two. Structural equation modeling showed that the total effects of hypoxia treatment on N₂O production changes weakened the effects of ocean acidification, with overall positive effects. Generally speaking, our results suggest that N₂O production from the coastal waters of the Bohai Sea may increase under future climate change scenarios due to increasingly serious ocean acidification and hypoxia working in combination.

The special structure of pentostatin causes it to possess a wide spectrum of biological and pharmacological properties, and it has been extensively employed to treat malignant tumors and is the first-line treatment for hairy cell leukemia. Pentostatin is mainly distributed in several actinomycetes and fungi species. However, its low titer in microbes is not able to meet medical needs. Here, we report a strain improvement strategy based on combined atmospheric and room-temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis and ribosome engineering screening, as well as fermentation optimization, for enhanced pentostatin production. The original strain, Actinomadura sp. ATCC 39365, was treated with ARTP and screened by ribosome engineering to obtain one stable pentostatin high-yield mutant Actinomadura sp. S-15, which produced 86.35 mg/L pentostatin, representing a 33.79% increase compared to Actinomadura sp. ATCC 39365. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that pentostatin biosynthesis-related gene expression was significantly upregulated in Actinomadura sp. S-15. Then, to further enhance pentostatin production, the fermentation medium was optimized in flask culture and the pentostatin production of Actinomadura sp. S-15 reached 152.06 mg/L, which is the highest pentostatin production reported so far. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of combined ARTP mutation, ribosome engineering screening, and medium optimization for the enhancement of pentostatin production, and provide a methodology enabling the sustainable production of pentostatin on an industrial scale.

AA10 family lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (AA10 LPMOs) are mainly distributed in bacteria. Because of their characteristics of oxidative degradation of crystalline polysaccharides, such as cellulose and chitin, they have great application potential in industrial biomass conversion and have attracted wide attention. Efficient heterologous expression of LPMOs by recombinant engineering bacteria has become the main strategy for the industrial production of enzymes. The research progress of AA10 LPMOs’ heterologous expression systems was reviewed in this paper. The construction strategies of its diversified heterologous expression system were introduced based on the design and processing of the expression host, vector, and LPMOs gene. The effects of different expression systems on the soluble expression of LPMOs and the development direction of the construction of LPMOs’ heterologous expression systems were discussed. The broad application prospect of LPMOs in the biomass conversion and biofuel industry has been prospected.