Antibiotic pollution is becoming an increasingly serious threat in different regions of China. The distribution of antibiotics in water sources varies significantly in time and space, corresponding to the amount of antibiotics used locally. The main source of this contamination in the aquatic environment is wastewater from antibiotic manufacturers, large scale animal farming, and hospitals. In response to the excessive antibiotic contamination in the water environment globally, environmentally friendly alternatives to antibiotics are being developed to reduce their use. Furthermore, researchers have developed various antibiotic treatment techniques for the degradation of antibiotics, such as physical adsorption, chemical oxidation, photodegradation, and biodegradation. Among them, biodegradation is receiving increasing attention because of its low cost, ease of operation, and lack of secondary pollution. Antibiotic degradation by enzymes could become the key strategy of management of antibiotics pollution in the environment in future. This review summarizes research on the distribution of antibiotics in China’s aquatic environments and different techniques for the degradation of antibiotics. Special attention is paid to their degradation by various enzymes. The adverse effects of the pollutants and need for more effective monitoring and mitigating pollution are also highlighted.

In order to elucidate the effect of flexible linker length on the catalytic efficiency of fusion proteins, two short flexible peptide linkers of various lengths were fused between Arabidopsis thaliana 4-coumaroyl-CoA ligase (4CL) and Polygonum cuspidatum stilbene synthase (STS) to generate fusion proteins 4CL–(GSG)_n–STS (n ≤ 5) and 4CL–(GGGGS)_n–STS (n ≤ 4). The fusion proteins were expressed in both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and their bioactivities were tested in vitro and in vivo using purified proteins and engineered strains, respectively. The catalytic efficiency of the fusions decreased gradually with the increase of GSG or GGGGS repeats. In both engineered S. cerevisiae and E. coli in vivo experiments, the capacity of resveratrol production decreased gradually with increasing linker length. In silico analysis showed that the prediction of homology models of fusion proteins was consistent with the in vitro and in vivo results.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in plant development. However, the information of lncRNAs in Jatropha curcas remains largely unexplored. Thus, an attempt has been made in J. curcas to identify 1,850 lncRNAs based on deep sequencing of developing seeds at three typical stages. About ten percent lncRNAs (196 lncRNAs) were differentially expressed lncRNAs during seed developing process. Together with reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR, the lncRNA expression analyses revealed the stage-specific expression patterns of some novel lncRNAs in J. curcas. The target genes of lncRNAs were annotated for their roles in various biological processes such as gene expression, metabolism, and cell growth. Besides, 10 lncRNAs were identified as the precursors of microRNAs and 26 lncRNAs were predicted to be the targets of Jatropha miRNAs. A total of 31 key lncRNAs play critical roles in the seed developing process in the context of cell growth and development, lipid metabolism, and seed maturation. Our study provides the first systematic study of lncRNAs in the developing seeds of J. curcas and facilitates the functional research of plant lncRNAs and the regulation of seed development.