Laccases are blue multicopper oxidases, which catalyze the monoelectronic oxidation of a broad spectrum of substrates, for example, ortho- and para-diphenols, polyphenols, aminophenols, and aromatic or aliphatic amines, coupled with a full, four-electron reduction of O₂ to H₂O. Hence, they are capable of degrading lignin and are present abundantly in many white-rot fungi. Laccases decolorize and detoxify the industrial effluents and help in wastewater treatment. They act on both phenolic and nonphenolic lignin-related compounds as well as highly recalcitrant environmental pollutants, and they can be effectively used in paper and pulp industries, textile industries, xenobiotic degradation, and bioremediation and act as biosensors. Recently, laccase has been applied to nanobiotechnology, which is an increasing research field, and catalyzes electron transfer reactions without additional cofactors. Several techniques have been developed for the immobilization of biomolecule such as micropatterning, self-assembled monolayer, and layer-by-layer techniques, which immobilize laccase and preserve their enzymatic activity. In this review, we describe the fungal source of laccases and their application in environment protection.

The main objective of this paper is to optimize biosurfactant production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa 2297 with statistical approaches. Biosurfactant production from P. aeruginosa 2297 was carried out with different carbon sources, and maximum yield was achieved with sawdust followed by groundnut husk and glycerol. The produced biosurfactant has showed active emulsification and surface-active properties. From the kinetic growth modeling, the specific growth rate was calculated on sawdust and it was 1.12 day⁻¹. The maximum estimated value of product yield on biomass growth (Y_p/x) was 1.02 g/g. The important medium components identified by the Plackett–Burman method were sawdust and glycerol along with culture parameter pH. Box–Behnken response surface methodology was applied to optimize biosurfactant production. The obtained experimental result concludes that Box–Behnken designs are very effective statistical tools to improve biosurfactant production. These results may be useful to develop a high efficient production process of biosurfactant. In addition, this type of kinetic modeling approach may constitute a useful tool to design and scaling-up of bioreactors for the production of biosurfactant.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. Maximum safe resection, postoperative craniospinal irradiation, and chemotherapy are the standard of care for MB patients. MB is classified into four subgroups: Shh, Wnt, Group 3, and Group 4. Of these subgroups, patients with Myc+ Group 3 MB have the worst prognosis, necessitating alternative therapies. There is increasing interest in targeting epigenetic modifiers for treating pediatric cancers, including MB. Using an RNAi functional genomic screen, we identified the lysine methyltransferase SMYD3, as a crucial epigenetic regulator that drives the growth of Group 3 Myc+ MB cells. We demonstrated that SMYD3 directly binds to the cyclin D3 promoter to activate its transcription. Further, SMYD3 depletion significantly reduced MB cell proliferation and led to the downregulation of cyclin D3, cyclin D1, pRBSer795, with concomitant upregulations in RB in vitro. Similar results were obtained following pharmacological inhibition of SMYD3 using BCI-121 ex vivo. SMYD3 knockdown also promoted cyclin D1 ubiquitination, indicating that SMYD3 plays a vital role in stabilizing the cyclin D1 protein. Collectively, our studies demonstrate that SMYD3 drives cell cycle progression in Group 3 Myc+ MB cells and that targeting SMYD3 has the potential to improve clinical outcomes for high-risk patients.

The aim of the present study was to assess the antiviral and larvicidal property of the marine actinobacterial compound extracted from Nocardia albaKC710971. The compounds were tested...