Production of Lectins from Marine Algae: Current Status, Challenges, and Opportunities for Non-Destructive Extraction

Marine algae are an excellent source of novel lectins. The isolation of lectins from marine algae expands the diversity in structure and carbohydrate specificities of lectins isolated from other sources. Marine algal lectins have been reported to have antiviral, antitumor, and antibacterial activity. Lectins are typically isolated from marine algae by grinding the algal tissue with liquid nitrogen and extracting with buffer and alcohol. While this method produces higher yields, it may not be sustainable for large-scale production, because a large amount of biomass is required to produce a minute amount of compound, and a significant amount of waste is generated during the extraction process. Therefore, non-destructive extraction using algal culture water could be used to ensure a continuous supply of lectins without exclusively disrupting the marine algae. This review discusses the traditional and recent advancements in algal lectin extraction methods over the last decade, as well as the steps required for large-scale production. The challenges and prospects of various extraction methods (destructive and non-destructive) are also discussed.

Effect of cultural conditions on the production of radicinin, a specific fungal phytotoxin for buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) biocontrol, by different Cochlioboulus australiensis strains

Radicinin is a phytotoxic fungal dihydropyranopyran-4,5-dione under evaluation for the development of a target-specific bioherbicide for invasive buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) control. It has already demonstrated high toxicity on host plants, low toxicity to native plants and no negative effects on zebrafish embryos. To continue these studies at the whole-plant level there is a need to obtain much larger quantities of radicinin, either by optimizing its large-scale production by fungal fermentation or through its total stereoselective synthesis. A rapid and sensitive HPLC method for quantification of radicinin in complex mixtures has been developed in order to evaluate its production by different Cochliobolus australiensis strains and in different cultural conditions. The analysis proved that radicinin is not produced by all the strains tested and its synthesis is strongly affected by cultural conditions. The HPLC method could be useful in selecting the best fungal source for the production of this promising potential bioherbicide.

Mesoderm Lineage 3D Tissue Constructs Are Produced at Large-Scale in a 3D Stem Cell Bioprocess

Various studies have presented different approaches to direct pluripotent stem cell differentiation such as applying defined sets of exogenous biochemical signals and genetic/epigenetic modifications. Although differentiation to target lineages can be successfully regulated, such conventional methods are often complicated, laborious, and not cost-effective to be employed to the large-scale production of 3D stem cell-based tissue constructs. A 3D-culture platform that could realize the large-scale production of mesoderm lineage tissue constructs from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is developed. ESCs are cultured using our previously established 3D-bioprocess platform which is amenable to mass-production of 3D ESC-based tissue constructs. Hepatocarcinoma cell line conditioned medium is introduced to the large-scale 3D culture to provide a specific biomolecular microenvironment to mimic in vivo mesoderm formation process. After 5 days of spontaneous differentiation period, the resulting 3D tissue constructs are composed of multipotent mesodermal progenitor cells verified by gene and molecular expression profiles. Subsequently the optimal time points to trigger terminal differentiation towards cardiomyogenesis or osteogenesis from the mesodermal tissue constructs is found. A simple and affordable 3D ESC-bioprocess that can reach the scalable production of mesoderm origin tissues with significantly improved correspondent tissue properties is demonstrated.

Simple Purification of Adeno-Associated Virus-DJ for Liver-Specific Gene Expression

Recombinant gene expression using adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) has become a valuable tool in animal studies, as they mediate safe expression of transduced genes for several months. The liver is a major organ of metabolism, and liver-specific expression of a gene can be an invaluable tool for metabolic studies. AAV-DJ is a recombinant AAV generated by the gene shuffling of various AAV serotypes and shares characteristics of AAV2 and AAV8. AAV-DJ contains a heparin-binding domain in its capsid, which suggests that a heparin column could be used for the purification of the AAV. Given that AAV-DJ has been only recently available, relatively little is known about the optimal preparation/purification and application of AAV-DJ. Here, we present a simple large-scale preparation method that can generate 3×10¹³ viral particles for in vivo experiments and demonstrate liver-specific gene expression via systemic injection in mice.

High-Performance Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composite Fiber from Layer-by-Layer Deposition

So far, preparation of high-performance carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composites still faces big challenges mainly due to the limited control of CNT dispersion, fraction, and alignment in polymers. Here, a new "layer-by-layer deposition" method is put forward for preparing CNT/polymer composite fibers using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as an exemplary polymer. This is based on the continuous production of a hollow cylindrical CNT assembly from a high temperature reactor and its shrinking by a PVA-containing solution and deposition on a removable substrate wire. The in situ mixing of the two composite components at the molecular level allows CNTs to disperse and PVA to infiltrate into the fiber efficiently. As a result, remarkable effects of the CNT reinforcement on the PVA matrix are observed, including a strength improvement from ∼50 to 1255 MPa and electrical conductivity from ∼0 to 1948 S cm(-1). The new method offers good controllability of CNT dispersion and fraction in the polymer matrix, variability for making composite fibers using different polymers, and suitability for scaled up production. This study thus provides a new research direction for preparing CNT-reinforced composites and future performance maximization.