DIVERSIFY: A Fungal Multispecies Gene Expression Platform

Recent sequencing of numerous fungal species revealed large repertoires of putative biotechnologically relevant genes and secondary metabolite gene clusters. However, often the commercial potential of these species is impeded by difficulties to predict host physiological and metabolic compatibility with a given product, and lack of adequate genetic tools. Consequently, most heterologous production is performed in standard hosts where genetic tools and experience are in place. However, these species may not be suitable for all products. To increase chances of successful heterologous production, we have created a flexible platform, DIVERSIFY, for multispecies heterologous gene expression. This reduces the workload to construction of a single gene expression cassette, used to transform all DIVERSIFY strains in order to identify the optimal cell factory host. As proof of principle of the DIVERSIFY concept, we present the first version of our platform, DIVERSIFY 1.0, which we have successfully used for the production of three proteins and a metabolite in four different Aspergilli species, and for the identification of the best producer for each of the products. Moreover, we show that DIVERSIFY 1.0 is compatible with marker-free gene targeting induced by the CRISPR nucleases Cas9 and MAD7.

MMPI response-set characteristics among adolescents

This study examined the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MPPI) profile characteristics for five different response sets in adolescent populations employing adolescent MMPI norms. In general, findings for "all-true" and "all-false" adolescent profiles were highly similar in shape and elevation to those reported in the adult literature (Graham, 1977; Lachar, 1974), whereas random profiles on adolescent norms differed substantially from adult-norm random profiles in shape but not elevation. The characteristics of "fake good" or "fake bad" response sets were investigated by the use of adolescent subjects in two settings. Ninety-four public high-school students were administered the MMPI with standard and "fake bad" instructions, and 24 adolescents in inpatient psychiatric treatment were administered the MMPI under standard and "fake good" instructions. The MMPI profiles generated by special instructional sets were analyzed in relation to the subject's age, sex, race, and actual MMPI profile features. Findings indicated that although sex and race effects were evident in normal adolescents' attempts to simulate psychopathology on the MMPI, teenagers generally produce profiles containing grossly exaggerated symptom patterns that are relatively easy to detect as invalid. In contrast, it was found that a substantial number of psychiatrically disturbed adolescents may effectively simulate normal profiles and that effectiveness in these attempts was related to greater age and lower actual MMPI T-score values on the Hs and Hy scales.