Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Biotechnology in 2006"

TL;DR: The recent assembly and characterization of maize association mapping panels, development of improved statistical methods, and successful association of candidate genes have begun to realize the power of candidate-gene association mapping.

TL;DR: This work has shown that molecular tailoring of genes has the potential to overcome a number of limitations in creating drought-tolerant transgenic plants and has led to practical approaches for engineering drought tolerance in plants.

TL;DR: This work has discovered microorganisms that conserve energy to support their growth by completely oxidizing organic compounds to carbon dioxide with direct electron transfer to electrodes, which suggests that self-sustaining microbial fuel cells that can effectively convert a diverse range of waste organic matter or renewable biomass to electricity are feasible.

TL;DR: The advent of high-throughput structural genomics programs and advances in cloning and expression technology afford a new way to compare the effectiveness of solubility tags, and this data should allow us to better predict theeffectiveness of tags currently in use, and might also provide the information needed to identify new fusion tags.

TL;DR: The recent determination of the genome sequence for P. stipitis is important, as its genome characteristics and regulatory patterns could serve as guides for further development in this natural xylose-fermenting yeast or in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

TL;DR: Control of microbial growth in drinking water distribution systems, often achieved through the addition of disinfectants, is essential to limiting waterborne illness, particularly in immunocompromised subpopulations.

TL;DR: Comparative genomic and metagenomic analyses of a few representatives of the PVC superphylum revealed many unusual features and generated unexpected hypotheses regarding their physiology, and offered new insights into the evolutionary history of this peculiar group of microbes.

TL;DR: The identification of such factors and studies of these processes hold great promise for the future of plant biotechnology and plant genetic engineering, as they might help in the development of conceptually new techniques and approaches needed today to expand the host range of Agrobacterium.

TL;DR: A series of new technologies have recently been developed that allow peptides to be viable drug candidates in areas usually restricted to protein therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies, and have helped to improve peptide stability and further their therapeutic potential.

TL;DR: Complementary approaches using host cell in vitro systems together with animal models and human volunteers are revealing specific intestinal cell responses to probiotics, starting to provide insight into the ways probiotic bacteria sense and adapt to the gastro-intestinal tract environment.

TL;DR: High-throughput SPR methods give users new and improved methods to analyze pathways, screen drug candidates and monitor protein-protein interactions.

TL;DR: Recent advances in plant genetic engineering could reduce biomass conversion costs by developing crop varieties with less lignin, crops that self-produce cellulase enzymes for cellulose degradation and lign inase enzymes in microbial tanks, or plants that have increased cellulose or an overall biomass yield.

TL;DR: A new interdisciplinary field has emerged that aims to combine functional DNA biology with nanotechnology to generate more dynamic and controllable DNA-based nanostructures or DNA-templated nanomaterials that are responsive to chemical stimuli.

TL;DR: The development of catalyst systems that are highly stable and efficient, capable of self-targeting or that function as molecular machines to catalyze multiple reactions is rapidly reshaping the vision of biocatalysts.

TL;DR: Genetic engineering is entering a new era, where microorganisms can be programmed using synthetic constructs of DNA encoding logic and operational commands, and engineering theory will provide a predictive framework to design operational multicomponent systems.

TL;DR: H harnessing the activity of naturally occurring bacteria, particularly the power of anaerobic reductive processes, is a promising approach to restore contaminated subsurface environments, protect drinking water reservoirs and to safeguard ecosystem health.

TL;DR: In this article, a static map is generated that includes many of the protein networks that occur in vivo using large-scale yeast two-hybrid screens, which are proving useful as a framework around which to elaborate and model the in vivo interactome.

TL;DR: Several expression systems are currently being explored as alternatives to mammalian cell culture, these include yeast, plant and insect expression systems, each of which has different merits for the production of therapeutic glycoproteins and can lead to enhanced therapeutic efficiency.

TL;DR: Several advances in the use of cell-free expression systems to produce proteins for functional and structural biology studies have been reported, and the wheat germ based system is of special interest for its eukaryotic nature.

TL;DR: Genetic studies to obtain improved biocatalysts for the selective removal of sulfur and nitrogen from petroleum provide the focus of current research efforts.

TL;DR: A growing number of protein interactions are found to be mediated by a large globular region in one protein binding to a comparatively short, peptide stretch in another, suggesting that the fraction of interactions mediated by these regions is greater than previously anticipated.

TL;DR: The scope of FISH-MAR was extended by rendering it quantitative and by combining it with microelectrode measurements or stable isotope probing, and isotope arrays have also been developed that exploit the parallel detection offered by DNA microarrays to measure incorporation of labelled substrate into the rRNA of many community members in a single experiment.

TL;DR: Antibody arrays are valuable for the parallel analysis of multiple proteins in small sample volumes for biomarker discovery and biological studies and are being used to assist the development and characterization of antibodies.

TL;DR: The bioelectrocatalytic activities of the electrically wired reconstituted enzymes on electrodes have allowed the development of amperometric biosensors and biofuel cell elements.

TL;DR: Advances in DNA microarray synthesis technologies have facilitated the definition of DNA-binding sites at much higher resolution and coverage, and advances in these and emerging technologies will further increase the efficiencies of these exciting new approaches.

TL;DR: The approach involves the study of individual bioprocess operations at the microlitre scale using either microwell or microfluidic formats to generate quantitative biopROcess information early on, so as to inform biocatalyst design and speed translation to the manufacturing scale.

TL;DR: The first demonstration of a DNA-SIP-based metagenome analysis has paved the way for hypothesis-driven studies in environmental genomics, with higher sensitivities, shorter incubation times, and more relevant substrate concentrations than used previously.

TL;DR: The combination of multiple approaches, coupled with phenotypic response measurements, computational modeling and biochemical manipulations, will ultimately reveal the mechanistic regulation of signaling networks.

TL;DR: Despite recent advances in the characterization of the diversity of freshwater microorganisms, knowledge essential for a holistic understanding of their ecological roles is still lacking.

TL;DR: The ability of bacteria to sense their surroundings can be employed to measure the bioavailability and toxicity of pollutants, but long-term maintenance of both viability and activity of the sensor bacteria is required for the development of cell-based devices for environmental monitoring.