A composition includes two exogenous enzymes from animals for consumption by human beings to prevent, treat and/or alleviate veisalgia and/or symptoms associated therewith arising from or caused by consumption or spontaneous production of alcohol through a dual-enzyme based breakdown of the alcohol, wherein a first enzyme of the two exogenous enzymes is capable of converting alcohol into a first metabolite while a second enzyme thereof is capable of converting the first metabolite into a second metabolite which is excretable to systemic circulation after an oxidation reaction of the alcohol in the presence of the two exogenous enzymes and NAD.sup.+/NADH, and wherein the first enzyme to the second enzyme is in a molar ratio of 1:3-51 in the composition in order to avoid an elevation in the level of the first metabolite in the human being.

Disclosed are transaminase (TA) enzymes and nucleic acids encoding them. In some cases, the transaminase enzymes are non-natural, engineered transaminases. Also disclosed are biosynthetic methods and engineered microorganisms that enhance or improve the biosynthesis of 6-aminocaproate, hexamethylenediamine, caproic acid, caprolactone, or caprolactam. The engineered microorganisms include exogenous TA and in some cases engineered TA.

Host cells that are engineered to produce benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIAs) precursors, such as norcoclaurine (NC) and norlaudanosoline (NL), are provided. The host cells may have one or more engineered modifications selected from: a feedback inhibition alleviating mutation in a enzyme gene; a transcriptional modulation modification of a biosynthetic enzyme gene, an inactivating mutation in an enzyme; and a heterologous coding sequence. Also provided are methods of producing a BIA of interest or a precursor thereof using the host cells and compositions, e.g., kits, systems etc., that find use in methods of the invention.

The present application relates to recombinant microorganisms useful in the biosynthesis of unsaturated C.sub.6-C.sub.24 fatty alcohols, aldehydes, and acetates which may be useful as insect pheromones, fragrances, flavors, and polymer intermediates. The C.sub.6-C.sub.24 fatty alcohols, aldehydes, and acetates described herein may be used as substrates for metathesis reactions to expand the repertoire of target compounds and pheromones. The application further relates to recombinant microorganisms co-expressing a pheromone pathway and a pathway for the production of a toxic protein, peptide, oligonucleotide, or small molecule suitable for use in an attract-and-kill pest control approach. Also provided are methods of producing unsaturated C.sub.6-C.sub.24 fatty alcohols, aldehydes, and acetates using the recombinant microorganisms, as well as compositions comprising the recombinant microorganisms and/or optionally one or more of the product alcohols, aldehydes, or acetates.

The present invention provides for the manipulation of carbon flux in a recombinant host cell to increase the formation of desirable products. The invention relates to cellulose-digesting organisms that have been genetically modified to allow the production of ethanol at a high yield by redirecting carbon flux at key steps of central metabolism.

The present invention relates to a mutant cyanobacterium and a method to increase photosynthetic growth and/or biomass production of cyanobacteria by using the same.

A method of directly microbially converting a plant oil, an animal fat, free fatty acid, or a combination thereof to wax esters includes growing a yeast or bacterial strain in a medium comprising the plant oil, the animal fat, the free fatty acid, or combination thereof, under conditions suitable to produce the wax esters, wherein the yeast or bacterial strain is engineered to express a FAR gene encoding fatty acid alcohol reductase and a WS gene encoding a wax ester synthase, and optionally isolating the produced wax esters. Similar methods of directly microbially converting a plant oil, an animal fat, free fatty acid, or a combination thereof to omega-3 fatty acids by growing a microorganism in a medium comprising the plant oil, the animal fat, the free fatty acid, or combination thereof, under conditions suitable to produce omega-3 fatty acids are also described.

The subject invention relates in one aspect to an oxalate degrading composition, which includes at least one oxalate degrading enzyme. The composition includes an enriched insoluble component of fungal bio sample, and the composition is effective to degrade oxalate at a pH of 1.9 or higher. The composition is protected from protease degradation such as pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin. The composition is capable of withstanding the conditions of the stomach, small intestines, and/or large intestines of a subject.

The disclosure relates to polypeptides having carboxylic acid reductase (CAR) activity, including enzymes that catalyse the irreversible reduction of carboxylic acids, such as pimelic acid and adipic acid, to their respective semialdehydes. The enzymes have been engineered to have higher activity over a corresponding wild type enzyme. Provided herein are novel polypeptides and uses thereof related to the same.

Transgenic seed for crops with improved traits are provided by trait-improving recombinant DNA where plants grown from such transgenic seed exhibit one or more improved traits as compared to a control plant. Exemplary recombinant DNA expresses a succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase.