The invention provides non-naturally occurring microbial organisms containing a fatty alcohol, fatty aldehyde or fatty acid pathway, wherein the microbial organisms selectively produce a fatty alcohol, fatty aldehyde or fatty acid of a specified length. Also provided are non-naturally occurring microbial organisms having a fatty alcohol, fatty aldehyde or fatty acid pathway, wherein the microbial organisms further include an acetyl-CoA pathway. In some aspects, the microbial organisms of the invention have select gene disruptions or enzyme attenuations that increase production of fatty alcohols, fatty aldehydes or fatty acids. The invention additionally provides methods of using the above microbial organisms to produce a fatty alcohol, a fatty aldehyde or a fatty acid.

The invention relates to uses and methods implementing a non-naturally occurring mutated arylsulfotransferase comprising (i) an amino acid substitution in at least one amino acid position selected among positions 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 33, 62, 97, 138, 195, 236, 239, 244, 263, and combinations thereof, wherein the position is relative to the amino acids sequence of rat arylsulfotransferase IV SEQ ID NO: 1, and (ii) an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity with amino acids sequence SEQ ID NO: 1 for sulfating a substrate. The mutated arylsulfotransferase may have a sulfotransferase activity for converting adenosine 3′,5′-bisphosphate (PAP) into 3′-phosphoadenosine-5′-phosphosulfate (PAPS) enhanced compared to the wild-type enzyme.

The present invention includes methods for preparing anticoagulant polysaccharides using several non-naturally occurring, engineered sulfotransferase enzymes that are designed to react with aryl sulfate compounds instead of the natural substrate, PAPS, to facilitate sulfo group transfer to polysaccharide sulfo group acceptors. Suitable aryl sulfate compounds include, but are not limited to, p-nitrophenyl sulfate or 4-nitrocatechol sulfate. Anticoagulant polysaccharides produced by methods of the present invention comprise N-, 3-O-, 6-O-sulfated glucosamine residues and 2-O sulfated hexuronic acid residues, have comparable anticoagulant activity compared to commercially-available anticoagulant polysaccharides, and can be utilized to form truncated anticoagulant polysaccharides having a reduced molecular weight.

The present disclosure provides a method for detecting L-serine based on cysteine desulfurase-containing living Escherichia coli cells, and belongs to the technical field of amino acid detection. The method includes the following steps: incubating an unknown sample with the cysteine desulfurase-containing living E. coli cells to produce a red substance, and qualitatively or semi-quantitatively detecting L-serine content in the unknown sample according to color changes of the red substance of the living E. coli cells, or quantitatively detecting L-serine content in the unknown sample by measuring absorbance of a lysate of the living E. coli cells. The detection method provided by the present disclosure is simple and convenient in process, few in reaction steps and stable in enzymatic activity of living cells.

In order to produce chondroitin sulfate in an animal-free manner, engineered E. coli host cells were modified so as to reduce expression of an endogenous gene for fructosyltransferase (kfoE); reduce expression of an endogenous gene for 3′-phosphoadenosine-5′-phosphosulfate reductase (cysH); and express one or more exogenous sulfotransferases. Expression of proteins forming ATP-binding cassette transporters were also reduced to limit export of glycosaminoglycans from the cells. The recombinant microorganisms are able produce all three components identified for chondroitin sulfate production—chondroitin, sulfate donor, and sulfotransferase. These modified E. coli are capable of complete, essentially one-step biosynthesis of chondroitin sulfate at a variety of sulfation levels from simple microbial media components and glucose. This is a major advantage over current production methods that depend on the natural distribution of chondroitin sulfate types in the animal tissue.

The present invention provides a 2-OST mutant exhibiting a high activity. Specifically, the present invention provides a 2-O-sulfation enzyme mutant, having a substitution of a leucine residue at position 321 with a basic amino acid residue in any one amino acid sequence of: (a) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) an amino acid sequence comprising one or several amino acid substitutions, deletions, insertions, or additions in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (c) an amino acid sequence having 90% or more identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (d) the amino acid sequence consisting of amino acid residues at positions 69 to 356 in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (e) an amino acid sequence comprising one or several amino acid substitutions, deletions, insertions, or additions in the amino acid sequence consisting of amino acid residues at positions 69 to 356 in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (f) an amino acid sequence having 90% or more identity to the amino acid sequence consisting of amino acid residues at positions 69 to 356 in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; and having a 2-O-sulfate transfer activity.

The present invention provides several non-naturally occurring sulfotransferase enzymes that have been engineered to react with aryl sulfate compounds as sulfo group donors, instead of the natural substrate 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphosulfate (PAPS), and with heparosan-based polysaccharides, particularly heparan sulfate, as sulfo group acceptors. Each of the engineered sulfotransferase enzymes have a biological activity characterized by the position within the heparosan-based polysaccharide that receives the sulfo group, including glucosaminyl N-sulfotransferase activity, hexuronyl 2-O sulfotransferase activity, glucosaminyl 6-O sulfotransferase activity, or glucosaminyl 3-O sulfotransferase activity. Methods of using the engineered sulfotransferases to produce sulfated heparosan-based polysaccharides, including polysaccharides having anticoagulant activity, are also provided.

The present invention relates to peptides, nucleic acids and cells for use in immunotherapeutic methods. In particular, the present invention relates to the immunotherapy of cancer. The present invention furthermore relates to tumor-associated cytotoxic T cell (CTL) peptide epitopes, alone or in combination with other tumor-associated peptides that serve as active pharmaceutical ingredients of vaccine compositions that stimulate anti-tumor immune responses. The present invention relates to 11 novel peptide sequences and their variants derived from HLA class I and class II molecules of human tumor cells that can be used in vaccine compositions for eliciting anti-tumor immune responses.

The invention relates to non-naturally occurring mutated arylsulfotransferases comprising (i) an amino acid substitution in at least one amino acid position selected among positions 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 33, 62, 97, 138, 195, 236, 239, 244, 263, and combinations thereof, wherein the position is relative to the amino acids sequence of rat arylsulfotransferase IV SEQ ID NO: 1 and (ii) an amino acid sequence having at least 60% sequence identity with amino acids sequence SEQ ID NO: 1. The mutated arylsulfotransferase may have a sulfotransferase activity for converting adenosine 3′,5′-bisphosphate (PAP) into 3′-phosphoadenosine-5′-phosphosulfate (PAPS) enhanced compared to the wild-type enzyme.

The invention provides a genetically modified bacterial cell capable of improved iron-sulfur cluster delivery, characterized by a modified gene encoding a mutant Iron Sulfur Cluster Regulator (IscR) as well as one or more transgenes encoding polypeptides that enhance the biosynthesis of either biotin, lipoic acid or thiamine. The invention provides a method for producing either biotin, lipoic acid or thiamine using the genetically modified bacterium of the invention; as well as for the use of the genetically modified bacterial cell for either biotin, lipoic acid or thiamine production.