Growth medium are disclosed for use in fermenting a marine microorganism. The medium comprise Potassium, Calcium, Strontium, Borate and Fluoride at specific concentrations. Alternatively, the growth medium comprises cobalt at specified concentrations or comprises vitamin B.sub.12 at specified concentrations. Methods of producing certain desired compound by fermentation of a marine microorganism are also disclosed.

The present disclosure provides engineered proline hydroxylase polypeptides for the production of hydroxylated compounds, polynucleotides encoding the engineered proline hydroxylases, host cells capable of expressing the engineered proline hydroxylases, and methods of using the engineered proline hydroxylases to prepare compounds useful in the production of active pharmaceutical agents.

The invention generally relates to methods of producing loline alkaloids or precursors thereof, expression constructs, and host cells useful for producing loline alkaloids or precursors thereof, and methods for producing loline alkaloids or precursors thereof in a host cell.

This disclosure relates to the isolation and sequencing of nucleic acid molecules that encode cytochrome P450 polypeptides from a Papaver somniferum cultivar; uses in the production of noscapine and identification of poppy cultivars that include genes that comprise said nucleic acid molecules.

The present invention is based on the discovery that certain fermentation products of the marine actinomycete strains CNB392 and CNB476 are effective inhibitors of hyperproliferative mammalian cells. The CNB392 and CNB476 strains lie within the family Micromonosporaceae, and the generic epithet Salinospora has been proposed for this obligate marine group. The reaction products produced by this strain are classified as salinosporamides, and are particularly advantageous in treating neoplastic disorders due to their low molecular weight, low IC.sub.50 values, high pharmaceutical potency, and selectivity for cancer cells over fungi.

The present disclosure provides engineered polypeptides having imine reductase activity, polynucleotides encoding the engineered imine reductases, host cells capable of expressing the engineered imine reductases, and methods of using these engineered polypeptides with a range of ketone and amine substrate compounds to prepare secondary and tertiary amine product compounds.

A method of demethylizing an opioid to a nor-opioid is provided. The method comprises contacting an opioid with at least one enzyme. Contacting the opioid with the at least one enzyme converts the opioid to a nor-opioid. A method of converting a nor-opioid to a nal-opioid is provided. The method comprises contacting a nor-opioid with at least one enzyme. Contacting the nor-opioid with the at least one enzyme converts the nor-opioid to a nal-opioid.

Disclosed are methods for converting an alkaloid substrate compound into a N-alkylated alkaloid product compound in the presence of an alkyl donor compound and catalytic quantities of an N-alkyltransferase enzyme capable of converting the alkaloid substrate into an alkylated product. The N-alkyltransferase is obtainable from Ephedra sinica.

A method of producing promorphinan, morphinan, nal-opioid, and nor-opioid alkaloid products through the increased conversion of a promorphinan alkaloid to a morphinan alkaloid. The method comprises contacting the promorphinan alkaloid with at least one enzyme. Contacting the promorphinan alkaloid with the at least one enzyme converts the promorphinan alkaloid to a morphinan alkaloid.

A modular and hierarchical DNA assembly platform for synthetic biology is described. This enabling technology, termed MIDAS (for Modular Idempotent DNA Assembly System), can precisely assemble multiple DNA fragments in a single reaction using a standardised assembly design. It can be used to build genes from libraries of sequence-verified, reusable parts and to assemble multiple genes in a single vector. We describe the design and use of MIDAS, and its application in the reconstruction of the metabolic pathway for production of paspaline, a key intermediate in the biosynthesis of a range of indole diterpenesa class of economically important secondary metabolites produced by several species of filamentous fungi.