An anode can include: an electrode substrate; a first region of the substrate having a catalyst composition located thereon, wherein the catalyst composition includes an inorganic or metallic catalyst; and a second region of the substrate having an enzyme composition located thereon, wherein the combination of the catalyst composition and enzyme composition converts a fuel reagent to carbon dioxide at neutral pH. The first region and second region can be separate regions. The catalyst of the catalyst composition can include gold nanoparticles. The catalyst can include an inorganic or metallic catalyst selected from vanadium oxide, titanium (III) chloride, Pd(OAc).sub.2, MnO, zeolite, alumina, graphitic carbon, palladium, platinum, gold, ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, or combinations thereof. The catalyst can be nanoparticle, nanorod, nanodot, or combination thereof. The catalyst can have sizes that range from about 10 to 20 nm.

The invention relates to methods for identifying polypeptides and polynucleotides of interest, be they novel or variant polypeptides and polynucleotides, by expressing a plurality of polypeptides in an obligate or facultative anaerobe that is incapable of, or displays a reduction in, the oxidation of NADH and/or NADPH under anaerobic fermentation conditions and selecting an obligate or facultative anaerobe that grows or displays a growth advantage under said conditions. The invention is also concerned with novel enzymes per se, and their use in enzymatic production processes.

Described herein are biological devices and methods for using the same to produce oxidized zinc. The biological devices include microbial cells transformed with a DNA construct containing genes for producing a zinc-related protein, an alkaline phosphatase, and an alcohol dehydrogenase. In some instances, the biological devices also include a gene for lipase. The oxidized zinc compositions produced herein have numerous applications.

Pichia pastoris alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (ADH2) promoter variants include at least one of the specified modifications on wild-type Pichia pastoris ADH2 promoter (SEQ ID NO: 1). The modification includes one of the following mutations: integration of a Cat8 transcription factor binding site (TFBS), particularly integration of SEQ ID NO: 3 or other gene sequences that show at least 80% similarity with this sequence, at any positions within nucleotides a) 647 to 660; b) 739 to 752; c) 1 to 948; and d) mutations specified with SEQ ID NO: 2 within nucleotides 15 to 848 separately and combinations thereof.

The present invention relates to a yeast cell, in particular a recombinant yeast cell, the cell lacking enzymatic activity needed for the NADH-dependent glycerol synthesis or the cell having a reduced enzymatic activity with respect to the NADH-dependent glycerol synthesis compared to its corresponding wild-type yeast cell, the cell comprising one or more heterologous nucleic acid sequences encoding an NAD.sup.+-dependent acetylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.10) activity. The invention further relates to the use of a cell according to the invention in the preparation of ethanol.

The present invention relates to a yeast cell, in particular a recombinant yeast cell, the cell lacking enzymatic activity needed for the NADH-dependent glycerol synthesis or the cell having a reduced enzymatic activity with respect to the NADH-dependent glycerol synthesis compared to its corresponding wild-type yeast cell, the cell comprising one or more heterologous nucleic acid sequences encoding an NAD.sup.+-dependent acetylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.10) activity. The invention further relates to the use of a cell according to the invention in the preparation of ethanol.

An engineered bacterium for producing ethanol from one or more carbohydrates is disclosed. The bacterium can be made by (a) inactivating within a Lactobacillus casei bacterium one or more endogenous genes encoding a lactate dehydrogenase; or (b) introducing into a Lactobacillus casei bacterium one or more exogenous genes encoding a pyruvate decarboxylase and one or more exogenous genes encoding an alcohol dehydrogenase II; or (c) performing both steps (a) and (b). The resulting engineered bacterium produces significantly more ethanol than the wild-type Lactobacillus casei bacterium, and can be used in producing ethanol from a substrate such as biomass that includes carbohydrates.

Methods and compositions for the oxidation of short alkanes by engineered microorganisms expressing enzymes are described, along with methods of use.

Provided herein are biocatalytic methods of producing terpene compounds by applying a novel type of phosphatase enzyme. The method allows the fully biochemical synthesis of terpene compounds, like for example copalol and labdendiol, and derivatives thereof, which serve as valuable intermediates for the production of perfumery ingredients, such as, for example, ambrox. Also provided are novel fully biochemical multistep processes for the production of such compounds as well as novel phosphatase enzymes and mutants and variants derived therefrom.

The technical field of preparation of organic compounds, and particularly to yeasts producing tyrosol or hydroxytyrosol and construction methods thereof. PcAAS and ADH-encoding DNA sequences are introduced into the yeast strain BY4741, to obtain a PcAAS-ADH recombinant yeast producing tyrosol. A PDC1 knockout cassette and a TyrA expression cassette are introduced into the PcAAS-ADH recombinant yeast to obtain a PcAAS-ADH-ΔPDC1-TyrA recombinant yeast producing tyrosol. A HpaBC encoding DNA sequence is introduced into the PcAAS-ADH-ΔPDC1-TyrA recombinant yeast, to obtain a PcAAS-ADH-HpaBC-ΔPDC1-TyrA recombinant yeast producing hydroxytyrosol. The construction of a tyrosol or hydroxytyrosol biosynthesis pathway in the yeast strain BY4741 enhances the production of tyrosol or hydroxytyrosol.