The present disclosure discloses an alcohol dehydrogenase mutant and application thereof in synthesis of diaryl chiral alcohols, and belongs to the technical field of bioengineering. The alcohol dehydrogenase mutant of the present disclosure has excellent catalytic activity and stereoselectivity, and may efficiently catalyze the preparation of a series of chiral diaryl alcohols in R- and S-configurations. By coupling alcohol dehydrogenase of the present disclosure to glucose dehydrogenase or formate dehydrogenase, the synthesis of chiral diaryl alcohol intermediates of various antihistamines may be achieved. Compared with the prior art, a method for preparing diaryl chiral alcohols through asymmetric catalytic reduction using the alcohol dehydrogenase of the present disclosure has the advantages of simple and convenient operation, high substrate concentration, complete reaction and high product purity, and has great industrial application prospects.

A non-naturally occurring microorganism having a 1,3-BDO pathway is provided. The microorganism expresses at least one of the following 1,3-BDO pathway enzymes: an aldolase that catalyzes condensation of two acetaldehydes to produce 3-hydroxybutanal; and an aldo-ketoreductase, oxidoreductase, aldehyde reductase or alcohol dehydrogenase that reduces 3-hydroxybutanal to 1,3-BDO. The organism may further express one or more enzymes for producing acetaldehyde. A biosynthetic process involves condensing two acetaldehyde molecules to 3-hydroxybutanal using an enzyme from class aldolases; and selectively reducing 3-hydroxybutanal to 1,3-BDO using an enzyme belonging to the class aldo-ketoreductase, oxidoreductase, aldehyde reductase or alcohol dehydrogenase. The process can further include producing acetaldehyde by a biosynthetic method.

A combination of an electrochemical device for delivering reducing equivalents to a cell, and engineered metabolic pathways within the cell capable of utilizing the electrochemically provided reducing equivalents is disclosed. Such a combination allows the production of commodity chemicals by fermentation to proceed with increased carbon efficiency.

Provided are a microorganism for producing a pantoic acid, and a construction method therefor and an application thereof. The microorganism for producing the pantoic acid is obtained by knocking out a gene in Escherichia coli and introducing an exogenous gene. The obtained microorganism is Escherichia coli that is registered in the China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center with an accession number of CGMCC No. 21699. A pantoic acid synthesis pathway has been opened up, and accumulation of the pantoic acid can be achieved in a fermentation process.

Provided herein are compositions and methods for the fermentative production of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), compositions and methods for making methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and methods of inducing drought tolerance in plants.

Transgenic plants with modified flower color, or their inbred or outbred progeny, or their propagates, partial plant bodies, tissues or cells, are provided. A delphinidin-type anthocyanin and a flavone C-glycoside in which the 7-position and T-position hydroxyl groups are methylated, are caused to coexist in plant cells.

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 provides enzymes that have been optimized by implementation of Protein Repair One Stop Shop (PROSS), an algorithm that generates protein design(s) for enhanced stability without changing either enzymatic properties or enzyme active site conformation of the respective enzyme. The protein design(s) generated by PROSS introduce mutations to the amino acid sequence of a wild-type protein, resulting in a mutated amino acid sequence that encodes a variant of the wild-type enzyme, i.e., an enzyme variant, which has an enhanced stability, core packing, surface polarity and backbone rigidity, a higher functional expression, and/or a combination thereof, compared to the stability core packing, surface polarity and backbone rigidity, functional expression and/or a combination thereof, of the wild-type enzyme.

A method and cell line for producing phytocannabinoids and phytocannabinoid analogues in yeast. The method applies, and the cell line includes, a yeast cell transformed with a polyketide synthase CDS and a cytosolic prenyltransferase CDS. The polyketide synthase enzyme catalyzes synthesis of olivetol or methyl-olivetol, and may include Cannabis sativa olivetolic acid synthase or Dictyostelium discoideum polyketide synthase (DiPKS). The yeast cell may be modified to include a phosphopantethienyl transferase for increased activity of DiPKS. The yeast cell may be modified to mitigate mitochondrial acetaldehyde catabolism for increasing malonyl-CoA available for synthesizing olivetol or methyl-olivetol. The prenyltransferase enzyme catalyzes synthesis of cannabigerol or a cannabigerol analogue, and may include an cytosolic prenyltransferase enzyme from Streptomyces sp CL190. The yeast cell may be modified to mitigate depletion of geranyl pyrophosphate for increasing available geranyl pyrophosphate for prenylation.

The present invention relates to conjugates of a protein drug and two or more P/A peptides, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising them. The conjugates of the invention exhibit an advantageously reduced immunogenicity as compared to the respective unmasked protein drugs as well as a favorable safety and tolerability profile, which render them particularly suitable for therapeutic use. The conjugates further show an enhanced plasma half-life and, thus, a prolonged duration of action as compared to the respective unmasked protein drugs, which allows for a reduction in the dosing frequency and, thus, side-effect burden. The invention also provides processes of preparing such conjugates as well as activated P/A peptides that are useful as synthetic intermediates in the preparation of the conjugates.