The present invention provides, among other things, methods and compositions for making and using recombinant heme oxygenase for treating sickle cell disease. In some embodiments, recombinant heme oxygenase proteins are truncation variants, or Fc fusion proteins with increased half-life and/or reduced aggregation.

Transgenic plants with blue flower color, or their inbred or outbred progeny, or their propagules, partial plant bodies, tissues or cells, are provided. A buckwheat-derived C-glucosyltransferase (CGT) gene or its homolog is transferred into a host plant to cause delphinidin-type anthocyanins and flavone mono-C-glycosides to be copresent in the plant cells.

The present disclosure relates to methods for production of 4-hydroxytryptamine and derivatives thereof in a yeast cell. Herein are also disclosed methods for production of halogenated tryptophans and derivatives thereof in a cell. Herein are also disclosed methods for production of methylated tryptamine. The disclosure also provides nucleic acid constructs and cells useful for performing the present methods.

Glucuronosyltransferase 1 gene which catalyzes glucuronic acid transfer to the hydroxyl group at the 3-position in an oleanane-type triterpenoid is identified. Glucuronosyltransferase 1 gene having a desired activity, derived from a Fabaceae plant (soybean, Glycyrrhiza, and Lotus japonicus), and containing nucleotide sequences represented by SEQ ID Nos: 2, 4, and 6, respectively, is provided.

The disclosure relates to enzymes, such as cucurbitadienol synthase (CDS), UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT), C11 hydroxylase, epoxide hydrolase (EPH), squalene epoxidase (SQE), and/or cytochrome P450 reductase enzymes, recombinant host cells expressing the enzymes, and methods of producing mogrol precursors, mogrol, and/or mogrosides using such recombinant cells.

Generally, the present invention relates to the field of steroid hydroxylation. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for the 21-hydroxylation of steroids in cells. It also relates to cells expressing a steroid 21-hydroxylating enzyme or steroid 21-hydroxylase, expression vectors comprising a nucleic acid encoding for a steroid 21-hydroxylase and a kit for carrying out the method for the 21-hydroxylation of steroids in cells.

The invention is directed to methods involved in the production of flavonoids, anthocyanins and other organic compounds. The invention provides cells engineered for the production of flavonoids, anthocyanins and other organic compounds, where the engineered cells include one or more genetic modifications that increase flavonoid production by increasing metabolic flux to flavonoid precursors and/or reducing carbon losses resulting from the production of byproducts.

The present invention relates to the metabolic engineering of a microbial host for the synthesis of value-added products from oil palm empty fruit brunches (OPEFBs). In one embodiment, the genetically engineered microorganism is Escherichia coli comprising a metabolic pathway consisting of 9 enzymes (11 genes) to utilize depolymerized lignin, namely vanillin, p-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid and ferulic acid, to produce β-ketoadipic acid, which can be subsequently converted into commercially important derivatives such as adipic acid and levulinic acid. The enzymes are feruloyl-CoA synthetase (fcs), enoyl-CoA hydratase (ech), vanillin dehydrogenase (vdh), vanillate O-demethylase (vanA; vanA and vanB), p-hydroxy benzoate hydroxylase (pobA), protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase {pcaGH; pcaG and pcaH), 3-carboxy-cis, cis-muconate cycloisomerase (pcaB), 4-carboxymuconolactone decarboxylase (pcaC), and β-ketoadipate enol-lactone hydrolase (pcaD).

Provided is a group of new uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glycosyltransferases, which are carbon glycoside glycosyltransferases, wherein the glycosyltransferases can specifically and efficiently catalyze the carbon glycoside glucosylation of a dihydrochalcone(s) compound or a 2-hydroxyflavanone(s) compound, thereby producing a carbon glycoside dihydrochalcone(s) compound or a carbon glycoside-2-hydroxyflavanone(s) compound; and a flavonoid carbon glycoside(s) compound is formed from a carbon glycoside-2-hydroxyflavanone(s) compound by means of a further dehydration reaction. Further provided is the use of said new UDP glycosyltransferases in artificially constructed recombinant expression systems to produce a carbon glycoside dihydrochalcone(s) compound or a flavonoid carbon glycoside(s) compound by means of fermentation engineering.

Provided herein are genetically modified host cells, compositions, and methods for improved production of artemisinic acid. The host cells are genetically modified to contain a heterologous nucleic acid that expresses novel and optimized variants of amorpha-4,11-diene 12-monooxygenase. Also provided herein are methods for screening for variants of cytochrome p450 enzymes that have increased enzymatic activity relative to a parental control enzyme.