A novel biotransformation process of podophyllotoxin (1) to produce picropodophyllotoxin (2) and podophyllic acid (3) was developed in this work. Eight bacteria which could modify the structure of podophyllotoxin were screened out from the tested fourteen bacteria. The highest conversion of podophyllotoxin (i.e., 70.2 +/- 8.0%) was obtained when Pseudomonas aeruginosa CCTCC AB93066 was used as ...

A simple one-step method based on the sputtering deposition of Ni nanoparticles (NP) has been developed for the production of magnetic biocatalysts, avoiding the complications and drawbacks of methods based on chemical functionalisation or coating of magnetic NP. This new technique provided high levels of recovery, reusability and catalytic activity for the lipase-Ni biocatalyst.

We report here the draft genome sequence of Pseudomonas azelaica strain Aramco J (7.3 Mbp; GC content, 61.9%), one of the few bacteria that can completely mineralize different hydroxybiphenyls, e.g., 2-hydroxybiphenyl, 2,2'-dihydroxybiphenyl, and 3-hydroxybiphenyl. The findings obtained from its genome annotation suggest that this strain becomes a useful biocatalyst for aromatic bioconversions.

The use of enzymes in industrial catalysis continues to grow because of the considerable advantages of natural catalytic systems. The need for enantiomerically pure fine chemicals and the movement away from chemically burdened technologies will drive the acceptance of enzyme-assisted processes. New technologies for enzyme discovery and optimization have enabled the application of enzymes in har...