Microalgae are proposed as feedstock organisms useful for producing biofuels and coproducts. However, several limitations must be overcome before algae-based production is economically feasible. Among these is the ability to induce lipid accumulation and storage without affecting biomass yield. To overcome this barrier, a chemical genetics approach was employed in which 43,783 compounds were sc...

Natural products are among the most important sources of lead molecules for drug discovery. With the development of affordable whole-genome sequencing technologies and other 'omics tools, the field of natural products research is currently undergoing a shift in paradigms. While, for decades, mainly analytical and chemical methods gave access to this group of compounds, nowadays genomics-based m...

The flowering plant Cannabis sativa , cultivated for centuries multiple purposes, displays extensive variation in phenotypic traits addition to its wide array of secondary metabolite production. Notably, produces two well-known secondary-metabolite cannabinoids: cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic (THCA), which are the main products sought by consumers medical recreatio...

Soil surface temperature, an important driver of terrestrial biogeochemical processes, depends strongly on soil albedo, which can be significantly modified by factors such as plant cover. In sparsely vegetated lands, the soil surface can be colonized by photosynthetic microbes that build biocrust communities. Here we use concurrent physical, biochemical and microbiological analyses to show that...

Plant-cultured cells are often highly heterogeneous in secondary metabolite productivity. The industrial application for large-scale metabolite production requires establishment of a stable high-producing cell line. In this study, image analysis of the individual cell is investigated as a method for evaluation of a heterogeneous cell population, and compared with the conventional method of esti...

paris polyphylla smith var. yunnanensis (liliaceae) is an important traditional medicinal plant of the yunnan province in china. however, the genomic information regarding this plant is limited. to further understand its molecular background, we conducted illumina hiseq 2000 second-generation sequencing of this plant species. approximately 30,198,679 reads with an average length of 202 bases we...

Living organisms produce metabolites of many types via metabolic reactions. Especially, flavonoids, a type of secondary metabolite, of plant species are interesting examples. Since plant species are believed to have specific flavonoids that were formed response to diverse environments, elucidation of the design principles of metabolite distributions across plant species is important for underst...

Persicaria minor (Kesum) is an important medicinal plant with high level of secondary metabolite contents, especially, terpenoids and flavonoids. Previous studies have revealed that application of exogenous phytohormone could increase secondary metabolite contents of the plant. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that play important regulatory roles in various biological processes. In order to ex...