Biosynthesis of liquid fuels and biomass-based building block chemicals from microorganisms have been regarded as a competitive alternative route to traditional. Zymomonas mobilis possesses a number of desirable characteristics for its special Entner-Doudoroff pathway, which makes it an ideal platform for both metabolic engineering and commercial-scale production of desirable bio-products as the same as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae based on consideration of future biomass biorefinery. Z. mobilis has been studied extensively on both fundamental and applied level, which will provide a basis for industrial biotechnology in the future. Furthermore, metabolic engineering of Z. mobilis for enhancing bio-ethanol production from biomass resources has been significantly promoted by different methods (i.e. mutagenesis, adaptive laboratory evolution, specific gene knock-out, and metabolic engineering). In addition, the feasibility of representative metabolites, i.e. sorbitol, bionic acid, levan, succinic acid, isobutanol, and isobutanol produced by Z. mobilis and the strategies for strain improvements are also discussed or highlighted in this paper. Moreover, this review will present some guidelines for future developments in the bio-based chemical production using Z. mobilis as a novel industrial platform for future biofineries.

Soil salinity is an increasingly serious problem worldwide that reduces agricultural output potential. Selected beneficial soil bacteria can promote plant growth and augment tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Bacillus subtilis strain GB03 has been shown to confer growth promotion and abiotic stress tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we examined the effect of this beneficial soil bacterium on salt tolerance in the legume forage crop, white clover. Plants of white clover (Trifolium repens L. cultivar Huia) were grown from seeds with or without soil inoculation of the beneficial soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis GB03 supplemented with 0, 50, 100, or 150 mM NaCl water into soil. Growth parameters, chlorophyll content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content and osmotic potential were monitored during the growth cycle. Endogenous Na+ and K+ contents were determined at the time of harvest. White clover plants grown in GB03-inoculated soil were significantly larger than non-inoculated controls with respect to shoot height, root length, plant biomass, leaf area and chlorophyll content; leaf MDA content under saline condition and leaf osmotic potential under severe salinity condition (150 mM NaCl) were significantly decreased. Furthermore, GB03 significantly decreased shoot and root Na+ accumulation and thereby improved K+/Na+ ratio when GB03-inoculated plants were grown under elevated salt conditions. The results indicate that soil inoculation with GB03 promotes white clover growth under both non-saline and saline conditions by directly or indirectly regulating plant chlorophyll content, leaf osmotic potential, cell membrane integrity and ion accumulation.

Growth factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are widely used in the recovery of spinal cord injury (SCI) for promoting axonal regeneration or improving neuron survival. However, the lack of efficient delivery approaches limits their clinical applications. In this study, we constructed an efficient delivery system including collagen-binding BDNF and linear ordered collagen scaffolds (LOCS). A collagen-binding domain (CBD) was utilized to construct collagen-targeting BDNF (CBD-BDNF) to allow its specific binding to the collagen. In vitro activity assay showed that CBD-BDNF had similar bioactivity in neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglia and the survival of PC12 cells. CBD-BDNF was shown to have specific binding activity to collagen. Using the rat hemisection SCI model, we found that LOCS loaded with CBD-BDNF significantly improved the SCI recovery evaluated by the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scale and immunohistochemical staining with anti-neurofilament antibody. Thus, this targeting drug delivery system consisting of CBD-BDNF and LOCS could be an effective strategy for the repair of SCI.

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