Quinones are produced in organisms and are utilized as electron transfer agents, pigments and in defence mechanisms. furthermore, naturally occurring quinones can also be cytotoxins with antibacterial properties. these properties can be linked to their redox properties. Recent studies have also shown that quinones can be utilized in flow battery technology, though naturally occurring quinones have not yet been investigated. Here, we have analyzed the properties of 990 different quinones of various biological sources through a computation approach to determine their standard reduction potentials and aqueous solubility. the screening was performed using the pBe functional and the 6-31G** basis set, providing a distribution of reduction potentials of the naturally occurring quinones varying from − 1.4 V to 1.5 V vs. the standard hydrogen electrode. The solvation energy for each quinone, which indicates the solubility in aqueous solution, was calculated at the same level. A large distribution of solubilities was obtained, containing both molecules that show tendencies of good solubilities and molecules that do not. the solubilities are dependent on the nature of the side groups and the size of the molecules. our study shows that the group containing the quinones of fungal origin, which is also the largest of the groups considered, has the largest antimicrobial and electrochemical potential, when considering the distribution of reduction potentials for the compounds. Quinones are organic molecules found in nature in a variety of different types with different properties based on chemical and aromatic ring structure, side-chain groups, etc. Quinones in nature fall into the category of secondary metabolites, and are found in flowering plants, fungi, bacteria, algae and in some amounts in animals 1,2. Common to all of them is the aromatic di-one or di-ketone system, which can be placed both in para or ortho positions. Quinones are often described as derivatives from oxidization of hydroquinones or polyphenols 3,4. Naturally occurring quinones include aromatic ring structures ranging from the common 1-ring structures named benzoquinones (BQ), 2-ring structures named naphtoquinones (NQ) and 3-ring structures named anthraquinones (AQ) as well as more complex polyquinones 1-4. In most eukaryote cells plastoquinone and ubiquinone conduct electron transport in the oxygenic photosynthesis and the aerobic respiratory chain, respectively 2,5-7. The function of quinones in living organisms is primarily due to their ability to undergo reversible 2 e − redox reactions that through complex reaction mechanisms protect the cells against free radicals and other potential harmful oxidants. Quinones have during the past two decades been investigated in detail in plants, due to their medicinal properties in e.g. rhubarb (Rheum spp. 3,8-12). The plant itself has been used in Chinese medicine since the Han dynasty 9. It has also been shown that the AQs of rhubarb can inhibit bacterial growth, treat cancer, and inhibit protein misfolding and ...

Aqueous organic redox flow batteries (AORFBs) have gained increased interest as a promising solution to store energy from sustainable energy sources. Inspired by naturally occurring bioquinones, we here propose a new electrolyte based on the fungal compound phoenicin. Phoenicin was produced using the filamentous fungus Penicillium atrosanguineum at a concentration of 1.24 g L À 1 liquid medium and extracted using ethyl acetate to a purity exceeding 95 %. The fungus may provide a benefit of high scalability of the biosynthesis-based production of the electroactive substance. Here, we demonstrate the performance of biologically produced phoenicin as a negative electrolyte in an RFB against ferro/ferricyanide, as a proof of concept, giving an initial capacity of 11.75 Ah L À 1 and a capacity decay of 2.85 % day À 1 . For a deeper investigation of the battery setup, in situ attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectra of the phoenicin electrolyte were recorded. Symmetric cell cycling was performed to study the stability of this bio-based active material.

Through stepwise recreation of the biosynthetic gene cluster containing PKS3 from Fusarium solani, it was possible to produce the core scaffold compound of bostrycoidin, a red aza-anthraquinone pigment in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This was achieved through sequential transformation associated recombination (TAR) cloning of FvPPT, fsr1, fsr2, and fsr3 into the pESC-vector system, utilizing the inducible bidirectional galactose promoter for heterologous expression in S. cerevisiae. The production of the core metabolite bostrycoidin was investigated through triplicate growth cultures for 1–4 days, where the maximum titer of bostrycoidin was achieved after 2 days of induction, yielding 2.2 mg/L.

Natural products display a large structural variation and different uses within a broad spectrum of industries. In this study, we investigate the influence of carbohydrates and nitrogen sources on the production and selectivity of production of four different polyketides produced by Fusarium solani, fusarubin, javanicin, bostrycoidin and anhydrofusarubin. We introduce four different carbohydrates and two types of nitrogen sources. Hereafter, a full factorial design was applied using combinations of three levels of sucrose and three levels of the two types of nitrogen. Each combination displayed different selectivity and production yields for all the compounds of interest. Response surface design was utilized to investigate possible maximum yields for the surrounding combinations of media. It was also shown that the maximum yields were not always the ones illustrating high selectivity, which is an important factor for making purification steps easier. We visualized the production over time for one of the media types, illustrating high yields and selectivity.

The biosynthetic pathways for the fungal polyketides bikaverin and bostrycoidin, from Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium solani respectively, were reconstructed and heterologously expressed in S. cerevisiae alongside seven different phosphopantetheinyl transferases (PPTases) from a variety of origins spanning bacterial, yeast and fungal origins. In order to gauge the efficiency of the interaction between the ACP-domains of the polyketide synthases (PKS) and PPTases, each were co-expressed individually and the resulting production of target polyketides were determined after 48 h of growth. In co-expression with both biosynthetic pathways, the PPTase from Fusarium verticillioides (FvPPT1) proved most efficient at producing both bikaverin and bostrycoidin, at 1.4 mg/L and 5.9 mg/L respectively. Furthermore, the remaining PPTases showed the ability to interact with both PKS’s, except for a single PKS-PPTase combination. The results indicate that it is possible to boost the production of a target polyketide, simply by utilizing a more optimal PPTase partner, instead of the commonly used PPTases; NpgA, Gsp and Sfp, from Aspergillus nidulans, Brevibacillus brevis and Bacillus subtilis respectively.