45 documents found, page 1 of 5
Microbial production of single cell oil from biowaste-derived volatile fatty ac...
Fernandes, Ticiana; Parpot, Pier; Soares-Silva, Isabel; Sousa, Maria João; Franco-Duarte, RicardoEfforts to achieve a circular economy emphasize waste minimization while maximizing its value through recycling and reuse. Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs), derived from organic waste streams, hold biotechnological potential as raw materials for producing value-added compounds offering sustainable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based approaches. The phenotypic and genomic plasticity of non-Saccharomyces yeast...
Finding novel genes coding for eco-friendly surfactants from hypersaline Iberia...
Santos-Pereira, Cátia; Gomes, Joana S.; Sousa, Joana; Simões, Marta F.; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Chaves, Susana R.; Silvério, Sara Isabel CruzSurfactants are tensioactive chemical compounds extensively used worldwide in a myriad of industrial sectors and in our daily lives, being present in numerous products including cosmetics, detergents, fabric softeners, toothpaste, among many others. Millions of tonnes of surfactants are thus manufactured every year. Most commercially available surfactants are non-renewable petroleum-based compounds that can hav...
Epilactose as a promising butyrate-promoter prebiotic via microbiota modulation
Cardoso, Beatriz B.; Amorim, Cláudia Catarina Oliveira; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Alves, Joana I.; Barbosa, Sónia G.; Silvério, Sara Isabel CruzEpilactose is a disaccharide composed of galactose and mannose, and it is currently considered an under development prebiotic. In this study, we described the prebiotic potential of epilactose by in vitro fermentation using human fecal inocula from individuals following a Mediterranean diet (DM) or a Vegan diet (DV). The prebiotic effect of epilactose was also compared with lactulose and raffinose, and interest...
Heterologous expression and structure prediction of a xylanase identified from ...
Sousa, Joana; Santos-Pereira, Cátia; Dias, Joana Sofia Gomes; Costa, Ângela Maria Araújo; Santos, Andréia O.; Franco-Duarte, RicardoXylanases are key biocatalysts in the degradation of the 1,4glycosidic linkages in the xylan backbone of hemicellulose. These enzymes are potentially applied in a wide range of bioprocessing industries under harsh conditions. Metagenomics has emerged as powerful tools for the bioprospection and discovery of interesting bioactive molecules from extreme ecosystems with unique features, such as high temperatures. ...
Metagenomic approach to identify genes encoding for glycoside hydrolases in com...
Sousa, Joana; Santos-Pereira, Cátia; Costa, Ângela Maria Araújo; Guiet, Andréia Oliveira Santos; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Rodrigues, L. R.Metagenomics involves the study of the genomic DNA from a set of microorganisms present in a particular environmental sample. This approach has emerged as a promising culture-independent technique to explore the diversity and function of microbiomes, allowing the discovery of novel biochemical compounds, namely enzymes with high potential for industrial applications. Composting habitats are characterized by a h...
Identification of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes using metagenomic approaches
Sousa, Joana; Santos-Pereira, Cátia; Costa, Ângela Maria Araújo; Santos, Andréia O; Gomes, Joana; Rodrigues, Joana Lúcia Lima CorreiaComposting units which handle lignocellulosic residues are suitable sources of novel and promising lignocellulose-degrading enzymes such as cellulases, xylanases and amylases. These enzymes have practical application in many industries where lignocellulose is converted into several added-value bioproducts. However, the effective conversion of lignocellulose by a sustainable process is currently incomplete. Ther...
A glimpse at an early stage of microbe domestication revealed in the variable g...
Silva, Margarida; Pontes, Ana; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Soares, Pedro; Sampaio, José Paulo; Sousa, Maria João; Brito, Patrícia HMicrobe domestication has a major applied relevance but is still poorly understood from an evolutionary perspective. The yeast Torulaspora delbrueckii is gaining importance for biotechnology but little is known about its population structure, variation in gene content or possible domestication routes. Here, we show that T. delbrueckii is composed of five major clades. Among the three European clades, a lineage ...
Mining bioactive molecules from extreme environments using sequence-based metag...
Sousa, Joana; Santos-Pereira, Cátia; Costa, Ângela Maria Araújo; Guiet, Andréia Oliveira Santos; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Rodrigues, L. R.The unique features of extreme habitats, particularly the high temperature and salinity, make them promising reservoirs for the bioprospection and discovery of novel and interesting bioactive molecules. In fact, the microorganisms inhabiting this type of environments have adopted survival strategies to thrive under hostile conditions, synthesizing several biochemical compounds valuable for many biotechnological...
Contributions of adaptive laboratory evolution towards the enhancement of the b...
Fernandes, Ticiana; Osório, Carolina; Sousa, Maria João; Franco-Duarte, RicardoChanges in biological properties over several generations, induced by controlling shortterm evolutionary processes in the laboratory through selective pressure, and whole-genome re-sequencing, help determine the genetic basis of microorganism’s adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). Due to the versatility of this technique and the imminent urgency for alternatives to petroleum-based strategies, ALE has been activ...
Functional and sequence-based metagenomics to uncover carbohydrate-degrading en...
Pereira, Cátia Sofia Santos; Sousa, Joana; Costa, Ângela Maria Araújo; Santos, A. O.; Rito, Teresa; Soares, Pedro; Franco-Duarte, RicardoThe renewable, abundant, and low-cost nature of lignocellulosic biomass can play an important role in the sustainable production of bioenergy and several added-value bioproducts, thus providing alternative solutions to counteract the global energetic and industrial demands. The efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass greatly relies on the catalytic activity of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). Find...