Kluyveromyces marxianus: a potential biocatalyst of renewable chemicals and lignocellulosic ethanol production.

Kluyveromyces marxianus is an ascomycetous yeast which has shown promising results in cellulosic ethanol and renewable chemicals production. It can survive on a variety of carbon sources under industrially favorable conditions due to its fast growth rate, thermotolerance, and acid tolerance. K. marxianus, is generally regarded as a safe (GRAS) microorganism, is widely recognized as a powerhouse for the production of heterologous proteins and is accepted by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for its pharmaceutical and food applications. Since lignocellulosic hydrolysates are comprised of diverse monomeric sugars, oligosaccharides and potential metabolism inhibiting compounds, this microorganism can play a pivotal role as it can grow on lignocellulosic hydrolysates coping with vegetal cell wall derived inhibitors. Furthermore, advancements in synthetic biology, for example CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats with Cas9)-mediated genome editing, will enable development of an engineered yeast for the production of biochemicals and biopharmaceuticals having a myriad of industrial applications. Genetic engineering companies such as Cargill, Ginkgo Bioworks, DuPont, Global Yeast, Genomatica, and several others are actively working to develop designer yeasts. Given the important traits and properties of K. marxianus, these companies may find it to be a suitable biocatalyst for renewable chemicals and fuel production on the large scale. This paper reviews the recent progress made with K. marxianus biotechnology for sustainable production of ethanol, and other products utilizing lignocellulosic sugars.

Determination of methylmercury in fish tissue by gas chromatography with microwave-induced plasma atomic emission spectrometry after derivatization with sodium tetraphenylborate.

The detection of methylmercury species (MeHg) in fish tissue was investigated. Samples were digested with KOH-methanol and acidified prior to extraction with methylene chloride. MeHg was back-extracted from the organic phase into water. An aliquot of this aqueous solution (buffered to pH 5) was subjected to derivatization with sodium tetraphenylborate (NaBPh4) and then extracted with toluene. The organic phase containing MePhHg was injected into a gas chromatograph (GC) which is on-line with a microwave-induced plasma atomic emission spectrometer (MIP-AED). The quantification limit was about 0.6 microg/g and 0.1 microg/g of MeHg (as Hg) for 0.08 g of freeze-dried fish powder and 0.5 g of fresh samples, respectively. Two certified reference materials, CRM 464 (tuna fish) from Community Bureau of Reference-BCR and DORM-2 (dogfish muscle) from National Research Council Canada-NRC were selected for checking the accuracy of the method. This methodology was applied to the determination of MeHg in some kinds of fish from the Carmo river with alluvial gold recovery activities ("garimpos") in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil.