China in Africa

A team around Siew Woh Choo at Xi’an’s Jiaotong – Liverpool University http://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/ has sequenced the pangolin genome. Pangolins selective diet of ants and their poor immunity makes it difficult to keep them in captivity, they are an endangered species. Pangolins are the only mammals where the skin has developed into scales. In this process, they have lost gene functions such as interferon-epsilon (IFNE) which is involved in the human skin in protection agains pathogens. Choo and colleagues will thus study the pangoline genome in view of skin immunity.

CAS news release, October 17, 2018

LI Can and GUAN Jingqi from CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, inspired from the natural photosystem-II multi-nuclear manganese (CaMn4O5) reaction center, have developed a heterogeneous catalyst with mononuclear manganese embedded in nitrogen-doped graphene (Mn-NG). It exhibited a turnover frequency up to 214 s⁻¹ for chemical water oxidation and an electrochemical overpotential as low as 337 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻². Structural characterization and density functional theory calculations revealed that the high activity of Mn-NG can be attributed to the mononuclear manganese ion coordinated with four nitrogen atoms embedded in the graphene matrix.

Nature Catalysis https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0158-6

According to an article in People’s Daily, face recognition has reached an accuracy and safety level that it is now being used for registering to medical examination. Within 30 seconds, an individual face to face to a camera and connected to his or her Alibaba pay account can create a consultation card, select medical examination subjects, finish the examination procedure, and pay the medical examination fee of 10 yuan (0,75 €) if registered to the local insurance. Biometric authentication used for facial recognition uses a face authentication bank of the Public Security Department, whose accuracy, safety and stability is said to have reached 99.99% or more.

Japan JST China news, October 16, 2018

Methanol produced from coal is a key raw material in coal-rich China. A team around SUN Jibing at CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology constructed fusion proteins of ribulose monophosphate pathway enzymes. The fusion engineering strategy enhanced methanol bioconversion to fructose 6-phosphate (F6P), an important metabolic intermediate. NAD-dependent methanol dehydrogenase (Mdh), 3-hexulose-6-phosphate synthase (Hps) and 6-phospho-3-hexuloisomerase (Phi) from different sources were evaluated for their catalytic activities. The candidates with the highest activity were then used to construct difunctional fusion proteins (Mdh-Hps and Hps-Phi) and trifunctional fusion proteins (Mdh-Hps-Phi) with flexible linkers. Effects of linker length on the catalytic efficiency of fusion proteins were also investigated. The best fusion protein showed 4.8-fold improvement in methanol oxidation efficiency and 30% improvement in F6P formation efficiency.

CAS news release, October 15, 2018

A team around Jie ZENG at CAS University of Science and Technology has found a MOF catalyst which supports the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen. When sulfhydryl compounds were added to a highly dispersed nitrogen-coordinated monoatomic ruthenium catalyst (Ru SAs/N-C), ruthenium was dispersed in small particles in the metal organic framework (Ru NPs/N-C) and, at a voltage of – 0.2 V relative to the standard hydrogen electrode, reduced nitrogen to ammonia at a rate of 120.9 μg NH₃mg^-1cat h^-1.

CAS news release, October 15, 2018

According to China’s National Office of Statistics, China’s R&D budget has increased by annually 11 % since 2011 and is now at 2.13 % of GDP, number 13 of OECD’s 35 member countries. China ‘s R & D expenditure became the second largest in the world in 2013, accounting for about 40% of the US R&D budget. In 2017, this ratio reached nearly 60%. Between 2013 and 2016, the average annual growth of China’s R&D budget was 11.1%, of the USA 2.7%, of EU26 2.3%, and of Japan only 0.6%.

Japan JST China news release, October 10, 2018

Saponins are excellent natural non-ionic surfactants with antimicrobial properties. Oil-tea camellia is a unique woody oil-bearing crop in in Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and other areas. In addition to tea seed oil, oil-tea camellia seed also contains 12-18% tea saponin, contained in the extraction by-product oil-tea meal and mostly treated as waste. A team at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) led by WANG Jianxun has developed a preparation method for high-purity tea saponin based on a water-free solvent and a flash extraction hybrid membrane. The resulting saponin proved of high purity and was used for the preparation of high-end toiletries with strong detergency, bactericidal, skin care and other functions.

CAS news release, October 9, 2018 

The center is located at the University of Ruhuna in Matara, a city in southern Sri Lanka. Ruhuna University is the only university in Sri Lanka with a Department of Marine Science. CAS will establish a chemistry and bioanalysis laboratory and support the university in science education.

CAS news release, October 8, 2018

By October 6, SINOPEC reported a cumulative production of 20 billion m³of shale gas from its Jianghan oil field, enough to supply 32 mllion households per day. The development and construction of the shale gas field began in December 2012, and the proven reserves grew to 600.8 billion cubic meters in just over five years. The cumulative production reached 10 billion cubic meters in March 2017, 20 billion cubic meters on October 6 this year, of which 19.2 billion cubic meters were sold. Up to now, 438 gas fields were developed, and production started at 321 places.

Japan JST China news, October 8, 2018

The commercialization of fuel cells is hampered by a relatively low specific power density, whereas the wide application of devices with high power density, such as supercapacitors, is limited by their insufficient specific energy density. SUN Gongquan and WANG Suli from CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics constructed an improved hybrid system by coupling voltage-sensitive mediators with the catalyst layers of a direct methanol fuel cell. As a result, self-charging processes were achieved on the pseudo-capacitor, increasing the pulse discharge current density of the hybrid power device, in which the constant methanol fuel feeding guaranteed a high energy density of the system.

CAS news release, October 8, 2018

Tibet occupies about one eighth of China’s land area with only 3.17 million people. A Beidou-supported information platform made a debut in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region. It is expected to provide services in disaster alert and relief, emergency rescue, transportation, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, as well as targeted poverty reduction and smart travel. China launched its first Beidou satellite in 2000 and now operates 38 Beidou satellites.

CAS news release, October 8, 2018

About 78 percent of all studies about the relationship of gene and diseases are based on European individuals. Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), one of the most prolific global DNA sequencing institutions located in Shenzhen, has now published a study on the genomes of 141,431 Chinese women generated for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), mostly Han Chinese from China’s East coast. Features include that six genes display significant differences of Chinese people across latitudes, and people from the southern part of China have developed stronger immunity against malaria than those in the north, but a gene related to fatty acid metabolism has a much higher frequency in most of the northern provinces. In addition, people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, a key area of the Silk Road, share more similar genes with Europeans.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.016

Aresearch team led by researcher YU Wei, a researcher at the In Vitro Synthetic Biology Center of CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, designed an enzymatic phosphate pathway for the stoichiometric conversion of cellulosic biomass using an in vitro multi-enzyme system. This pathway utilizes three cascades of phosphorylase (cellodextrin phosphorylase (CDP), cellobiose phosphorylase (CBP), and polyphosphate-dependent glucokinase (PGGK). )) The fiber polysaccharide is converted into high-energy phosphorylated sugar (glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate). Subsequent enzymes can be used to produce hydrogen, bioelectricity, or high-value chemicals. The research team used inositol as the final product and reached a yield of 98%, close to the stoichiometric substrate conversion. In addition, the in vitro multi-enzyme system also produced inositol from a corn stover hydrolysate as substrate.

CAS news release, September 27, 2018

The group of ZHANG Ping at CAS Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden has studied body weight gain in mice fed with isoenergenic high-fat diets and containing bamboo shoot fiber (BSF) from eitherD. hamiltonii or D. latiforus. They found that bamboo shoot fibers suppressed high-fat-diet-induced body weight gain in mice and improved glycemic control and insulin sensitivity. At the molecular level, BSF enhanced insulin signaling measured by phosphorylated Akt, induced elevated expression of PGC-1α and more phosphorylation of AMP K and p38.

CAS news release, September 26, 2018

A team around YANG Jintao from Zhejiang University of Technology and colleagues from the AS Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering have developed a hydrophilic fluorescent hydrogel‐coated flexible paper/textile film chemosensor which displays a “green‐to‐blue” emission color change upon specific chemical reaction between Hg²⁺ and the grafted thiourea moieties. The porous structures allow for fast capillary‐force‐driven mercury(II) diffusion into the hydrophilic hydrogel matrix, thus enabling visual detection of nearly nM‐level Hg²⁺. On this basis, fluorescent hydrogel‐coated wearable sensing gloves were fabricated, which significantly facilitated visual detection of toxic Hg²⁺‐polluted samples.

CAS news release, September 21, 2018