Designer bug

World War I—now enzymes are being controlled and even engineered—designer bugs if you will. Sometimes biomolecules are found to work on biomass to produce industrially valuable compounds with more environmentally friendly byproducts than from conventional methods. In other words instead of metal catalysts and petroleum, future industries may use bugs and corn. However the overall effectiveness of this approach must be critically evaluated— machines to harvest corn still use gasoline. 

To circumvent these issues, instead of wild-type whole cells, the use of cloned and overexpressed enoate reductases together with suitable redox enzymes for cofactor recycling - the so-called designer bugs - appears as an excellent ahemative to overcome the lack of selectivity observed when whole (fermenting) cell systems are applied, due to the existence of enzymes that can catalyze side reactions, and so on (Scheme 2.4) [18,19]. Thus, when enoate reductases are overexpressed, the enhancement of its concentration leads to higher selectivity and yields in the desired products. This area is clearly expanding nowadays, and therefore further innovations are ejqjected to appear. 

All these reported examples used whole cells, and therefore no biocatalytic characterization of the enzymes was performed along these proof-of-concept experiments. By virtue of the potential importance that these enzymes might have for practical applications, the first studies on enzyme isolation and biochemical characterization from different Streptomyces sp. have been recently reported [38,39]. Although reaction rates and yields are still low for these wUd-type biocatalysts, excellent enantioselectivities were observed for new substrates, thus representing a further evidence of the potential that these enzymes may have in organic synthesis (Scheme 2.12). For future research and development, ideally a designer bug for the imine reduction in an enantioselective fashion may be a powerful further application of biocatalysis to add to its already broad portfolio of options. 

A. Menzel, H. Werner, 1. Altenbuchner, H. Groger, From enzymes to "designer bugs" in reductive amination A new process for the synthesis of Dtert-leucine using a whole cell-catalyst, Eng.Life Sci. 4 (6) (2004) 573-576. 

Scheme 36.9). Depending on market demands, either the (/ ) or the (5) enantiomer can be produced, simply by choosing the right designer bug. 

Moreover, a designer-bug-catalyzed process afforded up to 620 gL of an important building block without external addition of a co-factor, showing again the tremendous potential that this technology may offer for industrial biotransformations (Scheme 36.10). ... 

SCHEME 36 9. Concept for the designer bug approach and relevant examples. ... 

SCHEME 36.10. A designer-bug ased approach leading to a production of 620 gL of (S)-ethyl 2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutanoate 25 with a reaction time of less than 1 day and without external cofactor addition. 

On Wednesday night, designer fragrances perfumed the air like incense. Packed to its imported worm-eaten raw-wood rafters, Spice Market reminded me of the banquet scene in The Temple of Doom, when Willie Scott, Indy s blond nightclub singer sidekick, declines a platter of insects by saying, No thanks, I had bugs for lunch. ... 

Whereas code is precise, natural language and ad hoc diagrams are not. How often do groups of analysts or designers discuss requirements around a whiteboard and leave with different interpretations of the problem to be solved or produce reams of documents ridden with latent bugs and inconsistencies Documentation that is concise and accurate is far more likely to be useful. 

The asopine bug Tynacantha marginata represents a case in point of the premature designation of insect-produced compounds as pheromones. Males of this species produce a novel tricyclic sesquiterpenoid 48 from their pheromone gland , which has been designated as a putative sex pheromone [64], apparently on the basis that it is produced only by males. No assessment of the biological activity of crude extracts from the bugs, the purified compound from the bugs, or the synthetic compounds (see below) has been reported in the primary literature. 

Tupperware was the idea of Earl Silas Tupper, a New Hampshire tree surgeon and plastics innovator. He began experimenting with PE during the early part of World War II. In 1947, he designed and patented the famous Tupper seal that sealed in freshness. In order to close the container it had to be burped to remove air. Tupperware was also bug proof, spill proof, did not rot or rust, and did not break when dropped. Even with all of these advantages, few were sold. Enter Brownie Wise, a divorced single mother from Detroit who desperately needed to supplement her income as a secretary, who had the idea of Tupperware Parties. ... 

Whole coal was ground with a binder (10 wt % ) and pressed into a disk, which was used as the analytical sample. The binder was a commercial product, Somar Mix, and the sample was ground in a No. 6 Wig-L-Bug for 3 min. Pellets 1% in. in diameter were then formed at 40,000 psi in a die designed for that purpose. Sample preparation techniques are given in detail in a previous publication (1). 

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