https://socictopen.socict.org/files/original/e8585de27c562fbca330e5cb56c1802a.pdf 8b5b5939fa5f6590af395310c5b73d4d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Coronavirus Description An account of the resource Dominio científico: Coronavirus Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Synthesis of an antiviral drug precursor from chitin using a saprophyte as a whole-cell catalyst Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Steiger Matthias G, Mach-Aigner Astrid R, Gorsche Rita, Rosenberg Erwin E, Mihovilovic Marko D, Mach Robert L Description An account of the resource Abstract Background Recent incidents, such as the SARS and influenza epidemics, have highlighted the need for readily available antiviral drugs. One important precursor currently used for the production of Relenza, an antiviral product from GlaxoSmithKline, is N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuNAc). This substance has a considerably high market price despite efforts to develop cost-reducing (biotechnological) production processes. Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei) is a saprophyte noted for its abundant secretion of hydrolytic enzymes and its potential to degrade chitin to its monomer N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc). Chitin is considered the second most abundant biomass available on earth and therefore an attractive raw material. Results In this study, we introduced two enzymes from bacterial origin into Hypocrea, which convert GlcNAc into NeuNAc via N-acetylmannosamine. This enabled the fungus to produce NeuNAc from the cheap starting material chitin in liquid culture. Furthermore, we expressed the two recombinant enzymes as GST-fusion proteins and developed an enzyme assay for monitoring their enzymatic functionality. Finally, we demonstrated that Hypocrea does not metabolize NeuNAc and that no NeuNAc-uptake by the fungus occurs, which are important prerequisites for a potential production strategy. Conclusions This study is a proof of concept for the possibility to engineer in a filamentous fungus a bacterial enzyme cascade, which is fully functional. Furthermore, it provides the basis for the development of a process for NeuNAc production as well as a general prospective design for production processes that use saprophytes as whole-cell catalysts. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DOI: 10.1186/1475-2859-10-102 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Microbial Cell Factories Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available BMC Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Microbiology Language A language of the resource EN