\n\nCONCLUSIONS. This study did not detect an association between low levels

of prenatal alcohol exposure and language delay when compared with women who abstained from alcohol during pregnancy. A nonsignificant threefold increase in the likelihood of language delay was seen in children whose mothers binged during late pregnancy. However, the small numbers of women with a binge-drinking pattern in late pregnancy limited the power of this study; studies analyzing larger numbers of children exposed to binge drinking in late pregnancy are needed. Pediatrics 2009; 123: 547-554″
“Background: In spite of the substantial metabolic engineering effort previously devoted to the development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains capable of fermenting both the hexose and pentose sugars present in lignocellulose hydrolysates, S3I-201 molecular weight the productivity of reported strains for conversion of the naturally

most abundant pentose, xylose, is still a major issue of process efficiency. Protein engineering for targeted alteration of the nicotinamide cofactor specificity of enzymes catalyzing the first steps in the metabolic pathway for xylose was a successful approach of reducing xylitol by-product formation and improving ethanol yield from xylose. The previously reported yeast strain BP10001, which expresses heterologous xylose reductase from Candida tenuis in mutated (NADH-preferring) form, stands for a series of other yeast Selleck VS-6063 strains designed with similar rational. Using 20 g/L xylose as sole source of carbon, BP10001 displayed a low specific uptake rate q(xylose) (g xylose/g dry cell weight/h) of 0.08. The study presented herein was performed with the aim

of analysing (external) factors that limit q(xylose) of BP10001 under xylose-only and mixed glucose-xylose substrate conditions. We also carried out a comprehensive investigation on the currently unclear role of coenzyme utilization, NADPH compared to NADH, for xylose reduction during co-fermentation of glucose and xylose.\n\nResults: BP10001 and BP000, expressing C. tenuis xylose reductase in NADPH-preferring wild-type form, were used. Glucose and xylose ( each at Tariquidar mw 10 g/L) were converted sequentially, the corresponding q(substrate) values being similar for each strain ( glucose: 3.0; xylose: 0.05). The distribution of fermentation products from glucose was identical for both strains whereas when using xylose, BP10001 showed enhanced ethanol yield ( BP10001 0.30 g/g; BP000 0.23 g/g) and decreased yields of xylitol (BP10001 0.26 g/g; BP000 0.36 g/g) and glycerol ( BP10001 0.023 g/g; BP000 0.072 g/g) as compared to BP000. Increase in xylose concentration from 10 to 50 g/L resulted in acceleration of substrate uptake by BP10001 (0.05 – 0.14 g/g CDW/h) and reduction of the xylitol yield (0.28 g/g – 0.15 g/g).