The research on food additives mainly is focusing on three areas, i.e. development of novel natural safe food additives, application of new technologies on the preparation of food additives and detection analysis of food additives. The current status, development trend and several highly concerned topics in food additives were briefly introduced and discussed. And the distribution of the projects about food additives approved by NSFC over the past 2 years was analyzed. Among all these projects about food additives, the research about novel natural food additives has been paid the relatively high attention to, and the research about the application of biotechnology on preparation of food additives has been highlighted this year. In summary, the funding support by NSFC in this discipline is in line with the development trend of food additives.

Anthocyanin, which existed widely in higher plants, is a water soluble plant pigment, and closely related to crop quality traits. Its biosynthetic pathway and the mechanism of related regulation proteins interaction was found in recent years with the further study of the mutants of Arabidopsis. The research of anthocyanins in flowers, fruits and seeds is always the hot spot. Recently there are many research reported, its deepening research can provide scientific basis for health care, and help us to use in many fields. Here we give reviews on the study status of plant anthocyanin biosynthetic genes, including plant anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway, the regulation of transcription factors in biosynthetic pathway, and the regulatory genes which have been separated and cloned.

Polysaccharides have received much attention with respect to their biological functions such as immuactivity, anti-tumor and antioxidant. On the basis of analysis on the references about polysaccharides, this paper summarized the effect of molecule side chain, molecular weight, molecular modified, solution, metal ion, temperature, pH and ultrahigh pressure on conformation, analyzed the relationship of flexibility helix form of molecule chain to bioactivity, and proposed the scientific problems and the development tendency of relationship of polysaccharide molecular chain comformation changes and bioactivities.

Several strategies for industrial production of monoclonal antibody drug were introduced in this paper, including host cell selection, construction of expression vector, transfection method, screening techniques, cell culture technology as well as the standard method of final cell lines selection. On the basis of the progress of monoclonal antibody drug CHO cell line development and cell culture process, current strategy for the development of CHO cell lines in monoclonal antibody technology were also discussed.

CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated proteins) systems are the adaptive immune system in bacteria and archaea that defends against infectious viruses and plasmids. Immunity is mediated by Cas nucleases, which use small RNA guides (the crRNAs) to specify a cleavage site within the genome of invading nucleic acids. In type Ⅱ CRISPR-Cas systems, the DNA-cleaving activity is performed by a single enzyme Cas9 guided by an RNA duplex. Using synthetic single RNA guides, Cas9 can be reprogrammed to create specific double-stranded DNA breaks in the genomes of a variety of organisms, ranging from human cells to bacteria, and thus constitutes a powerful tool for genetic engineering. In this review, we described the development and applications of CRISPR-Cas9 system with highlighting the practical considerations for implementing CRISPR-Cas9 technology.

Anthocyanins are a kind of watersoluble plant pigments with some special unique physiological functions, so as to have big attentions. This paper reviews the biosynthetic pathway of anthocyanin and related enzymes, focuses on the physiological functions and mechanisms of anthocyanins, such as antioxidant, liver function protection, cardiovascular disease prevention, anticancer, antiinflammatory, antiinfection and eye protection, and so on. Finally, it makes an prospects on the application of anthocyanins in medicine, food and cosmetics industries in the future.

The culture-independent technique of 16S rRNA clone and sequencing in samples of environments suggests that there exists a host of unique and culture-independent microbes in nature. It is an important subject to learn how to explore as many as microbes. In view of that, this paper reviews the mainly reasons why is difficult for us to culture these culture-independent microbes and introduces the innovative culture technique and the improved culture medium those are proved stunning effective recently. By doing that we believe more and more innovative culture technique will show up in near future.

Basic helix-loop-helix proteins (bHLHs) are found throughout the eukaryotic kingdom, and constitute one of the largest families of plant transcription factors. They can regulate gene expression through interaction with specific motif in target genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that plant bHLHs are monophyletic. bHLHs are necessary for plant normal growth and development, and play important roles in abiotic-stress responses. However, we know little about their origins, structures, and functions due to the large quantities and complexity of plant bHLH family. This paper reviews on the evolution, structure characteristics, biological function of plant bHLHs, especially their functions in adapting to abiotic-stress tolerance, so as to provide a theoretical reference for further research on the function of plant bHLH transcription factors.

The studies on the rational design methods for improving the protein thermalstability were the hotspots in the field of computational biology and protein engineering. Compared to the traditional methods for enhancing the protein thermostability, rational design methods had many advantages, such as high efficiency and strong purposes. Moreover, the methods could not only expand the application scope of enzymes, but also help us to understand the relationship between protein structure and its function. In this paper, we introduced some factors that related to the protein thermostability and strategies usually used to improve the protein thermostability in detail. However, there were many factors that could affect the thermalstability of proteins, and there were many intricate links among these factors. So far, the researchers did not yet propose a rational design strategy that could adapt to all proteins. But it was an important direction that need the computing biologists and protein engineering scientists to study.

With great concern on food security, fresh\|keeping technology developed rapidly, and it became a research trend to seek safe and efficient biopreservation technologies. This paper introduced the principle of biological preservation; reviewed the application of biological technology on fruites and vegetables preservation, including the microognisms and their metabolites，the natural extract and genetic engineering technology; then discussed the deficiencies and development directions of biological preservation technology.

With the development of plant genetic engineering, the application of plant chemical induced gene expression system is becoming more and more important. Chemical induced gene expression system typically consists of two components, the first component is mostly a chimeric transcription factor which can specific bind to the promoter. The second element has a transcription factor binding site for the first element, and thereby controlling the expression of target genes. Here, we review the current widely used one component inducible gene expression system, such as the tetracycline inducible expression system, and two components inducible expression systems, including: ethanol-induced, dexamethasone-induced, β2 estrogen hormone-induced and heat shock-induced systems. This paper mainly discusses the recent progress on chemical inducing gene expression systems and their potential use in plants.

In higher plants, flowering transition represents a crucial node from the vegetative stage to the reproductive stage in plant life cycle. This process is controlled by both genetic and environmental factors. The molecular regulating mechanisms of flowering pathways have been studied extensively in Arabidopsis thaliana and several other flowering plants. There are six pathways involved in flowering control, including autonomous pathway, vernalization pathway, photoperiod pathway, gibberellin pathway, carbohydrates induction, and repression pathway. This review summarizes recent progresses on regulating mechanism of flowering transition of anthophyta, and lays the foundation for future floral control of physiology and molecular biology research.

Lycopene has powerful antioxidative ability, and can effectively reduce the incidence of cancer, angiocardiopathy and other diseases. Nowadays, lycopene becomes a hot topic in functional food and phamaceutical research. However, lycopene is easy to be degraded and isomerized, its poor stability has greatly limited the research and application of lycopene. This article reviews the molecular structure and physiological functions of lycopene, analyzes the relationship of lycopene and diseases, summarizes the progress of the lycopene stability research, and explores the feasibility to solve the technical problems of keeping the lycopene stability in applications.

Promoter is an important element in regulation of gene expression. The regulation role of promoter is the result of a multi-level interaction of multiple factors. The level, location and manner of gene expression are regulated by the promoter, so deeply study of promoter is of great importance for understanding biological growth, defense system and disease. This paper reviews the methods of promoter cloning, bioinformatics analysis and forecasting of promoter, compares two methods of promoter analysis, introduces the progress of promoter methylation and polymorphism, so as to provide a reference for further study of promoters.

The synthesized azo dyes are widely used in food production as a food color because they give stable and light color. However, azo dyes have been reported to be harmful for human health. Therefore, it is necessary to detect their residues in foods by a rapid and accurate method. A review on the recent progress of research for analysis method of azo dyes was presented in this paper, with 36 references cited.

There are many kinds of bioactive components in Mesona chinensis Benth. with low price. In order to further develop and utilize plentiful resource of Mesona chinensis Benth., a survey of research on chemical constituents and medicinal function of Mesona chinensis Benth. in the world were comprehensively introduced. The research trend of Mesona chinensis Benth. in the future was also proposed.

The recombinant Escherichia coli producing pullulanase was studied. After analysis of the data in the shake flask culture, the strategy of producing of pullulanase by high cell density cultivation of recombinant E.coli was investigated. The data of the cell optical density, cell dry mass, separation of soluble and insoluble cell fractions, SDS-PAGE were analyzed cell growth and production of pullulanase. Shake flask experiments were done in the defined medium and LB medium. After 5h of induction, the specific pullululanase concentration obtained on defined medium was considerably higher than that on LB medium, whereas the cell growth was slower. The pullulanase produced on defined medium accumulated in the insoluble cell fraction less than that on LB medium. A pre-determined feeding (μset=0.12) strategy was chosen to maintain carbon-limited growth using a defined medium. Feeding was carried out to increase the cell mass concentration exponentially in the bioreactor in order to prevent the accumulation of acetic acid. Expression of pullulanase was induced when cell concentration OD600 was 70.0. Applying the feeding strategy, final cell concentration of 53.3g per liter dry cell weight (g/L DCW) and production of pullulanase in the soluble cell fraction in a volumetric concentration of 1.35 g per liter were obtained.

Collagen peptide metal chelates are formed by collagen peptides and metal ions through coordinate covalent bonding or adsorption binding. They have been considered as the potential approach to delivering metal mineral elements to consumers with many virtues, such as higher bioavailability, higher safety and higher bioactivity. Chelate mechanism, stability, absorption and utilization, functional activity and production technologies of collagen metal chelates were reviewed and the development prospect were also foreseen in this paper, which was expected to provide reference for related reasearches.

Annexins are calcium-dependent lipid-binding proteins spread through the Eukaryote and Prokaryote. Annexins can reversibly bind to phospholipids and calcium ion. In this review, we surveyed the current knowledge of annexin function and structure, and revealed its important role in the regulation animal and plant life processes, like membrane organization, cell development and apoptosis.

Biological enzyme and microorganism technology play significant roles in tobacco fermentation. The utilization of bio-enzymes and microorganisms to improve the quality and aroma of tobacco has become the focus of tobacco industry. Treating tobacco with bio-enzyme preparation can degrade biomolecules such as protein， pectin and cellulose in tobacco to proteins， pectins， cellulose and other biological macromolecules in tobacco， thus improving the quality and aroma of tobacco. Using microorganisms to ferment tobacco can adjust and improve the proportion of chemical components and increase the formation of aroma substances in tobacco. The application and progress of the technology of bio-enzyme and microbial technology during tobacco flavor production and fermentation， and the mechanism of tobacco fermentation and aroma enhancement techonolgy， were reviewed，especially expatiated on the microbes and enzymes improve tobacco aroma， improving the quality of tobacco leaves， and degradation of protein， starch， pectin， cellulose and other macromolecules substances in tobacco leaves. The problems in practical application of the microbes and enzymes were analysed， so as to provide a theoretical basis for the use of bio-enzymes and microorganism technology to improve tobacco aroma in the future.