Cerberus is a multifunctional antagonist implicated in embryonic patterning through modulation of Nodal, BMP and Wnt signals. Although its function is largely conserved in chordates, certain activities have diverged, even among vertebrates. Moreover, the antagonistic action of Cerberus from the basal chordate amphioxus toward Nodal, BMP and Wnt signals remains elusive. Here, we compared the activity of amphioxus and Xenopus Cerberus proteins using cross-species assays. We found that amphioxus and Xenopus Cerberus proteins display similar activities in antagonizing Nodal-induced events, but they exhibit both shared and distinct activities in modulating BMP and Wnt signals. Amphioxus Cerberus has reduced neuralizing activity that is dependent on inhibition of BMP signaling, and it modulates the signals of a restricted subset of Wnt proteins. Furthermore, we revealed that Xenopus Cerberus interacts with Wnt4 and Wnt11 to activate canonical Wnt signaling, whereas amphioxus Cerberus lacks this activity. These differences may be correlated with the divergence in the N-terminal region of Cerberus proteins between amphioxus and Xenopus. Our results indicate that chordate Cerberus proteins have evolved sub-functionalities that depend not only on their concentrations, but also on the properties of BMP and Wnt signals. This may account for their evolutionary distinct functions in different patterning processes.

Natural products from marine-derived fungi have attracted considerable attention in the recent two decades. Indolediketopiperazines are one of the most important classes of marine natural products, mainly discovered from the fungal genera Penicillium, Aspergillus and Eurotium. These compounds span a wide range of chemical structures and bioactivities. This review summarizes 155 indolediketopiperazines that were discovered from marine-derived fungi from 2000 to early 2019 and primarily focuses on their chemical diversity and biological function.

Antarctic krill has been widely studied because of its abundant biomass, rich nutritional value, and great production potential. Notably, krill oil (KO) is rich in phospholipids (PLs), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and astaxanthin. A method based on a green switchable hydrophilicity solvent N,N-dimethylcyclohexylamine (DMCHA), which can reversibly change from oil soluble to water soluble in the presence of CO₂ was used to extract KO from frozen Antarctic krill as it consumes less energy than traditional methods. We showed that DMCHA destroyed the surface structure of Antarctic krill and accelerated the dissolution of KO. In addition, this method enabled the PL extraction to reach up to 80.2% of total PLs, among which PC accounted for the highest proportion, up to 90.91% in PL. In fact, the astaxanthin extraction reached up to 81.44% of total astaxanthin while the fatty acid (FA) extraction up to 84.35%. The KO extracted through DMCHA was rich in PUFA, up to 47.74%, and the content of EPA + DHA reached 42.16% of total FA content. Furthermore, the amount of residual solvent in the lipid phase was just 0.23% of the DMCHA used for the extraction and the recovery rate of solvent was up to 93.2%. Our results demonstrated the high efficiency of oil extraction and the environmental friendliness of this method.