Such a lipidomic biosignature could be used as a potential circulating biomarker for monitoring the “health status” or the efficacy of nutritional intervention with omega-3s in humans. The involvement of L-asparaginase activity in several metabolic pathways suggests that mutating ansB could lead to metabolic impairments, which in turn could decrease overall bacterial fitness. However, our in vitro growth studies found no differences in the growth rates of mutant and wild type cells, which suggests that although ansB is expressed and functional in wild type S. flexneri cells grown in vitro, its activity is not required for bacterial growth in vitro under nutrient rich or nutrient stressed conditions. The results of our growth studies are not surprising as AnsB in E. coli, is essential for growth under low oxygen, poor carbon source conditions by providing an alternative electron acceptor. Therefore although this gene is expressed in S. flexneri cells grown aerobically, the activity of this enzyme may only be critical under anaerobiosis. Therefore further growth studies need to be performed under anaerobic conditions in order to determine whether ansB mutant cells show reduced bacterial fitness. Successful establishment of bacterial infection requires adherence to host tissue. Members of the family Enterobacteriaceae use a plethora of strategies to adhere to host tissues, ranging from the use of pili to the secretion of highly specialized adhesion molecules. The molecular mechanisms used by S. flexneri to adhere to host cells are relatively unknown. Previous studies have shown that the bacterial Type III secretory Ipa proteins, especially IpaB, facilitate adherence to mammalian tissue. In this study, western immunoblots confirmed that IpaB levels in DansB and wild type cells are comparable, which suggests that there may be an IpaB-independent mechanism involved in S. flexneri adhesion to host cells. The high demand for energy worldwide and fossil fuel reserves depletion have generated increasing interest in renewable biofuel sources. The use of bioethanol produced from lignocellulosic material can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic material, for example, waste products from many agricultural activities, is a promising renewable resource for bioethanol production. This generally cheap and abundant material does not compete with food production compared with agricultural crops. The conversion of lignocellulosic material to bioethanol has been a research focus in China for the past decades. In China, corn stover is an agricultural residue that is produced annually. Therefore, research on ethanol production from corn stover is of high importance in the new energy resource development. The conversion process of lignocellulosic material to bioethanol generally includes four steps, namely, pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation.