[Evaluation of the Acute Toxicity and Genotoxicity of the Rice Biofortified with ß-Glucan].

OBJECTIVE: To provide a scientific evaluation of the food safety of the rice biofortified with ß-glucan. METHODS: The acute toxicity and genotoxicity of the rice were evaluated by 14-day feeding experiment, Ames experiment, erythrocyte micronucleus test and mouse lymphoma thymidine kinase gene ( TK) mutation assay respectively. RESULTS: In the acute toxicity test, there was no obvious toxicity of rice biofortified with ß-glucan, and no abnormality was found in anatomical observation. The median lethal dose (LD 50) to rats and mice wereall greater than 15 mg/kg, which belonged to the actual non-toxic level. Whether with S 9 activation or not, no genotoxicity was found to the tested strains TA97a, TA98, TA100, TA102 and TA1535. No induction of polychromatic erythrocytes and inhibition of bone marrow were found in erythrocyte micronucleus test. The results of TK gene mutation assay did not show the mutagenicity of ß-glucan bioaugmentation rice. All results of the three genotoxicity tests were negative. CONCLUSION: Under the current experimental conditions, ß-glucan biofortified rice showed no obvious acute toxicity and genotoxicity.

InN nanorods prepared with CrN nanoislands by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy.

The authors report the influence of CrN nanoisland inserted on growth of baseball-bat InN nanorods by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under In-rich conditions. By inserting CrN nanoislands between AlN nucleation layer and the Si (111) substrate, it was found that we could reduce strain form Si by inserting CrN nanoisland, FWHM of the x-ray rocking curve measured from InN nanorods from 3,299 reduced to 2,115 arcsec. It is due to the larger strain from lattice miss-match of the film-like InN structure; however, the strain from lattice miss-match was obvious reduced owing to CrN nanoisland inserted. The TEM images confirmed the CrN structures and In droplets dissociation from InN, by these results, we can speculate the growth mechanism of baseball-bat-like InN nanorods.