A Comparison of ß-Carotene, Phytoene and Amino Acids Production in Dunaliella salina DF 15 (CCAP 19/41) and Dunaliella salina CCAP 19/30 Using Different Light Wavelengths.

Strains of Dunaliella salina microalgae are of considerable research and industrial interest because they hyper-accumulate ß-carotene as well as produce high-quality protein. To explore the co-production of valuable compounds in D. salina, this study compared the production of ß-carotene, phytoene and amino acids in two strains cultivated under white, red or blue light until no further nitrogen was available. D. salina DF15 (CCAP 19/41 (PLY DF15)) produced more than 12% ß-carotene (ash-free dry weight (AFDW) basis), and red light triggered the production of 9-cis ß-carotene at a 9-cis/all-trans ß-carotene ratio of 1.5. Phytoene production was also evident in D. salina DF15 under all conditions, particularly under blue light. However, the profile of essential amino acids (EAAs) and calculation of the essential amino acid index (EAAI) was less than ideal in terms of protein quality, for both strains. Umami compounds, quantified as monosodium glutamate (MSG) equivalents, indicated a higher equivalent umami concentration (EUC) in D. salina DF15 under red light (3.2 g MSG/100 g AFDW) than in D. salina CCAP19/30. Overall, D. salina DF15 demonstrates valuable traits for further exploration and product optimisation.

Effect of supplementation with rumen-protected choline and green tea extract on production performance of transition Karan Fries cows.

AIM: The main objective of this study was to estimate the effect of supplementation of rumen-protected choline (RPC) and green tea extract (GTE) on production parameters in transition Karan Fries (KF) cows. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present experiment was carried out on 32 pregnant KF cows. In the control group, cows were fed basal diet. In T1, each cow was fed RPC (55 g/day), in T2 - GTE (3 g/d), and in T3- RPC + GTE (55+3) g/day along with basal diet. The duration of the experiment was 30 days before calving to 60 days after parturition. RESULTS: Feeding of both RPC and GTE significantly increased milk yield (p≤0.01), 4% fat corrected milk yield (p≤0.01), milk fat (p≤0.01), and total solid content (p≤0.05) than control. There was no significant difference (p≥0.05) in milk protein, lactose, and solids not fat (SNF) content among the groups. CONCLUSION: Supplementing RPC and GTE in combination improved milk yield and fat content of the milk without altering protein, lactose content of the milk in transition KF cows.

Green and White Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis): A Source of Developmental, Chemical and Urinary Intrigue.

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is one of the world's top 20 vegetable crops. Both green and white shoots (spears) are produced; the latter being harvested before becoming exposed to light. The crop is grown in nearly all areas of the world, with the largest production regions being China, Western Europe, North America and Peru. Successful production demands high farmer input and specific environmental conditions and cultivation practices. Asparagus materials have also been used for centuries as herbal medicine. Despite this widespread cultivation and consumption, we still know relatively little about the biochemistry of this crop and how this relates to the nutritional, flavour, and neutra-pharmaceutical properties of the materials used. To date, no-one has directly compared the contrasting compositions of the green and white crops. In this short review, we have summarised most of the literature to illustrate the chemical richness of the crop and how this might relate to key quality parameters. Asparagus has excellent nutritional properties and its flavour/fragrance is attributed to a set of volatile components including pyrazines and sulphur-containing compounds. More detailed research, however, is needed and we propose that (untargeted) metabolomics should have a more prominent role to play in these investigations.

Impact of processing on odour-active compounds of a mixed tomato-onion puree.

Gas chromatography-olfactometry revealed thirty-two odour-active compounds in a heat-processed tomato-onion puree, among which twenty-seven were identified by gas chromatography-olfactometry-mass spectrometry (GC-O-MS) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF MS). Based on the results of two olfactometric methods, i.e. detection frequency and aroma extract dilution analysis, the most potent aroma components include: dipropyl disulfide, S-propyl thioacetate, dimethyl trisulfide, 1-octen-3-one, methional, dipropyl trisulfide, 4,5-dimethylthiazole, 2-phenylacetaldehyde and sotolone. Processing of mixed vegetable systems can add complexity in their aroma profiles due to (bio)chemical interactions between the components. Therefore, the impact of different processing steps (i.e. thermal blanching, all-in-one and split-stream processes) on the volatile profile and aroma of a mixed tomato-onion puree has been investigated using a GC-MS fingerprinting approach. Results showed the potential to control the aroma in a mixed tomato-onion system through process-induced enzymatic modulations for producing tomato-onion food products with distinct aroma characteristics.

Potential of different mechanical and thermal treatments to control off-flavour generation in broccoli puree.

The aim of this study was scientifically investigate the impact of the sequence of different thermo-mechanical treatments on the volatile profile of differently processed broccoli puree, and to investigate if any relationship persists between detected off-flavour changes and microstructural changes as a function of selected process conditions. Comparison of the headspace GC-MS fingerprinting of the differently processed broccoli purees revealed that an adequate combination of processing steps allows to reduce the level of off-flavour volatiles. Moreover, applying mechanical processing before or after the thermal processing at 90°C determines the pattern of broccoli tissue disruption, resulting into different microstructures and various enzymatic reactions inducing volatile generation. These results may aid the identification of optimal process conditions generating a reduced level of off-flavour in processed broccoli. In this way, broccoli can be incorporated as a food ingredient into mixed food products with limited implications on sensorial consumer acceptance.

Exploring the effects of inclusion of dietary fresh Azolla on the performance of White Pekin broiler ducks.

AIM: The objective of this study was to investigate the dietary advantages of inclusion of unconventional nutrient source, i.e., Azolla in the basal diet of White Pekin broilers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All ducklings were randomly distributed into three treatment groups with three replicates each and each replicate having 12 ducklings and were reared in deep litter system. Groups were subjected to three dietary treatments such as G1: Basal diet, G2: Basal diet + 5% fresh Azolla of basal diet, G3: Basal diet + 10% fresh Azolla of basal diet. During experimental period, parameters, such as bodyweight, bodyweight gain, feed consumption,feed conversion ratio(FCR), and economic of production,wererecorded. RESULTS: The result showed that body weights in every week, except the 5(th) week, did not differ significantly between groups. However, no significant difference was observed between the groups in any week in terms of absolute body weight gain and feed consumption. As regard to FCR, the 10% Azolla group (G3) showed the best feed efficiency followed by the 5% Azolla group (G2) and the control group (G1). On the basis of profit/bird or profit/kg live weight, each of the Azolla-fed group showed a higher economic efficiency than the control. CONCLUSION: From the experiment, it was concluded that Azollaat 5 or 10% level can be included in the diet to economize the White Pekin broiler farming, and it can be great impetus to poultry farming to include unconventional nutrient source as a dietary supplement.

Synthesis, physicochemical and biochemical studies of 1',2'-oxetane constrained adenosine and guanosine modified oligonucleotides, and their comparison with those of the corresponding cytidine and thymidine analogues.

We have earlier reported the synthesis and antisense properties of the conformationally constrained oxetane-C and -T containing oligonucleotides, which have shown effective down-regulation of the proto-oncogene c-myb mRNA in the K562 human leukemia cells. Here we report on the straightforward syntheses of the oxetane-A and oxetane-G nucleosides as well as their incorporations into antisense oligonucleotides (AONs), and compare their structural and antisense properties with those of the T and C modified AONs (including the thermostability and RNase H recruitment capability of the AON/RNA hybrid duplex by Michaelis-Menten kinetic analyses, their resistance in the human serum, as well as in the presence of exo and endonucleases).

Significant pKa perturbation of nucleobases is an intrinsic property of the sequence context in DNA and RNA.

The pH titration and NMR studies (pH 6.6-12.5) in the heptameric isosequential ssDNA and ssRNA molecules, [d/r(5'-CAQ1GQ2AC-3', with variable Q1/Q2)], show that the pKa of the central G residue within the heptameric ssDNAs (DeltapKa = 0.67 +/- 0.03) and ssRNAs (DeltapKa = 0.49 +/- 0.02) is sequence-dependent. This variable pKa of the G clearly shows that its pseudoaromatic character, hence, its chemical reactivity, is strongly modulated and tuned by its sequence context. In contradistinction to the ssDNAs, the electrostatic transmission of the pKa of the G moiety to the neighboring A or C residues in the heptameric ssRNAs (as observed by the response of the aromatic marker protons of As or Cs) is found to be uniquely dependent upon the sequence composition. This demonstrates that the neighboring As or Cs in ssRNAs have variable electrostatic efficiency to interact with the central G/G-, which is owing to the variable pseudoaromatic characters (giving variable chemical reactivities) of the flanking As or Cs compared to those of the isosequential ssDNAs. The sequence-dependent variation of pKa of the central G and the modulation of its pKa transmission through the nearest-neighbors by variable electrostatic interaction is owing to the electronically coupled nature of the constituent nucleobases across the single strand, which demonstrates the unique chemical basis of the sequence context specificity of DNA or RNA in dictating the biological interaction, recognition, and function with any specific ligand.

The hydrogen bonding and hydration of 2'-OH in adenosine and adenosine 3'-ethyl phosphate.

The 2'-OH group has major structural implications in the recognition, processing, and catalytic properties of RNA. We report here intra- and intermolecular H-bonding of 2'-OH in adenosine 3'-ethyl phosphate (1), 3'-deoxyadenosine (2), and adenosine (3) by both temperature- and concentration-dependent NMR studies, as well as by detailed endo ((3)J(H,H)) and exocyclic ((3)J(H,OH)) coupling constant analyses. We have also examined the nature of hydration and exchange processes of 2'-OH with water by a combination of NOESY and ROESY experiments in DMSO-d(6) containing 2 mol % HOD. The NMR-constrained molecular modeling (by molecular mechanics as well as by ab initio methods both in the gas and solution phase) has been used to characterize the energy minima among the four alternative dihedrals possible from the solution of the Karplus equation for (3)J(H2',OH) and (3)J(H3',OH) to delineate the preferred orientation of 2'-O-H proton in 1 and 2 as well as for 2'/3'-O-H protons in 3. The NMR line shape analysis of 2'-OH gave the DeltaG(H-bond)(298K) of 7.5 kJ mol(-1) for 1 and 8.4 kJ mol(-1) for 3; similar analyses of the methylene protons of 3'-ethyl phosphate moiety in 1 also gave comparable DeltaG(H-bond)(298K) of 7.3 kJ mol(-1). The donor nature of the 2'-OH in the intramolecular H-bonding in 3 is evident from its relatively reduced flexibility [-TDeltaS++](2'-OH) = -17.9(+/-0.5) kJ mol(-1)] because of the loss of conformational freedom owing to the intramolecular 2'O-H...O3' H-bonding, compared to the acceptor 3'-OH in 3 [-TDeltaS++](3'-OH) = -19.8 (+/- 0.6) kJ mol(-1)] at 298 K. The presence of intramolecular 2'-OH...O3' H-bonding in 3 is also corroborated by the existence of weak long-range (4)J(H2',OH3') in 3 (i.e., W conformation of H2'-C2'-C3'-O3'-H) as well as by (3)J(H,OH) dependent orientation of the 2'- and 3'-OH groups. The ROESY spectra for 1 and 3 at 308 K, in DMSO-d(6), show a clear positive ROE contact of both 2'- and 3'-OH with water. The presence of a hydrophilic 3'-phosphate group in 1 causes a much higher water activity in the vicinity of its 2'-OH, which in turn causes the 2'-OH to exchange faster, culminating in a shorter exchange lifetime (tau) for 2'-OH proton with HOD in 1 (tau2'-OH: 489 ms) compared to that in 3 (tau2'-OH: 6897 ms). The activation energy (E(a)) of the exchange with the bound-water for 2'- and 3'-OH in 3 (48.3 and 45.0 kJ mol(-1), respectively) is higher compared to that of 2'-OH in 1 (31.9 kJ mol(-1)), thereby showing that the kinetic availability of hydrated 2'-OH in 1 for any inter- and intramolecular interactions, in general, is owing to the vicinal 3'-phosphate residue. It also suggests that 2'-OH in native RNA can mediate other inter- or intramolecular interactions only in competition with the bound-water, depending upon the specific chemical nature and spatial orientation of other functions with potential for hydrogen bonding in the neighborhood. This availability of the bound water around 2'-OH in RNA would, however, be dictated by whether the vicinal phosphate is exposed to the bulk water or not. This implies that relatively poor hydration around a specific 2'-OH across a polyribonucleotide chain, owing to some hydrophobic microenvironmental pocket around that hydroxyl, may make it more accessible to interact with other donor or acceptor functions for H-bonding interactions, which might then cause the RNA to fold in a specific manner generating a new motif leading to specific recognition and function. Alternatively, a differential hydration of a specific 2'-OH may modulate its nucleophilicity to undergo stereospecific transesterification reaction as encountered in ubiquitous splicing of pre-mRNA to processed RNA or RNA catalysis, in general.