Shifting archetype to nature's hidden gems: from sources, purification to uncover the nutritional potential of bioactive peptides.

Contemporary scientific findings revealed that our daily food stuffs are enriched by encrypted bioactive peptides (BPs), evolved by peptide linkage of amino acids or encrypted from the native protein structures. Remarkable to these BPs lies in their potential health benefiting biological activities to serve as nutraceuticals or a lead addition to the development of functional foods. The biological activities of BPs vary depending on the sequence as well as amino acid composition. Existing database records approximately 3000 peptide sequences which possess potential biological activities such as antioxidants, antihypertensive, antithrombotic, anti-adipogenics, anti-microbials, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancerous. The growing evidences suggest that BPs have very low toxicity, higher accuracy, less tissue accretion, and are easily degraded in the disposed environment. BPs are nowadays evolved as biologically active molecules with potential scope to reduce microbial contamination as well as ward off oxidation of foods, amend diverse range of human diseases to enhance the overall quality of human life. Against the clinical and health perspectives of BPs, this review aimed to elaborate current evolution of nutritional potential of BPs, studies pertaining to overcome limitations with respect to special focus on emerging extraction, protection and delivery tools of BPs. In addition, the nano-delivery mechanism of BP and its clinical significance is detailed. The aim of current review is to augment the research in the field of BPs production, identification, characterisation and to speed up the investigation of the incredible potentials of BPs as potential nutritional and functional food ingredient.

Biochemical and proteomic insights revealed selenium priming induced phosphorus stress tolerance in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).

BACKGROUND: Mineral stress is one of the dominating abiotic stresses, which leads to decrease in crop production. Selenium (Se) seed priming is a recent approach to mitigate the plant's mineral deficiency stress. Although not an essential element, Se has beneficial effects on the plants in terms of growth, quality, yield and plant defense system thus, enhancing plant tolerance to mineral deficiency. METHODS AND RESULTS: The present research was accomplished to find out the effect of Se priming on common bean plant (SFB-1 variety) under phosphorus (P) stress. The seeds were grown invitro on four different MGRL media which are normal MGRL media as control with non-Se primed seeds (Se- P+), non -Se primed seeds grown on P deficient MGRL media (Se- P-), Se primed seeds grown on normal MGRL media (Se+P+) and Se primed seeds grown on P deficient MGRL media (Se+P -). The various morphological and biochemical parameters such as proline content, total sugar content, polyphenols and expression of proteins were analyzed under P stress. The results showed that Se priming has significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected the morphological as well as biochemical parameters under normal and P stress conditions. The morphological parameters-length, weight, number of nodes and leaves of Se+P+, Se+P- root and shoot tissue showed significant increase as compared to Se-P+, Se-P-. Similarly various biochemical parameters such as total chlorophyll content, proline, total sugar content and polyphenols of Se+P+, Se+P- increased significantly as compared to Se-P+, Se-P-. The differential protein expression in both Se+P+, Se+P- and Se-P+, Se-P- plants were determined using MALDI-MS/MS. The differentially expressed proteins in Se+P+, Se+P- plants were identified as caffeic acid-3-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and SecA protein (a subunit of Protein Translocan transporter), and are found responsible for lignin synthesis in root cell walls and ATP dependent movement of thylakoid proteins across the membranes in shoot respectively. The differential expression of proteins in plant tissues, validated morphological and biochemical responses such as maintaining membrane integrity, enhanced modifications in cellular metabolism, improved polyphenol activities and expression of defensive proteins against mineral deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The study provided an understanding of Se application as a potential approach increasing tolerance and yield in crop plants against mineral deficiency.

Polyphenolics, antioxidant characterization and DNA barcoding of Kala zeera [Bunium persicum (Boiss.) Fedtsch] through multiple barcode analysis to unravel best barcode combination.

BACKGROUND: Kala zeera [Bunium persicum (Boiss.) Fedtsch] is one of the important spice crops of North Western Himalayas with lot of medicinal and culinary values. In spite of having great importance, this crop is under the threat of extinction due to loss of habitat and lack of awareness. The limited availability of the seeds has ultimately increased the economic value of this spice. The upmarket of Kala zeera leads to its adulteration with other black seeds and cumin seeds. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate polyphenolics and antioxidant properties of Kala zeera genotypes collected from North Western Himalayas and to develop DNA barcodes that can ensure their purity and can also guide in conservation of selected Kala zeera germplasm lines. METHODS AND RESULTS: Various locations of North Western Himalayas were explored for collecting 31 diverse germplasm lines of Kala zeera. The collected germplasm was maintained at our experimental stations during 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. These genotypes were evaluated for different seed traits and the methanolic extract from Kala zeera seeds was examined for total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, antioxidant activities by DPPH and FRAP. The results revealed significant variation in seed traits, polyphenolic content and antioxidant properties. 100 seed weight ranged from 0.05 to 0.35 g, TPC ranged from 7.5 to 22.56 mg/g, TFC ranged from 0.58 to 4.15 mg/g, antioxidant properties DPPH ranged from 168 to 624.4 µg/ml and FRAP ranged from 0.72 to 6.91 mg/g. Further, three different barcodes (ITS, rbcL and psbA-trnH) were used to reveal the authenticity of selected Kala zeera. MEGA 5 software was used for clustering and the barcodes did clustering based on geographical distribution of Kala zeera germplasm. CONCLUSION: Based on molecular barcoding, best barcode combination was identified that may discriminate the Kala zeera germplasm vis-a-vis can authenticate their purity. Moreover, the identified DNA barcodes will have significant role in studying the evolutionary biology of Bunium species and will be important for designing a strategy to conserve the selected Kala zeera germplasm lines. The identified genotypes with high phenolic content and antioxidant activity can further be utilized in Kala zeera breeding programmes.