[Integration of nutritional care into cancer treatment: need for improvement]. / Soin nutritionnel intégré au soin oncologique: un besoin d'optimisation.

Progresses in cancer treatment transformed cancer into a chronic disease associated with growing nutritional problems. Poor nutritional status of cancer patients worsens morbidity, mortality, overall cost of care and decreases patients' quality of life, oncologic treatments tolerance and efficacy. These adverse effects lead to treatment modifications or interruptions, reducing the chances to control or cure cancer. Implementation of an interdisciplinary and longitudinal integration of nutritional care and nutritional information into cancer treatment (The OncoNut Program) could prevent or treat poor nutritional status and its adversely side effects.

Jasmonate controls late development stages of petal growth in Arabidopsis thaliana.

In Arabidopsis, four homeotic gene classes, A, B, C and E, are required for the patterning of floral organs. However, very little is known about how the activity of these master genes is translated into regulatory processes leading to specific growth patterns and the formation of organs with specific shapes and sizes. Previously we showed that the transcript variant BPEp encodes a bHLH transcription factor that is involved in limiting petal size by controlling post-mitotic cell expansion. Here we show that the phytohormone jasmonate is required for control of BPEp expression. Expression of BPEp was negatively regulated in opr3 mutant flowers that are deficient in jasmonate synthesis. Moreover, the expression of BPEp was restored in opr3 flowers following exogenous jasmonate treatments. Expression of the second transcript variant BPEub, which originates from the same gene as BPEp via an alternative splicing event, was not affected, indicating that BPEp accumulation triggered by jasmonate occurs at the post-transcriptional level. Consistent with these data, opr3 exhibited an increase in petal size as a result of increased cell size, as well as a modified vein pattern, phenotypes that are similar to those of the bpe-1 mutant. Furthermore, exogenous treatments with jasmonate rescued petal phenotypes associated with loss of function of OPR3. Our data demonstrate that jasmonate signaling downstream of OPR3 is involved in the control of cell expansion and in limiting petal size, and that BPEp is a downstream target that functions as a component mediating jasmonate signaling during petal growth.

Low-cost foods: how do they compare with their brand name equivalents? A French study.

OBJECTIVE: Consumers are increasingly relying on low-cost foods, although it is not clear if the nutritional quality of these foods is fully maintained. The aim of the present work was to analyse the relationship between cost and quality within a given food category. DESIGN AND SETTING: The relationship was analysed between nutritional quality and cost for 220 food products belonging to seventeen different categories, controlling for package type and package size. Given that a summary of nutrient information was not available on the product label, a novel ingredient quality score was developed based on listed product ingredients. RESULTS: Within a given category, the lowest-priced foods were not different from the equivalent branded products in terms of overall energy or total fat content. Nevertheless, a positive relationship, small but significant, was observed between the price and the ingredient quality score. On average, the branded products cost 2.5 times more than the low-cost products, for an equivalent energy and lipid content, and had a slightly higher (1.3 times) ingredient quality score. CONCLUSIONS: More studies are necessary to evaluate the nutritional quality of low-cost foods. This evaluation would be facilitated if nutrition labelling was mandatory. Yet in view of the present results, it does not seem to be justified to divert consumers, especially the poorest, from low-cost foods because this may have an adverse effect on the nutritional quality of their diet, by reducing further the fraction of their food budget spent on fresh fruit and vegetables.

BIGPETALp, a bHLH transcription factor is involved in the control of Arabidopsis petal size.

In Arabidopsis, APETALA1, PISTILLATA, APETALA3 and SEPALLATA interact to form multimeric protein complexes required to specify petal identity. However, the downstream events that lead to petal specific shape and size remain largely unknown. Organ final size can be influenced by cell number or cell expansion or both. To date, no gene that specifically limits petal size by controlling postmitotic cell expansion has been identified. Here we have identified a novel petal-expressed, basic helix-loop-helix encoding gene (BIGPETAL, BPE) that is involved in the control of petal size. BPE is expressed via two mRNAs derived from an alternative splicing event. The BPEub transcript is expressed ubiquitously, whereas the BPEp transcript is preferentially expressed in petals. We demonstrate that BPEp is positively regulated downstream of APETALA3, PISTILLATA, APETALA1 and PISTILLATA3 and is negatively regulated downstream of AGAMOUS. Plants that lack the petal-expressed variant BPEp have larger petals as a result of increased cell size, showing that BPEp interferes with postmitotic cell expansion. BPEp is therefore a part of the network that links the patterning genes to final morphogenesis.

Alteration of gibberellin response in transgenic tobacco plants which express a human Lewis fucosyltransferase.

In plants, Lewisa type N-glycans may be involved in cell-to-cell communication and recognition. N-glycoproteins harboring Lewisa glycotopes are mainly found in plasma membranes and cell walls. Some can be also involved in cell wall synthesis or the loosening process, and subsequently in cell elongation. In order to determine the potential role(s) of the alpha4-fucosylation during vegetative development, transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing a human Lewis fucosyltransferase (hFUT3), which transfers a fucose residue in a alpha(1,4)-linkage on complex glycans, have been developed. The heterologous enzyme hFUT3 was strongly expressed and fully functional in transgenic tobacco. Transgenic plants showed a delay in growth linked to a reduction of internode length. Furthermore, transgenic seedling roots were significantly shorter than wild-type roots and the length of their epidermis cells was reduced. Strikingly, root growth was completely and specifically restored following gibberellin treatment. Etiolated hypocotyls of hFUT3 overexpressors were also more sensitive to exogenous gibberellin. Furthermore, paclobutrazol, an inhibitor of gibberellin synthesis, induced a similar effect on control and transgenic dark-grown hypocotyls suggesting that gibberellin biosynthesis was probably not altered in seedlings overexpressing hFUT3. Thus, alpha4-fucosylation could act as a possible modulator of conformation and/or functioning of N-glycoproteins involved in the gibberellin-dependent elongation process.

alpha4-Fucosyltransferase is regulated during flower development: increases in activity are targeted to pollen maturation and pollen tube elongation.

alpha4-Fucosylation represents a final step of protein N- glycosylation. alpha4-fucosylated N-glycans are thought to be involved in cell-to-cell communication and recognition in primates and plants. Nevertheless, in the plant life cycle, the function of alpha4-fucosylation remains largely unknown. To gain an insight into the role of alpha4-fucosylation during development, the study focused on tobacco flowers. It is shown that an increase in alpha(1,4)fucosyltransferase (Fuc-T) activity is only observed during anther development, whereas it remains at a constant but low level (around 20 pmol Fuc h(-1) mg(-1) protein) in the gynoecium and perianth. At least a 4-fold higher activity is detected in mature pollen grains. These data suggest that alpha(1,4)Fuc-T activity is regulated during anther development. Furthermore, alpha(1,4)Fuc-T activity could be required during pollen tube elongation where the activity level peaks at 350 pmol h(-1) mg(-1) protein. Based on enzyme profile and cycloheximide effects on pollen germination and activity, it is hypothesized that the gene encoding alpha4-Fuc-T could be regulated late during pollen development. A potential role of alpha4- fucosylation during pollen tube elongation is also discussed.