Examining the key determinants of the jordanian customer's adoption of genetically modified food.

Genetically modified food (GMF) is one of the most debated issues in the food market. There has been considerable interest from both academic researchers and policy makers regarding the antecedents and consequences of the commercial adoption of GMF applications. Conceptually, GMF can be defined as "Genetically modified (hereafter GM) foods are produced from genetically modified seeds or ingredients derived from plants or animals whose DNA has been manipulated using genetic engineering methods" [1, p. 2861]. However, only a limited number of studies have tested the related issues of GMF products from a customer perspective. Thus, this project intends to discover and examine the main drivers and hindrances in predicting customers' intention and buying decision behaviour in developing Arabian countries (i.e., Jordan). A diffusion of innovations (DOIs) model was selected as the theoretical basis for the current study project. A field survey study was conducted to collect the requested quantitative data from a convenience sample of Jordanian customers. Statistical results largely supported the role of relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, social approval, awareness, perceived risk and price value on the behavioural intention to adopt GMF products, which in turn significantly predicted actual adoption behaviour. The results of the current project will hopefully expand the current academic understanding of the main factors that predict Jordanian customers' perception and adoption of GMF products.

Molecular Characterization of Dehydrin in Azraq Saltbush among Related Atriplex Species.

Atriplex spp. (saltbush) is known to survive extremely harsh environmental stresses such as salinity and drought. It mitigates such conditions based on specialized physiological and biochemical characteristics. Dehydrin genes (DHNs) are considered major players in this adaptation. In this study, a novel DHN gene from Azrak (Jordan) saltbush was characterized along with other Atriplex species from diverse habitats. Intronless DHN-expressed sequence tags (495-761 bp) were successfully cloned and sequenced. Saltbush dehydrins contain one S-segment followed by three K-segments: an arrangement called SK3-type. Two substantial insertions were detected including three copies of the K2-segemnet in A. canescens. New motif variants other than the six-serine standard were evident in the S-segment. AhaDHN1 (A. halimus) has a cysteine residue (SSCSSS), while AgaDHN1 (A. gardneri var. utahensis) has an isoleucine residue (SISSSS). In contrast to the conserved K1-segment, both the K2- and K3-segment showed several substitutions, particularly in AnuDHN1 (A. nummularia). In addition, a parsimony phylogenetic tree based on homologs from related genera was constructed. The phylogenetic tree resolved DHNs for all of the investigated Atriplex species in a superclade with an 85% bootstrap value. Nonetheless, the DHN isolated from Azraq saltbush was uniquely subclustred with a related genera Halimione portulacoides. The characterized DHNs revealed tremendous diversification among the Atriplex species, which opens a new venue for their functional analysis.

Genetic Signature and Serocompatibility Evidence for Drug Resistant Campylobacter jejuni.

Campylobacteriosis, a foodborne illness, is one of the world's leading causes of gastrointestinal illness. This study investigates the link between human campylobacteriosis and the consumption of potentially contaminated food with Campylobacter jejuni. Three hundred sixty samples were collected from humans, chicken cloaca, raw chicken meat, unpasteurized milk, and vegetables. The chickens were obtained from licensed and non-licensed slaughterhouses, and only the necks and wings were studied. Samples were enriched under microaerobic conditions then cultured on the modified charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar. Bacteria was identified by staining, biochemical testing, and molecular identification by the polymerase chain reaction for the virulence genes; hipO, asp, dnaJ, cadF, cdtA, cdtB, and cdtC. The genomic homogeneity of C. jejuni between human and chicken isolates was assessed by the serological Penner test and the pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Campylobacter was not detected in the vegetables and pasteurized milk, though, only twenty isolates from chickens and clinical samples were presumed to be Campylobacter based on their morphology. The biochemical tests confirmed that five isolates were C. coli, and fifteen isolates were C. jejuni including two isolates from humans, and the remaining were from chickens. The colonization of C. jejuni in chickens was significantly lower in necks (6.66%) obtained from licensed slaughterhouses compared to those obtained from non-licensed slaughterhouses (33.3%). The antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that all identified C. jejuni isolates were resistant to antibiotics, and the majority of isolates (53.5%) showed resistance against six antibiotics, though, all isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, and aztreonam. The Penner test showed P:21 as the dominant serotype in isolates from humans, necks, and cloaca. The serohomology of C. jejuni from human isolates and chicken necks, wings, and cloaca was 71%, 36%, 78%, respectively. The PFGE analysis of the pattern for DNA fragmentation by the restriction enzyme Smal showed a complete genotypic homology of C. jejuni human isolates and chicken necks compared to partial homology with cloacal isolates. The study brings attention to the need for effective interventions to ensure best practices for safe poultry production for commercial food chain supply to limit infection with foodborne pathogens, including Campylobacter.

Developmental Landscape of Potential Vaccine Candidates Based on Viral Vector for Prophylaxis of COVID-19.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, arose at the end of 2019 as a zoonotic virus, which is the causative agent of the novel coronavirus outbreak COVID-19. Without any clear indications of abatement, the disease has become a major healthcare threat across the globe, owing to prolonged incubation period, high prevalence, and absence of existing drugs or vaccines. Development of COVID-19 vaccine is being considered as the most efficient strategy to curtail the ongoing pandemic. Following publication of genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, globally extensive research and development work has been in progress to develop a vaccine against the disease. The use of genetic engineering, recombinant technologies, and other computational tools has led to the expansion of several promising vaccine candidates. The range of technology platforms being evaluated, including virus-like particles, peptides, nucleic acid (DNA and RNA), recombinant proteins, inactivated virus, live attenuated viruses, and viral vectors (replicating and non-replicating) approaches, are striking features of the vaccine development strategies. Viral vectors, the next-generation vaccine platforms, provide a convenient method for delivering vaccine antigens into the host cell to induce antigenic proteins which can be tailored to arouse an assortment of immune responses, as evident from the success of smallpox vaccine and Ervebo vaccine against Ebola virus. As per the World Health Organization, till January 22, 2021, 14 viral vector vaccine candidates are under clinical development including 10 nonreplicating and four replicating types. Moreover, another 39 candidates based on viral vector platform are under preclinical evaluation. This review will outline the current developmental landscape and discuss issues that remain critical to the success or failure of viral vector vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

Human glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) is an antimicrobial adjuvant re-sensitising multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

Increasing antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria has mandated the development of both novel antibiotics and alternative therapeutic strategies. Evidence of interplay between several gastrointestinal peptides and the gut microbiota led us to investigate potential and broad-spectrum roles for the incretin hormone, human glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) against the Enterobacteriaceae bacteria, Escherichia coli and Erwinia amylovora. GIP had a potent disruptive action on drug efflux pumps of the multidrug resistant bacteria E. coli TG1 and E. amylovora 1189 strains. The effect was comparable to bacterial mutants lacking the inner and outer membrane efflux pump factor proteins AcrB and TolC. While GIP was devoid of direct antimicrobial activity, it has a potent membrane depolarizing effect, and at low concentrations, it significantly potentiated the activity of eight antibiotics and bile salt by reducing MICs by 4-8-fold in E. coli TG1 and 4-20-fold in E. amylovora 1189. GIP can thus be regarded as an antimicrobial adjuvant with potential for augmenting the available antibiotic arsenal.

Phenolics in Mediterranean and Middle East Important Fruits.

BACKGROUND: Phenolic compounds (polyphenols) are common plant secondary metabolites playing different roles in plants, and some of these vegetables and correlated fruits-figs, grapes, pomegranates, olives, date palms, etc.-contain remarkable and diversified amounts of these substances. In addition, polyphenols are reported to show positive effects for human health, because of their antioxidant behavior. Figs are an excellent source of polyphenols with highest concentrations of proanthocyanidins. Actually, figs contain higher amounts of polyphenols than red wine and tea. OBJECTIVE: Antioxidant activity of several flavonoids (a group of polyphenols) in figs is higher than that of, vitamin C, glutathione, or vitamin E. Pomegranates contain very high levels of polyphenols as compared to other fruits and vegetables. It is used in folklore medicine for the treatment of various diseases, such as hepatic damage, snakebite, ulcer, etc. METHOD: The health-positive potential of pomegranate fruit has been mainly attributed to ellagitannins, the predominant class of phenolics in pomegoxidation. RESULTS: The chief phenolic compound found in fresh olive is the bitter secoiridoid oleuropein.. CONCLUSIONS: Processing of table olive decreases levels of oleuropein with correlated increases in the hydrolysis of hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol. Many of the health benefits reported for olives are thought to be associated with the levels of hydroxytyrosol. Date palm represents a staple food in most of the Arabian countries and is commonly consumed in several parts of the world. HIGHLIGHTS: Numerous researches revealed the antibacterial, anti-hyperlipidemic, hepatoprotective, antimutagenic, and nephroprotective activity of date fruits, with reported anticancer and anti-fungal features.

Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Salmonella spp. From Irrigation Water in Two Major Sources in Jordan.

Irrigation water could be a direct source of pathogenic microorganisms that contaminates fresh produce and causes human diseases. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and its serotypes Typhimurium and Enteritidis, antimicrobial susceptibility and multidrug resistance (MDR) status, and seasonal variation, of Salmonella spp. in irrigation water of King Abdullah Canal (KAC) and Wadi Shueib (WS) in Jordan. The study results demonstrated that 32.2% (29/90) of irrigation water was contaminated with Salmonella spp. and the irrigation water of WS was found highly contaminated (62.1%) with Salmonella spp. compared to KAC (37.9%). In addition, higher prevalence of Salmonella were recorded in spring (33.3%) and summer (36.3%) seasons, compared to winter seasons. Among the contaminated irrigation water samples, prevalence of Salmonella Typhimurium serotype was found in (37.9%) (11/29) samples, while S. Enteritidis was absent. The most common antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella isolates was observed as tetracycline (11/29, 37.9%) and 6 (20.7%) Salmonella Typhimurium isolates were found multidrug resistance (MDR). Thus, this study results confirmed that the irrigation water was contaminated with pathogenic MDR Salmonella spp.

A TRIZ-inspired bat algorithm for gene selection in cancer classification.

Gene expression data are expected to make a great contribution in the producing of efficient cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Gene expression data are coded by large measured genes, and only of a few number of them carry precious information for different classes of samples. Recently, several researchers proposed gene selection methods based on metaheuristic algorithms for analysing and interpreting gene expression data. However, due to large number of selected genes with limited number of patient's samples and complex interaction between genes, many gene selection methods experienced challenges in order to approach the most relevant and reliable genes. Hence, in this paper, a hybrid filter/wrapper, called rMRMR-MBA is proposed for gene selection problem. In this method, robust Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevancy (rMRMR) as filter to select the most promising genes and an modified bat algorithm (MBA) as search engine in wrapper approach is proposed to identify a small set of informative genes. The performance of the proposed method has been evaluated using ten gene expression datasets. For performance evaluation, MBA is evaluated by studying the convergence behaviour of MBA with and without TRIZ optimisation operators. For comparative evaluation, the results of the proposed rMRMR-MBA were compared against ten state-of-arts methods using the same datasets. The comparative study demonstrates that the proposed method produced better results in terms of classification accuracy and number of selected genes in two out of ten datasets and competitive results on the remaining datasets. In a nutshell, the proposed method is able to produce very promising results with high classification accuracy which can be considered a promising contribution for gene selection domain.

Bioremediation of cadmium-contaminated water systems using intact and alkaline-treated alga (Hydrodictyon reticulatum) naturally grown in an ecosystem.

Cadmium can enter water, soil, and food chain in amounts harmful to human health by industrial wastes. The use of intact and NaOH-treated dried algal tissues (Hydrodictyon reticulatum), a major ecosystem bio-component, for Cd removal from aqueous solutions was characterized. Cadmium biosorption was found to be dependent on solution pH, bioadsorbent dose, the interaction between pH and dose, contact time, and initial Cd concentration. The experimental results indicated that the biosorption performance of alkaline-treated algal tissues was better than that of intact tissues. The maximum biosorption capacities were 7.40 and 12.74 mg g-1 for intact and alkaline-treated bioadsorbents, respectively, at optimum operating conditions. Biosorption reaches equilibrium after 24 and 240 minutes of contact, respectively, for alkaline-treated and intact bioadsorbents. Cadmium biosorption was best fitted to Langmuir isotherm model (R2 ≈ 0.99) and the kinetic study obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, which suggests chemisorption as the rate-limiting step in the biosorption process. Alkaline-treated algal tissues can be used as a new material of low-cost bioadsorbent for continuous flow rate treatment systems.

Differential allelopathic expression of different plant parts of Achillea biebersteinii.

Achillea biebersteinii (Asteraceae) is a perennial medicinal plant and has a wide distributional range in the Mediterranean region. The present study investigated the inhibitory effects of different plant parts of A. biebersteinii on germination characteristics and seedling growth of wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum). Water extracts were prepared by incubating separately five grams of dried powder of roots, stems, leaves and flowers of A. biebersteinii in 100 ml of distilled water for 24 h and distilled water was used as the control. The water extracts from different plant parts of A. biebersteinii differed in their effects on the germination and seedling growth of wild barley. Water extracts prepared from leaves and flowers were more suppressive to germination of wild barley than root and stem extracts. The maximum inhibition in radical and plumule growth of germinating caryopses and in root and shoot growth of greenhouse-grown wild barley was recorded for leaf extract followed by flower extract. The lowest Chl a, Chl b and total chlorophyll and protein contents were resulted after exposure to leaf extracts. According to these results, the inhibitory effects of different A. biebersteinii plant parts can be arranged in the order: leaf > flower > stem > root.

Cloning and molecular characterization of a flavin-dependent oxidoreductase gene from barley.

Oxophytodienoate reductases (OPRs) are a small group of flavin-dependent oxidoreductases in plants. In this study, a new member of the OPR gene family (HvOPR2) was cloned from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The full-length cDNA of HvOPR2 was 1,206 bp with an open reading frame of 1,101 bp, encoding a 366 amino acids long polypeptide with a predicted molecular weight of 40.52 and a theoretical isoelectric point of 6.21. The corresponding genomic clone of HvOPR2 was isolated using the PCR amplification technique and was found to consist of five exons and four introns. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the deduced HvOPR2 has a considerable homology with other plant OPRs and possessed the flavin oxidoreductase/NADH oxidase substrate-binding domain. Phylogenetic analysis showed that HvOPR2 codes for the OPR of subgroup I, which contains enzymes that are not required for jasmonic acid biosynthesis. Time-course transcriptional profiling of HvOPR2 was analyzed in response to a variety of abiotic stresses and hormonal treatments by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The HvOPR2 gene was induced in response to drought, hydrogen peroxide, and wounding. Moreover, the corresponding mRNA transcripts were increased in response to jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, but not in response to abscisic acid. These results strongly suggested a role for HvOPR2 in barley defense/response to abiotic stresses and signaling molecules.