Probiotic-loaded edible films made from proteins, polysaccharides, and prebiotics as a quality factor for minimally processed fruits and vegetables: A review.

Minimally processed fruits and vegetables (MPFVs) are gaining popularity in households because of their freshness, convenience, and rapid consumption, all of which align with today's busy lifestyles. However, their exposure of large surface areas during peeling and slicing can result in contamination by foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria, posing potential food safety concerns. In addition, enzymatic browning of MPFVs can significantly reduce their consumer appeal. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt certain methods to protect MPFVs. Recent studies have shown that utilizing biopolymer-based edible films containing probiotics is a promising approach to preserving MPFVs. These active food packaging films exhibit barrier function, antioxidant function, and antimicrobial function while protecting the viability of probiotics, which is essential to maintain the nutritional value and quality of MPFVs. This paper reviews microbial contamination in MPFVs and the preparation of probiotic-loaded edible films with common polysaccharides (alginate, gellan gum, and starch), proteins (zein, gelatin, and whey protein isolate), prebiotics (oligofructose, inulin, and fructooligosaccharides). It also explores the potential application of probiotic-loaded biopolymer films/coatings on MPFVs, and finally examines the practical application requirements from a consumer perspective.

LncRNAs in Kawasaki disease and Henoch-Schönlein purpura: mechanisms and clinical applications.

Kawasaki disease (KD) and Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) are the two most predominant types of childhood vasculitis. In childhood vasculitis, factors such as lack of sensitive diagnostic indicators and adverse effects of drug therapy may cause multiorgan system involvement and complications and even death. Many studies suggest that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the mechanism of vasculitis development in children and can be used to diagnose or predict prognosis by lncRNAs. In existing drug therapies, lncRNAs are also involved in drug-mediated treatment mechanisms and are expected to improve drug toxicity. The aim of this review is to summarize the link between lncRNAs and the pathogenesis of KD and HSP. In addition, we review the potential applications of lncRNAs in multiple dimensions, such as diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis prediction. This review highlights that targeting lncRNAs may be a novel therapeutic strategy to improve and treat KD and HSP.

Drought stress-mediated differences in phyllosphere microbiome and associated pathogen resistance between male and female poplars.

Phyllosphere-associated microbes play a crucial role in plant-pathogen interactions while their composition and diversity are strongly influenced by drought stress. As dioecious plant species exhibited secondary dimorphism between the two sexes in response to drought stress, whether such difference will lead to sex-specific differences in phyllosphere microbiome and associated pathogen resistance between male and female conspecifics is still unknown. In this study, we subjected female and male full siblings of a dioecious poplar species to a short period of drought treatment followed by artificial infection of a leaf pathogenic fungus. Our results showed that male plants grew better than females with or without drought stress. Female control plants had more leaf lesion area than males after pathogen infection, whereas drought stress reversed such a difference. Further correlation and in vitro toxicity tests suggested that drought-mediated sexual differences in pathogen resistance between the two plant sexes could be attributed to the shifts in structure and function of phyllosphere-associated microbiome rather than the amount of leaf main defensive chemicals contained in plant leaves. Supportively, the microbiome analysis through high-throughput sequencing indicated that female phyllosphere enriched a higher abundance of ecologically beneficial microbes that serve as biological plant protectants, while males harbored abundant phytopathogens under drought-stressed conditions. The results could provide potential implications for the selection of suitable poplar sex to plants in drought or semi-drought habitats.

Combination of mathematics and label-free proteomics for discovering keratin-derived specific peptide biomarkers to distinguish animal horn-derived traditional Chinese medicines.

Saiga antelope horn and Rhinoceros horn have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. However, due to the protection of wildlife, the application of these rare animal horns has been restricted or prohibited. Therefore, water buffalo horn, goat horn, and yak horn have been applied as alternatives to Rhinoceros horn or Saiga antelope horn in a clinic. It is extremely difficult to distinguish normal animal horns in powdered or decocted form, especially identifying related species such as water buffalo horn, yak horn, and cattle horn. In this work, mathematics set and label-free proteomics analysis were combined for discovering keratin-derived specific peptide biomarkers. By using mathematics set analysis after nano liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-based proteomics, the selected species-specific peptides could be used to identify the authenticity of the Saiga antelope horn and goat horn. Furthermore, peptide biomarkers were selected to distinguish related species-derived horns, water buffalo horn, yak horn, and cattle horn. In total, eight peptide biomarkers were selected and applied for simultaneously distinguishing different horn samples. The present strategy provides a method for peptide biomarkers discovery and also has positive significance for ensuring the quality and efficacy of animal horn-derived traditional Chinese medicines and their products.

Sexual differences in above- and belowground herbivore resistance between male and female poplars as affected by soil cadmium stress.

Dioecious plant species presented sexual differences in metal accumulation and allocation between male and female conspecifics that grown on metal contaminated soil. As the Elemental defense hypothesis postulates that metals accumulated in plant tissues could protect plants from herbivory, whether such sexual dimorphism in response to metal stress of a dioecious plant will lead to differences in herbivore resistance between male and female conspecifics is still unknown. In this study, we used female and male siblings of Populus deltoides to investigate the effect of plant sex on the growth and feeding preferences of four leaf herbivores and a root herbivore under soil cadmium (Cd) stress. The results showed that the male plants accumulated significantly higher Cd in the leaves while the females allocated more Cd in the roots. Leaf herbivores fed on male leaves grew worse than those fed on female leaves under Cd exposure, while the root herbivore showed the opposite results. In addition, all leaf herbivores strongly preferred the leaves from Cd-stressed female plants than male ones. The quantification of gene expression further showed that Cd stress could significantly upregulate more genes involved in Cd uptake, transport and detoxification pathways in male leaves and female roots. In combination with the correlation tests, we postulated that such sexual differences in herbivore resistance between the two plant sexes was most likely due to the different Cd allocation patterns in plant leaves and roots.

Effects of exogenous spermidine on poplar resistance to leaf and root herbivory as affected by soil cadmium stress.

Elemental defense hypothesis (EDH) proposed that metal accumulation in plants could increase plant resistance to herbivores. However, the over-accumulation of metals in low-accumulators such as woody plants will cause adverse effects on plant health. Thus, the application of EDH on low-accumulators in metal contaminated areas is strongly limited. Since the supplement of exogenous spermidine (Spd) was reported to alleviate metal-induced toxicity in plants while stimulating metal accumulation in plant tissues, we hypothesized that such application will further improve plant resistance to herbivores. In this study, we employed a woody plant species, Populus yunnanensis, to test this hypothesis. We first tested a Spd concentration series applied on plants subjected to soil cadmium (Cd) stress and found that the 1 mM Spd strongly promoted plant growth while stimulated Cd accumulation in plant leaves and roots. We further conducted herbivore bioassays to test the growth performance and feeding preference of two leaf herbivore species and a root herbivore species that fed on plants from different treatments. The results showed that the inhibition effect of Cd stressed-plants on herbivore growth was significantly magnified by the addition of Spd. The growth weight of all the three tested herbivores were negatively correlated with increased Cd concentrations in plant tissues. In addition, the feeding preferences of the two leaf herbivore species were strongly repelled by leaf discs from Cd-treated plants with Spd supplement. The results suggested that the application of exogenous Spd at a certain dose could enhance elemental defense of plants against herbivory.

Exogenous nitrogen enhances poplar resistance to leaf herbivory and pathogen infection after exposure to soil cadmium stress.

Elemental defense hypothesis suggests that toxic metals accumulated in plant tissues could enhance plant defense against herbivores and pathogens. Since over-accumulation of metals in plant organs will pose negative effects on plant health, it is necessary to find a way to alleviate metal-induced toxicity in plants while keeping or even improving plant resistance. Exogenous nitrogen (N) application was reported to have such alleviation effect while stimulating metal accumulation in plant tissues. In this study, we examined whether soil N addition in three different doses to a poplar species under cadmium (Cd) stress can simultaneously improve plant growth and resistance to four herbivorous insects and a leaf pathogen. The results showed that N application to Cd-amended soil prominently enhanced plant growth and leaf Cd accumulation. While N addition in three doses all remarkably reduced herbivore growth than control plants, only the highest N dose exerted stronger inhibition than the sole Cd-treated plants. In the paired-choice experiment, plants supplied with the highest N dose showed an enhanced deterrent effect on herbivore preference than plants exposed to sole Cd. Furthermore, plant resistance to the leaf pathogen infection was strongly enhanced as the levels of N addition increased. Leaf sugar and three main defensive chemicals were not affected by N application implied that such enhanced effect of N on plant resistance was due to increased leaf Cd accumulation. Our results suggested that the application of exogenous N over a certain amount could enhance the resistance of Cd-treated plants to leaf herbivory and pathogen infection.