scholarly journals Fruit ripening: dynamics and integrated analysis of carotenoids and anthocyanins

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepica Kapoor ◽  
Andrew J. Simkin ◽  
C. George Priya Doss ◽  
Ramamoorthy Siva

Abstract Background Fruits are vital food resources as they are loaded with bioactive compounds varying with different stages of ripening. As the fruit ripens, a dynamic color change is observed from green to yellow to red due to the biosynthesis of pigments like chlorophyll, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Apart from making the fruit attractive and being a visual indicator of the ripening status, pigments add value to a ripened fruit by making them a source of nutraceuticals and industrial products. As the fruit matures, it undergoes biochemical changes which alter the pigment composition of fruits. Results The synthesis, degradation and retention pathways of fruit pigments are mediated by hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors. Manipulation of the underlying regulatory mechanisms during fruit ripening suggests ways to enhance the desired pigments in fruits by biotechnological interventions. Here we report, in-depth insight into the dynamics of a pigment change in ripening and the regulatory mechanisms in action. Conclusions This review emphasizes the role of pigments as an asset to a ripened fruit as they augment the nutritive value, antioxidant levels and the net carbon gain of fruits; pigments are a source for fruit biofortification have tremendous industrial value along with being a tool to predict the harvest. This report will be of great utility to the harvesters, traders, consumers, and natural product divisions to extract the leading nutraceutical and industrial potential of preferred pigments biosynthesized at different fruit ripening stages.

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel M. Vincent ◽  
Michael P. Barrett

Metabolomics-based studies are proving of great utility in the analysis of modes of action (MOAs) and resistance mechanisms of drugs in parasitic protozoa. They have helped to determine the MOA of eflornithine, half of the gold standard combination therapy in use against human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), as well as the mechanism of resistance to this drug. In Leishmania, metabolomics has also given insight into the MOA of miltefosine, an alkylphospholipid. Several studies on antimony resistance in Leishmania have been conducted, analyzing the metabolic content of resistant lines, offering clues as to the MOA of this class of drugs. A study of chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum combined metabolomics techniques with other genetic and proteomic techniques to offer new insight into the role of the PfCRT protein. The MOA and mechanism of resistance to a group of halogenated pyrimidines in Trypanosoma brucei have also recently been elucidated. Effective as metabolomics techniques are, care must be taken in the design and implementation of these experiments, to ensure the resulting data are meaningful. This review outlines the steps required to conduct a metabolomics experiment as well as provide an overview of metabolomics-based drug research in protozoa to date.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Yu Kim ◽  
Ling Wang ◽  
Zhen Lei ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Wenwen Fan ◽  
...  

AbstractTransposons are mobile DNAs that can cause fatal mutations. To counteract these genome invaders, the host genomes deploy small interfering (si) RNAs to initiate and establish the epigenetic silencing. However, the regulatory mechanisms for the selective recognition of transposons by the host genomes remain still elusive. Here we show that plant transposon RNAs undergo frequent ribosome stalling caused by their inherently unfavourable codon sequence usage. The ribosome stalling then causes the RNA truncation and the localization to siRNA bodies, which are both critical prerequisites for the siRNA processing. In addition, SGS3, the key protein in the siRNA biogenesis pathway, forms liquid droplets in vitro through its prion-like domains implicating the role of liquid-liquid phase separation in the formation of the siRNA bodies. Our study provides a novel insight into the regulatory mechanisms for the recognition of invasive genetic elements which is essential for the maintenance of genome integrity.


2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 313-329
Author(s):  
Anhua Wu ◽  
Katya Ericson ◽  
Wang Chao ◽  
Walter C. Low

Background: IL-13Ra2 is overexpressed by gliomas but not by normal tissue. However, the molecular basis for IL-13Ra2 overexpression in gliomas is unknown.Methods: In the present study we have investigated the regulatory mechanisms that are responsible for the expression of IL-13Ra2 with mutation analysis, quantitative RT-PCR, Flow cytometry analysis, transcription factor binding assay and Elisa.Results: Our results reveal a complex mechanism for regulating IL-13Ra2 expression that involves at least 2 promoters and 4 transcripts of human IL-13Ra2. Transcription factors NFAT and AP1 are necessary and essential for the expression of this GBM related transcript, and are responsible for the high level of expression of IL-13Ra2 in GBM. Most interestingly, we found that expression of this transcript results in the production of a secreted form of IL-13Ra2 and thus may have the potential to be used as a diagnostic biomarker for GBM patients and other cancer patients that express the soluble form of this receptor.Conclusions: This study is the first to characterize the role of NFAT and AP1 in the regulation of IL-13Ra2 expression, and provides insight into understanding the high levels of IL-13Ra2 expressed by GBM cells.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1821
Author(s):  
Changan Zhu ◽  
Shaofang Wu ◽  
Ting Sun ◽  
Zhiwen Zhou ◽  
Zhangjian Hu ◽  
...  

Fruits are excellent sources of essential vitamins and health-boosting minerals. Recently, regulation of fruit ripening by both internal and external cues for the improvement of fruit quality and shelf life has received considerable attention. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a kind of natural plant-derived polyphenol, widely used in the drug therapy and food industry due to its distinct physiological functions. However, the role of RA in plant growth and development, especially at the postharvest period of fruits, remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated that postharvest RA treatment delayed the ripening in tomato fruits. Exogenous application of RA decreased ripening-associated ethylene production and inhibited the fruit color change from green to red based on the decline in lycopene accumulation. We also found that the degradation of sucrose and malic acid during ripening was significantly suppressed in RA-treated tomato fruits. The results of metabolite profiling showed that RA application promoted the accumulation of multiple amino acids in tomato fruits, such as aspartic acid, serine, tyrosine, and proline. Meanwhile, RA application also strengthened the antioxidant system by increasing both the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the contents of reduced forms of antioxidants. These findings not only unveiled a novel function of RA in fruit ripening, but also indicated an attractive strategy to manage and improve shelf life, flavor, and sensory evolution of tomato fruits.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1015-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia J. te Velde ◽  
Niels van der Aa ◽  
Dorret I. Boomsma ◽  
Eus J. W. van Someren ◽  
Eco J. C. de Geus ◽  
...  

This study assessed to what extent genetic and environmental factors contributed to individual differences in adolescent sleep duration, and whether genetic and environmental contributions to sleep duration changed throughout adolescence. A twin-family design was used to gain insight into the genetic and environmental contributions to variation in sleep duration. The study sample consisted of 6,319 adolescent twins (44% males) and 1,359 non-twin siblings (44% males) in the age range of 12 to 20 years (mean age = 16.85,SD= 1.40). The participants self-reported usual sleep duration, which was categorized as less than 8 hours per night, 8–9 hours per night, and more than 9 hours per night. Results showed that the prevalence of shorter than optimum sleep duration, that is, less than 8 hours per night, was high, with the highest prevalence rates in later adolescence. The contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in sleep duration was dependent on age. Variation in sleep duration at the age of 12 years was accounted for by genetic (boys: 34%, girls: 36%), shared environmental (boys: 28%, girls: 45%), and non-shared environmental factors (boys: 38%, girls: 19%). At the age of 20 years, the role of genetic (boys: 47%, girls: 33%) and non-shared environmental factors (boys: 53%, girls: 67%) was more pronounced. It can be concluded from the results that individual differences in sleep duration were accounted for by genetic and non-shared environmental factors throughout adolescence, whereas shared environmental factors account for a substantial part of variation during early adolescence only.


1992 ◽  
Vol 67 (01) ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Levi ◽  
Jan Paul de Boer ◽  
Dorina Roem ◽  
Jan Wouter ten Cate ◽  
C Erik Hack

SummaryInfusion of desamino-d-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP) results in an increase in plasma plasminogen activator activity. Whether this increase results in the generation of plasmin in vivo has never been established.A novel sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the measurement of the complex between plasmin and its main inhibitor α2 antiplasmin (PAP complex) was developed using monoclonal antibodies preferentially reacting with complexed and inactivated α2-antiplasmin and monoclonal antibodies against plasmin. The assay was validated in healthy volunteers and in patients with an activated fibrinolytic system.Infusion of DDAVP in a randomized placebo controlled crossover study resulted in all volunteers in a 6.6-fold increase in PAP complex, which was maximal between 15 and 30 min after the start of the infusion. Hereafter, plasma levels of PAP complex decreased with an apparent half-life of disappearance of about 120 min. Infusion of DDAVP did not induce generation of thrombin, as measured by plasma levels of prothrombin fragment F1+2 and thrombin-antithrombin III (TAT) complex.We conclude that the increase in plasminogen activator activity upon the infusion of DDAVP results in the in vivo generation of plasmin, in the absence of coagulation activation. Studying the DDAVP induced increase in PAP complex of patients with thromboembolic disease and a defective plasminogen activator response upon DDAVP may provide more insight into the role of the fibrinolytic system in the pathogenesis of thrombosis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


Letonica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Māra Grudule

The article gives insight into a specific component of the work of Baltic enlightener Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796) that has heretofore been almost unexplored — the transfer of German musical traditions to the Latvian cultural space. Even though there are no sources that claim that Stender was a composer himself, and none of his books contain musical notation, the texts that had been translated by Stender and published in the collections “Jaunas ziņģes” (New popular songs, 1774) and “Ziņģu lustes” (The Joy of singing, 1785, 1789) were meant for singing and, possibly, also for solo-singing with the accompaniment of some musical instrument. This is suggested, first, by how the form of the translation corresponds to the original’s form; second, by the directions, oftentimes attached to the text, that indicate the melody; and third, by the genres of the German originals cantata and song. Stender translated several compositions into Latvian including the text of the religious cantata “Der Tod Jesu” (The Death of Jesus, 1755) by composer Karl Heinrich Graun (1754–1759); songs by various composers that were widely known in German society; as well as a collection of songs by the composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741–1801) that, in its original form, was published together with notation and was intended for solo-singing (female vocals) with the accompaniment of a piano. This article reveals the context of German musical life in the second half of the 18th century and explains the role of music as an instrument of education in Baltic-German and Latvian societies.


Author(s):  
James Marlatt

ABSTRACT Many people may not be aware of the extent of Kurt Kyser's collaboration with mineral exploration companies through applied research and the development of innovative exploration technologies, starting at the University of Saskatchewan and continuing through the Queen's Facility for Isotope Research. Applied collaborative, geoscientific, industry-academia research and development programs can yield technological innovations that can improve the mineral exploration discovery rates of economic mineral deposits. Alliances between exploration geoscientists and geoscientific researchers can benefit both parties, contributing to the pure and applied geoscientific knowledge base and the development of innovations in mineral exploration technology. Through a collaboration that spanned over three decades, we gained insight into the potential for economic uranium deposits around the world in Canada, Australia, USA, Finland, Russia, Gabon, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Guyana. Kurt, his research team, postdoctoral fellows, and students developed technological innovations related to holistic basin analysis for economic mineral potential, isotopes in mineral exploration, and biogeochemical exploration, among others. In this paper, the business of mineral exploration is briefly described, and some examples of industry-academic collaboration innovations brought forward through Kurt's research are identified. Kurt was a masterful and capable knowledge broker, which is a key criterion for bringing new technologies to application—a grand, curious, credible, patient, and attentive communicator—whether talking about science, business, or life and with first ministers, senior technocrats, peers, board members, first nation peoples, exploration geologists, investors, students, citizens, or friends.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Spartalis ◽  
Eleftherios Spartalis ◽  
Antonios Athanasiou ◽  
Stavroula A. Paschou ◽  
Christos Kontogiannis ◽  
...  

Atherosclerotic disease is still one of the leading causes of mortality. Atherosclerosis is a complex progressive and systematic artery disease that involves the intima of the large and middle artery vessels. The inflammation has a key role in the pathophysiological process of the disease and the infiltration of the intima from monocytes, macrophages and T-lymphocytes combined with endothelial dysfunction and accumulated oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) are the main findings of atherogenesis. The development of atherosclerosis involves multiple genetic and environmental factors. Although a large number of genes, genetic polymorphisms, and susceptible loci have been identified in chromosomal regions associated with atherosclerosis, it is the epigenetic process that regulates the chromosomal organization and genetic expression that plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Despite the positive progress made in understanding the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the knowledge about the disease remains scarce.


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