scholarly journals Ornacitrus: Development of Genetically Modified Anthocyanin-expressing Citrus with Both Ornamental and Fresh Fruit Potential

2016 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjul Dutt ◽  
Daniel Stanton ◽  
Jude W. Grosser

Anthocyanins are beneficial bioflavonoids that have numerous roles in human health maintenance, disease prevention, and overall well-being. In addition, anthocyanins are key to the consumer appeal of many ornamental plants. Most citrus (Citrus L.) plants do not produce anthocyanins under warm tropical and subtropical conditions. Anthocyanin pigments, responsible for the “blood” color of blood orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck], are produced after exposure to cold conditions during the fruit’s development. The transcription factor Ruby is responsible for the production of anthocyanin in blood orange. Functionally, similar genes exist in other fruit crops such as grape [Vitis vinifera L. (VvmybA1 and VvmybA2)] and apple [Malus ×domestica Borkh (MdMYB10)]. Here, VvmybA1 and Ruby genes were constitutively expressed in ‘Mexican’ lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle). This cultivar performs optimally under Florida’s humid subtropical environment and has a short juvenile phase. Constitutive expression of VvmybA1 or Ruby resulted in anthocyanin pigmentation in the leaves, stems, flowers, and fruit. An increased pigmentation of the outer layer(s) of stem tissue was observed in ‘Mexican’ lime overexpressing the VvmybA1, whereas lower anthocyanin levels were observed in plants overexpressing Ruby. Enhanced pigmentation was also observed in the young leaves; however, pigment intensity levels decreased as the leaves matured. Flower color ranged from light pink to fuchsia and the fruit pulp of several ‘Mexican’ lime lines were maroon; similar to a blood orange. The results demonstrate that expression of anthocyanin-related genes can affect temporal pigmentation patterns in citrus. It also opens up the possibility for the development of modified blood orange and other cultivars adapted to the subtropical environment.

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728752110115
Author(s):  
Mary-Ann Cooper ◽  
Ralf Buckley

Leisure tourism, including destination choice, can be viewed as an investment in mental health maintenance. Destination marketing measures can thus be analyzed as mental health investment prospectuses, aiming to match tourist desires. A mental health framework is particularly relevant for parks and nature tourism destinations, since the benefits of nature for mental health are strongly established. We test it for one globally iconic destination, using a large-scale qualitative approach, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourists’ perceptions and choices contain strong mental health and well-being components, derived largely from autonomous information sources, and differing depending on origins. Parks agencies emphasize factual cognitive aspects, but tourism enterprises and destination marketing organizations use affective approaches appealing to tourists’ mental health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buyantungalag Battulga ◽  
Marc Reginald Benjamin ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Enkhmandakh Bat-Enkh

Background: Subjective well-being (SWB) has a protective role in mental health maintenance and is prone to change during short stressful moments, such as pregnancy. Longstanding research suggests that social support (SS) from the partner and family members of pregnant women directly or indirectly acts as a buffer against negative mental outcomes. For happier pregnancies, it is important to understand how SS and pregnancy affect the SWB.Objective: This review aims to examine the extended association of being pregnant and SS on the SWB of pregnant women.Methods: A systematic review was conducted in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Articles published in peer-reviewed journals were included regardless of the year and if they had assessed the impact of at least one SWB or SS outcome among healthy pregnant women. The tools of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute were used for quality assessment.Results: Thirty-four studies that assessed the domains of SWB measurements, such as happiness, quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction, positive and negative effects, and well-being, were included and its association with either pregnancy or SS was summarized. Variable results, such as life satisfaction, happiness, and mental component of QoL, were found to be high during pregnancy, but positive emotion and physical components of QoL had decreased. Almost universally, SS during pregnancy was found to have a positive association with all measurements of SWB.Conclusion: This study had found that, despite some arising trends, pregnancy itself does not necessarily have similar impacts on SWB across healthy pregnant women. However, SS had a significant effect on SWB.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Irina Mildawani ◽  
Arief Rahman

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 affected countries across the world and sudden disruptions to everyday life and impact well-being. The implementation of exceptional procedures of social distancing includes working places and schools’ closures urged people to stay at home to reduce the number of close physical interactions and decrease the spreading of pandemic. With the long hours of family members staying at home, people prefer to do some activities at home. Doing gardening is seen as one of the preferences of urban inhabitants. However, few studies have measured the preference of urban gardening, particularly during household gardening in Jabodetabek, Indonesia. This paper examines people preferences on household gardening during the pandemic of Covid-19, comparing it with their activities before and predict it with possibility after the pandemic. We explore how type of gardening varies between vegetable or ornamental plants, community or household garden type, and the persons involved during gardening. Using google form, 148 respondents in Jabodetabek were answering between July-Dec 2020. Our study examines the emotional well-being (EWB) using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA), applying codes and categories. Gardening as one of the favorable activities considered to generate happy time with family and they would like to continue the activities after the pandemic. However, landscape architect was not yet chosen as the gardener when they need professional assistance.  This might rise a future research about the role of landscape architect in gardening movement in urban community gardening


Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Donno ◽  
Federica Turrini

Changes in lifestyle and demographics, rising consumer incomes, and shifting preferences due to advanced knowledge about the relationships between food and health contribute to generate new needs in the food supply. Today, the role of food is not only intended as hunger satisfaction and nutrient supply but also as an opportunity to prevent nutrition-related diseases and improve physical and mental well-being. For this reason, there is a growing interest in the novel or less well-known plant foods that offer an opportunity for health maintenance. Recently, interest in plant foods and underutilized fruits is continuously growing, and agrobiodiversity exploitation offers effective and extraordinary potentialities. Plant foods could be an important source of health-promoting compounds and functional food ingredients with beneficial properties: the description of the quality and physicochemical traits, the identification and quantification of bioactive compounds, and the evaluation of their biological activities are important to assess plant food efficacy as functional foods or source of food supplement ingredients.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
KiByung LIM ◽  
Adnan YOUNIS ◽  
Jong TAEK PARK ◽  
Yoon JUNG HWANG

In this study naturally growing morphological variation of Lilium tsingtauense (Korean wheel lily), from southern Chung San Island to northern Mount Seorak, was investigated in 16 habitats around the country. Morphological analysis revealed that this species had its own unique characteristics in different habitats. Flowers with luster are in actinomorphic form, with shades of orange, each plant having an average of 2.4 flowers that blossom upward. The shape of flower petals was from oval to oblong. The width of the petals, which determines the shape of the flower, significantly varied among regions. Flower petals showed purple spots and its occurrence greatly varied among plants from almost none to 300 spots per flower. In addition, when the number of spots increased, the flower color was more vivid. Leaves were typically one-tiered verticillate and most of the leaves were long, oval and some were lanceolate. Young leaves showed definitive patterns that faded during growth. Starting from the verticillate leaves, stems below the leaves were smooth, although 81% of all stems, above the verticillate leaves, showed rough micro-protrusions. Bulb shapes were long and vertically elliptical. The ramentum was light yellow in color and the base was darker, with the color fading toward the upper region of the plant. The shape of the ramentum was long, with a pointy end, and its adhesiveness was weak. This study offers basic fundamental information for the effective exploitation and recognition of L. tsingtauense resources as a potential cut flower and potting plant in floral trade worldwide.


Plant Disease ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 465-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanassios C. Pappas ◽  
Epaminondas J. Paplomatas

A severe leaf spot disease incited by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae was identified on Ctenanthe oppenheimiana and C. setosa “Greystar.” Primary symptoms on young leaves consisted of individual circular to slightly irregular pinpoint spots with white necrotic centers zonated by narrow brown-yellow halos. On mature leaves, extended necrotic areas resembling those caused by phytotoxicity were formed. Artificially inoculated leaves with a spore suspension of the isolated fungus from the above case showed symptoms after 3 to 4 days' incubation at 25°C and high humidity. Fungal isolates obtained from Ctenanthe plants of Brazilian origin were found to be highly pathogenic on various plants within the family Marantaceae when they were tested by an excised leaf assay method. By contrast, P. oryzae isolates obtained from rice plants grown in Greece caused either hypersensitivity or immune response symptoms in various Marantaceae. Analysis of esterase and lactate dehydrogenase isozymes showed different banding patterns for rice and Ctenanthe isolates of P. oryzae. Conditions of prolonged leaf wetness combined with prevailing high temperature and humidity favored the epidemic appearance of the Pyricularia leaf spot disease on glasshouse-grown plants during the summer months of 1995 in Greece.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 2085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Lei ◽  
Zhi-ying Li ◽  
Jia-bin Wang ◽  
Yun-liu Fu ◽  
Meng-fei Ao ◽  
...  

Variations in flowering time and plant architecture have a crucial impact on crop biomass and yield, as well as the aesthetic value of ornamental plants. Aechmea fasciata, a member of the Bromeliaceae family, is a bromeliad variety that is commonly cultivated worldwide. Here, we report the characterization of AfSPL14, a squamosa promoter binding protein-like gene in A. fasciata. AfSPL14 was predominantly expressed in the young vegetative organs of adult plants. The expression of AfSPL14 could be upregulated within 1 h by exogenous ethephon treatment. The constitutive expression of AfSPL14 in Arabidopsis thaliana caused early flowering and variations in plant architecture, including smaller rosette leaves and thicker and increased numbers of main inflorescences. Our findings suggest that AfSPL14 may help facilitate the molecular breeding of A. fasciata, other ornamental and edible bromeliads (e.g., pineapple), and even cereal crops.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e21586-e21586
Author(s):  
Dharmesh Gopalakrishnan ◽  
Shazia Tanvir Goraya ◽  
Svetlana Banjac ◽  
Courtney Yanda ◽  
Jame Abraham ◽  
...  

e21586 Background: With significant advances in breast cancer (BC) treatment and improvements in long-term survival, high-quality, coordinated survivorship care is important. Methods: In this retrospective study of patients who were diagnosed with BC (Stages 0 to 3) in 2012 and had > 1 year of follow-up within our network (mean follow-up 3.2 yrs), we analyzed BMI trends and compliance with age appropriate health measures. One-sample t-test was used to compare average BMI at diagnosis and year 3. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Of 643 patients studied, 99.5% were female, 83% were Caucasian, and 27% were ≤ 50 years of age at diagnosis (mean age 59 yrs). 17% had DCIS and 83% had invasive cancer (Stage I – 40%, II – 33%, III- 10%). 40% had a BMI > 30 Kg/m2. BC Surveillance: 89.4% of patients with residual breast tissue or tissue flaps had surveillance mammograms during 3 years of follow-up (Year 1 - 90.0%, 2 - 89.8%, 3 - 88.3%), in compliance with current guidelines. Weight management: There was a statistically significant increase in BMI from diagnosis to year-3. This trend was consistent across different age, race, and baseline BMI groups (See Table). Colon cancer screening: 49% of eligible patients had completed age appropriate screening colonoscopies either prior to diagnosis or during the course of follow-up. Bone health: Among patients who were on aromatase inhibitors, 76% had a documented DEXA scan. Vaccination: Vaccine coverage for eligible patients was low – 63% for pneumococcal, 38% for herpes zoster, and 30% for annual influenza vaccines. Conclusions: While compliance with BC surveillance is high among patients following treatment for BC, adherence to many other important health maintenance practices is low. Renewed focus on these measures, such as weight management, bone health, vaccination and screening for other cancers, represents an important opportunity to improve not only cancer-related outcomes but also the overall health and well-being of BC survivors. [Table: see text]


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document