scholarly journals Microalgae as Sources of High-Quality Protein for Human Food and Protein Supplements

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3002
Author(s):  
Yanwen Wang ◽  
Sean M. Tibbetts ◽  
Patrick J. McGinn
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Protein Supplements ◽  
Human Food ◽  
High Quality Protein

As a result of population growth, an emerging middle-class, and a more health-conscious society concerned with overconsumption of fats and carbohydrates, dietary protein intake is on the rise. To address this rapid change in the food market, and the subsequent high demand for protein products, agriculture, aquaculture, and the food industry have been working actively in recent years to increase protein product output from both production and processing aspects. Dietary proteins derived from animal sources are of the highest quality, containing well-balanced profiles of essential amino acids that generally exceed those of other food sources. However, as a result of studies highlighting low production efficiency (e.g., feed to food conversion) and significant environmental impacts, together with the negative health impacts associated with the dietary intake of some animal products, especially red meats, the consumption of animal proteins has been remaining steady or even declining over the past few decades. To fill this gap, researchers and product development specialists at all levels have been working closely to discover new sources of protein, such as plant-based ingredients. In this regard, microalgae have been recognized as strategic crops, which, due to their vast biological diversity, have distinctive phenotypic traits and interactions with the environment in the production of biomass and protein, offering possibilities of production of large quantities of microalgal protein through manipulating growing systems and conditions and bioengineering technologies. Despite this, microalgae remain underexploited crops and research into their nutritional values and health benefits is in its infancy. In fact, only a small handful of microalgal species are being produced at a commercial scale for use as human food or protein supplements. This review is intended to provide an overview on microalgal protein content, its impact by environmental factors, its protein quality, and its associated evaluation methods. We also attempt to present the current challenges and future research directions, with a hope to enhance the research, product development, and commercialization, and ultimately meet the rapidly increasing market demand for high-quality protein products.

Reducing Human-Bear Conflicts: Bear-Resistant Trash Cans

EDIS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan T. Noel ◽  
Elizabeth F. Pienaar ◽  
Mike Orlando
Keyword(s):  
Great Risk ◽  
Ursus Americanus ◽  
Black Bear ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Vehicle Collisions ◽  
Wildlife Ecology ◽  
Human Food ◽  
Fact Sheet

The Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) is the only species of bear in Florida, with an estimated population of approximately 4,030 bears. Bears that eat garbage put themselves in danger. This 3-page fact sheet written by Ethan T. Noel, Elizabeth F. Pienaar, and and Mike Orlando and published by the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department explains how to secure human garbage from bears so that they don’t become reliant on human food sources, a condition that puts them at great risk of being killed from vehicle collisions, illegal shooting, or euthanasia.­http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw429

Technology of high quality protein crystals’ obtaining aboard the ISS at execution of joint Japanese–Russian experiments

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Koji INAKA ◽  
Saori ICHIMIZU ◽  
Izumi YOSHIZAKI ◽  
Kiyohito KIHIRA ◽  
Elena G. LAVRENKO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Design ◽  
International Space Station ◽  
Space Station ◽  
Protein Crystals ◽  
Diffusion Method ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
High Quality ◽  
International Space ◽  
X Ray ◽  
High Quality Protein

A series of space experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) associated with high-quality Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) in microgravity conditions can be considered as a unique and one of the best examples of fruitful collaboration between Japanese and Russian scientists and engineers in space, which includes also other ISS International Partners. X-ray diffraction is still the most powerful tool to determine the protein three dimensional structure necessary for Structure based drug design (SBDD). The major purpose of the experiment is to grow high quality protein crystals in microgravity for X-ray diffraction on Earth. Within one and a half decade, Japan and Russia have established an efficient process over PCG in space to support latest developments over drug design and structural biology. One of the keys for success of the experiment lies in how precisely pre-launch preparations are made. Japanese party provides flight equipment for crystallization and ensures the required environment to support the experiment aboard of the ISS’s Kibo module, and also mainly takes part of the experiment ground support such as protein sample characterization, purification, crystallization screening, and solution optimization for microgravity experiment. Russian party is responsible for integration of the flight items equipped with proteins and precipitants on board Russian transportation space vehicles (Soyuz or Progress), for delivery them at the ISS, transfer to Kibo module, and returning the experiments’ results back on Earth aboard Soyuz manned capsule. Due to close cooperation of the parties and solid organizational structure, samples can be launched at the ISS every half a year if the ground preparation goes smoothly. The samples are crystallized using counter diffusion method at 20 degree C for 1–2.5 months. After samples return, the crystals are carefully taken out from the capillary, and frozen for X-ray diffraction at SPring8 facility in Japan. Extensive support of researchers from both countries is also a part of this process. The paper analyses details of the PCG experiment scheme, unique and reliable technology of its execution, and contains examples of the application. Key words: International Space Station, Protein crystals, Microgravity, International collaboration.

scholarly journals An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie I’Anson Price ◽  
Francisca Segers ◽  
Amelia Berger ◽  
Fabio S Nascimento ◽  
Christoph Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Stingless Bees ◽  
Sugar Content ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Recruitment Communication ◽  
Eusocial Bees ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to (1) the sugar content of forage, (2) the duration of foraging trips and (3) the variation in activity of a colony from one day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly-recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favour food resources that can be monopolised by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.

scholarly journals Heterosis in crosses among white grain maize populations with high quality protein

2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márcio Costa Rodrigues ◽  
Lázaro José Chaves ◽  
Cleso Antônio Patto Pacheco
Keyword(s):  
Grain Yield ◽  
Agronomic Traits ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Normal Equation ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Maize Populations ◽  
High Quality Protein ◽  
Female Flowering ◽  
White Grain

The objective of this work was to investigate heterosis and its components in 16 white grain maize populations presenting high quality protein. These populations were divided according to grain type in order to establish different heterosis groups. The crosses were carried out according to a partial diallel cross design among flint and dent populations. Seven agronomic traits were evaluated in three environments while four leaf diseases and incidence of corn stunt were evaluated in one. Least square procedure was applied to the normal equation X'Xbeta = X'Y, to estimate the model effects and their respective sum of squares. Among the heterosis components, in diallel analysis, significance for average heterosis in grain yield, number of days to female flowering and to all evaluated diseases was detected. Specific heterosis was significant for days to female flowering and resistance to Puccinia polysora. Results concerned to grain yield trait indicate that populations with superior performance in dent group, no matter what flint population group is used in crosses, tend to generate superior intervarietal hybrids. In decreasing order of preference, the dent type populations CMS 476, ZQP/B 103 and ZQP/B 101 and the flint type CMS 461, CMS 460, ZQP/B 104 and ZQP/B 102 are recommended to form composites.

scholarly journals High quality protein crystal growth under microgravity in JAXA PCG project

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (a1) ◽  
pp. C460-C460
Author(s):  
M. Sato ◽  
H. Tanaka ◽  
K. Inaka ◽  
S. Sano ◽  
M. Masaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Growth ◽  
Protein Crystal ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Protein ◽  
Protein Crystal Growth

scholarly journals FALCON2: a web server for high-quality prediction of protein tertiary structures

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lupeng Kong ◽  
Fusong Ju ◽  
Haicang Zhang ◽  
Shiwei Sun ◽  
Dongbo Bu
Keyword(s):  
Protein Structure ◽  
Ab Initio ◽  
Protein Structure Prediction ◽  
Structure Prediction ◽  
Web Server ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Tertiary Structures ◽  
Target Proteins ◽  
High Quality Protein ◽  
Protein Functions

Abstract Background Accurate prediction of protein tertiary structures is highly desired as the knowledge of protein structures provides invaluable insights into protein functions. We have designed two approaches to protein structure prediction, including a template-based modeling approach (called ProALIGN) and an ab initio prediction approach (called ProFOLD). Briefly speaking, ProALIGN aligns a target protein with templates through exploiting the patterns of context-specific alignment motifs and then builds the final structure with reference to the homologous templates. In contrast, ProFOLD uses an end-to-end neural network to estimate inter-residue distances of target proteins and builds structures that satisfy these distance constraints. These two approaches emphasize different characteristics of target proteins: ProALIGN exploits structure information of homologous templates of target proteins while ProFOLD exploits the co-evolutionary information carried by homologous protein sequences. Recent progress has shown that the combination of template-based modeling and ab initio approaches is promising. Results In the study, we present FALCON2, a web server that integrates ProALIGN and ProFOLD to provide high-quality protein structure prediction service. For a target protein, FALCON2 executes ProALIGN and ProFOLD simultaneously to predict possible structures and selects the most likely one as the final prediction result. We evaluated FALCON2 on widely-used benchmarks, including 104 CASP13 (the 13th Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction) targets and 91 CASP14 targets. In-depth examination suggests that when high-quality templates are available, ProALIGN is superior to ProFOLD and in other cases, ProFOLD shows better performance. By integrating these two approaches with different emphasis, FALCON2 server outperforms the two individual approaches and also achieves state-of-the-art performance compared with existing approaches. Conclusions By integrating template-based modeling and ab initio approaches, FALCON2 provides an easy-to-use and high-quality protein structure prediction service for the community and we expect it to enable insights into a deep understanding of protein functions.

scholarly journals Analysis of oscillatory rocking curve by dynamical diffraction in protein crystals

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (14) ◽  
pp. 3634-3639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryo Suzuki ◽  
Haruhiko Koizumi ◽  
Keiichi Hirano ◽  
Takashi Kumasaka ◽  
Kenichi Kojima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Glucose Isomerase ◽  
Dynamical Theory ◽  
Protein Crystals ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Rocking Curve ◽  
Dynamical Diffraction ◽  
High Quality Protein ◽  
Good Agreement

High-quality protein crystals meant for structural analysis by X-ray diffraction have been grown by various methods. The observation of dynamical diffraction in protein crystals is an interesting topic because dynamical diffraction generally occurs in perfect crystals such as Si crystals. However, to our knowledge, there is no report yet on protein crystals showing clear dynamical diffraction. We wonder whether the perfection of protein crystals might still be low compared with that of high-quality Si crystals. Here, we present observations of the oscillatory profile of rocking curves for protein crystals such as glucose isomerase crystals. The oscillatory profiles are in good agreement with those predicted by the dynamical theory of diffraction. We demonstrate that dynamical diffraction occurs even in protein crystals. This suggests the possibility of the use of dynamical diffraction for the determination of the structure and charge density of proteins.

Effects of dairy and plant protein on growth and growth biomarkers in a piglet model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Krogh Ingerslev ◽  
Laura Rasmussen ◽  
Pan Zhou ◽  
Jan Værum Nørgaard ◽  
Peter Kappel Theil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Human Nutrition ◽  
Plant Protein ◽  
World Population ◽  
Food Protein ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Protein Sources ◽  
High Quality Protein

The increasing world population with improved living conditions has increased the demand for food protein. This has intensified the search for sustainable alternative plant-derived high-quality protein sources for human nutrition....

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