Nutritional Composition of Honey Bee Drones of Two Subspecies Relative to Their Pupal Developmental Stages

We examined the contents of nutritional importance, i.e., amino acids, fatty acids and minerals of different developmental stages of drones of two honey bee subspecies, namely Apis mellifera carnica and A. m. mellifera. The results revealed that, in general, individual amino acid amounts and therefore the total protein increased along with the developmental stages of the drones. No statistically significant differences were found between the same developmental stages of the two subspecies. The reverse, i.e., a decrease with developmental stage occurred in relation to the fatty acid composition. Most of the minerals were higher at advanced developmental stages. Overall, the high protein content (31.4–43.4%), small amount of fat (9.5–11.5%) and abundance of minerals such asiron and zinc, make drones a suitable nutritional resource. Even though nutrient content, especially protein, was higher in the pupae than the prepupae, we propose prepupae also as a commercial product based on their higher biomass production. Provided standard production protocols maintaining hygiene and safety will be adhered to, we propose that drone honey bees can be utilized as human food or animal feed.

Disclosing the Nutritional Quality Diversity of Portuguese Common Beans—The Missing Link for Their Effective Use in Protein Quality Breeding Programs

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) represents a sustainable and affordable source of protein, namely, to populations with vegetarian dietary habits. Despite the national germplasm genetic diversity, little is known about the Portuguese accessions’ nutritional and protein quality, leading to their underuse in breeding programs. To fill this gap, a representative collection (106 accessions) was cropped under two contrasting environments (traditional versus heat stress) and evaluated in terms of nutritional quality by near-infrared spectroscopy. Protein quality was assessed, under the stressful environment, considering the individual amino acid contents and the activity of trypsin inhibitors through mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and spectrophotometry, respectively. On top of strong genotypic control, the nutritional composition (protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash) was also highly influenced by the environment and by genotype × environment interaction, with a clear nutritional quality ranking change for the accessions in heat stress conditions. Classified into three clusters, the accessions from the cluster with the highest individual amino acid and protein contents also showed higher trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA). Since different levels of TIA had no translation into contrasting protein digestibility, breeders focusing on common beans’ protein quality improvement, especially under challenging warming climate conditions, may take advantage of this group of accessions.

Simultaneous Identification and Quantification of Amino Acids in Biofluids by Using Reactive 19F-Tag

Quantification of each individual amino acid in a biofluid is of great importance in biological and chemical analysis. We herein developed an efficient and simple method of 1D 19F NMR...