A cryptic variation in a member of the Ovate Family Proteins is underlying the melon fruit shape QTL fsqs8.1

Key message The gene underlying the melon fruit shape QTL fsqs8.1 is a member of the Ovate Family Proteins. Variation in fruit morphology is caused by changes in gene expression likely due to a cryptic structural variation in this locus. Abstract Melon cultivars have a wide range of fruit morphologies. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been identified underlying such diversity. This research focuses on the fruit shape QTL fsqs8.1, previously detected in a cross between the accession PI 124112 (CALC, producing elongated fruit) and the cultivar ‘Piel de Sapo’ (PS, producing oval fruit). The CALC fsqs8.1 allele induced round fruit shape, being responsible for the transgressive segregation for this trait observed in that population. In fact, the introgression line CALC8-1, carrying the fsqs8.1 locus from CALC into the PS genetic background, produced perfect round fruit. Following a map-based cloning approach, we found that the gene underlying fsqs8.1 is a member of the Ovate Family Proteins (OFP), CmOFP13, likely a homologue of AtOFP1 and SlOFP20 from Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato, respectively. The induction of the round shape was due to the higher expression of the CALC allele at the early ovary development stage. The fsqs8.1 locus showed an important structural variation, being CmOFP13 surrounded by two deletions in the CALC genome. The deletions are present at very low frequency in melon germplasm. Deletions and single nucleotide polymorphisms in the fsqs8.1 locus could not be not associated with variation in fruit shape among different melon accessions, what indicates that other genetic factors should be involved to induce the CALC fsqs8.1 allele effects. Therefore, fsqs8.1 is an example of a cryptic variation that alters gene expression, likely due to structural variation, resulting in phenotypic changes in melon fruit morphology.

Subcronic Toxicity Effect of Ethanol Extract of Bitter Melon Fruit (Momordica charantia L.) on Kidney Function and Histopathological Changes in Wistar Rat

Bitter melon is a fruit that was famous for its bitter taste and contains chemical compounds that are proven to have effects such as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and antioxidant. One of the prerequisites of a plant to be developed into a drug that is by testing the subchronic toxicity. This study goal to determine the presence of toxic effects that are not detected in the acute toxicity test. A total of 40 wistar rats were divided into group control and 3 treatment groups. Each group consisted of 5 male rats and female rats. Group 1 (control) is only given food (pellets) and drinking water. Group 2, 3 and 4 groups were given ethanol extract of bitter melon pulp (Momordica charantia L.) with multilevels doses 250 mg/kgbw, 500 mg/kgbw, and 1000 mg/kgbw. The observations made for 28 days included the number of death animals, relative organ weight (ROW), ureum, creatinine levels and histopatological changes in kidney. There were no deaths in the entire group, decreasing ureum (p=0,022), creatinine levels (p=0,033) in male group. While in female group ureum decrease not significantly (0.878) and creatinine (0.845). There were no significant changes in ROW (p=0,370 and p=0,394), but there were changes in microscopic structure. In conclusion ethanol extract of bitter melon fruit (Momordica charantia L.) at a of 250 mg/kgbw, 500 mg/kgbw, and 1000 mg/kgbw does not showed any toxic effects on kidney function and relative organ weight. But microscopically, the administration of ethanol extract of bitter melon fruit caused a toxic effect on the kidney tubules in both male and female groups. Keywords: Momordica charantia L., sub chronic toxicity, ureum, creatinine, histopathological change

Research on Melon Fruit Selection Based on Rank with YOLOv4 Algorithm

Melon is one of the most popular fruits that is exceptionally favoured in Indonesia because it can be consumed directly as fresh fruit or processed as juice or salad. To meet the national market demand, several technologies are used to increase production, one of which is fruit selection. Plants need to be pruned based on fruit size so that fruit quality is maintained. One of the new approaches to detect plant fruits is using deep convolutional neural networks. The goal is to build a melon fruit detection system based on fruit size ranking for selection reliability. Recent work in deep neural networks has developed an excellent object detector, namely the one-stage You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm. We used the YOLOv4 model, the fourth generation of YOLO with speed acceleration and detection accuracy better than the previous versions. In addition, eight model schemes were tested with three different hyper-parameters: batch size, iterations, and learning rate. It was found that Scheme G using batch size 64, iterations 2000, and learning rate 0.001 obtained the highest score for both F1-score and mAP with values of 84.47% and 87.68%, respectively. It can be said that the F1-score value is directly proportional to the mAP value.

Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide on Hydrogen Production from Melon Fruit (Cucumis melo L.) Waste by Anaerobic Digestion Microbial Community

Biohydrogen (H2) production has the potential to provide clean, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective energy sources. The effect of increasing oxidative stress on biohydrogen production by acid-treated anaerobic digestion microbial communities was studied. The use of varying amounts of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2; 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 mM) for enhancing hydrogen production from melon fruit waste was investigated. It was found that H2O2 amendment to the H2-producing mixed culture increased hydrogen production. Treatment with 0.4 mM H2O2 increased cumulative H2 output by 7.7% (954.6 mL/L), whereas treatment with 0.1 mM H2O2 enhanced H2 yield by 23.8% (228.2 mL/gVS) compared to the untreated control. All treatments showed a high H2 production rate when the pH was 4.5 – 7.0. H2O2-treated samples exhibited greater resilience to pH reduction and maintained their H2 production rate as the system became more acidic during H2 fermentation. The application of H2O2 affected the volatile fatty acid (VFA) profile during biohydrogen fermentation, with an increase in acetic and propionic acid and a reduction in formic acid concentration. The H2O2 treatment positively affects H2 production and is proposed as an alternative way of improving H2 fermentation.

Phytochemical Test of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia L) Herb and its Effect on Rat Blood Sugar Levels

This study aims to determine the class of chemical compounds, phytochemical levels, antihyperglycemic effects, and histopathology of the pancreas of rats treated with bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L) for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Bitter gourd is made by adding water, then mashed and squeezed. The ingredients were tested for their phytochemical content and antidiabetic power. 15 male rats were divided into 5 groups. Group 1 as a negative control, namely normal rats without treatment, group 2 as a positive control given alloxan, group 3, namely rats given alloxan and bitter melon fruit 0.9 mL, group 4, namely rats given alloxan and bitter melon ingredients 1.8 mL, and group 5, namely rats, were given alloxan and a mixture of bitter melon 3.6 mL. The phytochemical test results of bitter melon fruit contain carbohydrates, alkaloids, saponins, and terpenoids. The total alkaloid content of the bitter melon fruit is 0.232%, the saponin content of the bitter melon fruit is 0.6375%, and the terpenoid content of the bitter melon fruit is 0.5317%. The administration of bitter melon fruit to diabetic rats can reduce blood sugar levels of rats and the histopathological observations of the pancreas of rats show a repair effect on pancreatic damage after administration of bitter melon herb.