Evaluation of garden strawberry varieties against biochemical parameters and genetic aroma determinants

The paper presents the results of a long-term (2015-2020) study into a collection of domestic and foreign strawberry varieties cultivated in the Central Black Region, in terms of biochemical composition (content of soluble solids (SS), sugars, organic acids, ascorbic acid, anthocyanins) and genetic aroma determinants. The varieties with a high SS content (above 12.0%) herewith include Alena, Divnaya, Kupchikha, Olympic hope, Torpedo, Flora; sugars (above 9.0%) – Alena, Lastochka, Olimpiyskaya Nadezhda, Flora, Privlekatelnaya; ascorbic acid (above 80.0 mg/100 g) – Divnaya, Kupchikha, Sudarushka, Festival chamomile; anthocyanins (above 100.0 mg/100 g) – Alena, Fireworks. Among the varieties addressesd, the Kubata, Tsaritsa (domestic selection), Kimberly, Marshall, Red Gauntlet, Vima Tarda (foreign selection) varieties are characterized by a combination of functional alleles of FaOMT and FaFAD1 genes for a complex aroma profile. The selected promising varieties can be used as sources of valuable quality attributes and biochemical composition of fruits.

Neu1 deficiency induces abnormal emotional behavior in zebrafish

NEU1 sialidase hydrolyzes sialic acids from glycoconjugates in lysosomes. Deficiency of NEU1 causes sialidosis with symptoms including facial dysmorphism, bone dysplasia, and neurodegeneration. However, the effects of NEU1 deficiency on emotional activity have not been explored. Here, we conducted the behavioral analysis using Neu1-knockout zebrafish (Neu1-KO). Neu1-KO zebrafish showed normal swimming similar to wild-type zebrafish (WT), whereas shoaling was decreased and accompanied by greater inter-fish distance than WT zebrafish. The aggression test showed a reduced aggressive behavior in Neu1-KO zebrafish than in WT zebrafish. In the mirror and 3-chambers test, Neu1-KO zebrafish showed more interest toward the opponent in the mirror and multiple unfamiliar zebrafish, respectively, than WT zebrafish. Furthermore, Neu1-KO zebrafish also showed increased interaction with different fish species, whereas WT zebrafish avoided them. In the black–white preference test, Neu1-KO zebrafish showed an abnormal preference for the white region, whereas WT zebrafish preferred the black region. Neu1-KO zebrafish were characterized by a downregulation of the anxiety-related genes of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and upregulation of lamp1a, an activator of lysosomal exocytosis, with their brains accumulating several sphingoglycolipids. This study revealed that Neu1 deficiency caused abnormal emotional behavior in zebrafish, possibly due to neuronal dysfunction induced by lysosomal exocytosis.

Description of a new species of Bush frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae: Raorchestes) from northwestern Yunnan, China

Approximately half of the species in speciose genus Raorchestes were described during the past 10 years, yet only 11 species are known from Southeast Asia and southern China (SEA-SC), adjacent Himalayas, and northeastern India. Field work in northwestern Yunnan province, China resulted in the discovery of one new species in the genus based on morphological and molecular analyses. The new species is diagnosed by small size with 15.0–19.0 mm SVL in adult males (n=3); tongue pyriform, notched posteriorly; rudimentary webbing between toes; fingers and toes with narrow lateral dermal fringes; tibiotarsal articulation reaching anterior of the eye when hindlimb is stretched along the side of the body; relative finger lengths: I < II < IV < III, relative toe lengths: I < II < V < III < IV; inner metatarsal tubercle oval, outer metatarsal tubercle absent; finger discs and toe discs greyish or orange; flank near the crotch with a distinct black region between two creamy white patches, and the thigh having a similar black patch near the groin, proximal to another creamy white patch; a distinct “) (”-shaped dark marking on the back; male with external single subgular vocal sac; nuptial pad absent. A phylogenetic tree was reconstructed based on the mitochondrial genes for 16S rRNA and ND1. The results indicated that these individuals form a monophyletic group, and show high genetic divergence to their closest relatives within the genus (uncorrected p-distances > 3.2%) by distance of 16S comparable to the divergence between recognized Raorchestes species. This study further enriches the diversity of rhacophorids, especially in northwestern Yunnan.

Coherence Factor-Like Beamforming for Ultrasound Computed Tomography

Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) has important clinical application prospect in breast cancer screening and early diagnosis. In this paper, six kinds of coherence factor-like beamforming methods have been applied to improve the image quality for USCT, including coherence factor (CF), phase coherence factor (PCF), sign coherence factor (SCF), phasor dispersion based coherence factor (PDCF), spatial smoothed coherence factor (SSCF) and spatio-temporally smoothed coherence factor (STSCF). The mentioned methods were verified with the radio-frequency (RF) data of the breast phantom captured by the USCT system developed in the Medical Ultrasound Laboratory. The ring-type transducer has 1024 elements with a center frequency of 2.5 MHz. Experimental results show that the reconstructed images of the breast phantom by the CF gets the highest contrast to noise ratio (CNR), but overall image brightness reduces significantly. PCF gets the lowest variance and provides a more homogenous background. STSCF beamforming method can improve the robustness of the PCF and having the ability to suppress clutter while significant removal of black region artifacts. For practical application, these coherence factor-like beamforming methods can be implemented with low computational complexity.