Research Publications (Food Safety)

Honey bees are important insect pollinators used heavily in agriculture and can be found in diverse environments. Bees may encounter toxicants such as cadmium and selenate by foraging on plants growing in contaminated areas, which can result in negative health effects. Honey bees are known to have a simple and consistent microbiome that conveys many benefits to the host, and toxicant exposure may impact this symbiotic microbial community.

Author(s): Longjiang Gu, Manli Zhao, Min Ge, Suwen Zhu, Beijiu Cheng, Xiaoyu Li

The current research focuses on anaerobic respiration of arsenic and other toxic metals by purple nonsulfur bacteria (PNSB). Among the optimization assays performed were carbon utilization, cross metal resistance, and metal respiration, along with a comparison of each assay in photoheterotrophic and chemoheterotrophic growth. The bacteria were identified by the classification of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences. Rhodobacter sp.

Although many proteins possess a distinct folded structure lying at a minimum in a funneled free energy landscape, thermal energy causes any protein to continuously access lowly populated excited states. The existence of excited states is an integral part of biological function. Although transitions into the excited states may lead...

Author(s): Hamdy A. Abdel-Gawwad, Mona S. Mohammed, Mohamed Heikal

Author(s): Lixin Wang, Miaomiao Zheng, Shuping Zhang, Chuan Zhao, Weijun Kang, Ke Wang

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different cooking methods on the β-carotene content of jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius) leaves. Three cooking methods have been experimented. Jute mallow raw leaves was respectively boiled for 15 and 30 minutes in water (CW), in water containing ash leachate (CWA) and frying for 5 minutes followed by cooking with water (CWF) for 15 and 30 minutes.

by Shan Lu, Zhongyun Dong

Author(s): Diana Matos, Carina Sá, Paulo Cardoso, Adília Pires, Sílvia M. Rocha, Etelvina Figueira

Author(s): Florian Zindler, Franziska Beedgen, Diana Brandt, Madeleine Steiner, Daniel Stengel, Lisa Baumann, Thomas Braunbeck

Author(s): Surbhi Dabral, Yashaswee, Ajit Varma, Devendra Kumar Choudhary, Rajeev Nayan Bahuguna, Manoj Nath

A hydroponic experiment was carried out to study the accumulation characteristics of copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) combined pollution in three ornamental plants. The results showed that these tested ornamental plants had higher tolerance to Cu–Pb combined pollution and could effectively accumulate the heavy metals. The Cu and Pb concentrations were higher in the roots of the ornamental plants than that in the shoots. For Panax notoginseng (P.

Detoxification of the highly toxic cadmium element is essential for the survival of living organisms. Pseudomonas putida CadR, a MerR family transcriptional regulator, has been reported to exhibit an ultraspecific response to the cadmium ion. Our crystallographic and spectroscopic studies reveal that the extra cadmium selectivity of CadR is mediated...

Author(s): Yakui Chen, Qifa Zhu, Xiangzhou Dong, Weiwei Huang, Chenyu Du, Diannan Lu

Author(s): M.O. Ibiwoye, Q. Matthews, K. Travers, J.D. Foster

The use of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.), along with other tree species, for the afforestation of heavy metal contaminated lands is an attractive prospect. Little, however, is known of Q. robur tolerance and its antioxidative system response to heavy metal exposure. The main objective of the study was to determine the cadmium-induced changes in antioxidative system of pedunculate oak in an attempt to identify molecular mechanisms underlying Cd tolerance.

Author(s): Cristina García-Florentino, Maite Maguregui, Chiara Ciantelli, Alessandro Sardella, Alessandra Bonazza, Ignasi Queralt, Jose Antonio Carrero, Claudio Natali, Héctor Morillas, Juan Manuel Madariaga, Gorka Arana

Author(s): Xiaoxia Dong, Fan Yang, Shuping Yang, Changzhou Yan

Honey, pineapple, chilli pepper, and onion extracts were investigated for their ability to inhibit enzymatic browning in sweet potatoes. Honey had the highest inhibition (41.39%–48.0%), comparable with l‐ascorbic acid. Heated onion extract increased polyphenol oxidase (PPO) inhibition by 2.5‐fold when 4‐methylcatechol was used as substrate. However, percentage inhibition decreased drastically (7.42%–19.67%) when heated pineapple extract was used.

Author(s): Bulat Kuluev, Elena Mikhaylova, Alexander Ermoshin, Svetlana Veselova, Anastasia Tugbaeva, Gulnar Gumerova, Karina Gainullina, Evgenia Zaikina

Animal venoms are promising sources of novel drug leads, but their translational potential is hampered by the low success rate of earlier biodiscovery programs, in part reflecting the narrow selection of targets for investigation. To increase the number of lead candidates, here we discuss a phylogeny-guided approach for the rational selection of venomous taxa, using tarantulas (family Theraphosidae) as a case study.

Actinomycetes are remarkable producers of compounds essential for human and veterinary medicine as well as for agriculture. The genomes of those microorganisms possess several sets of genes (biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC)) encoding pathways for the production of the valuable secondary metabolites.