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Homeopathy 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil.

Background:  Nosodes are homeopathic preparations (HPs) obtained from tissues or substances associated with the targeted disease or from culture of the pathogenic agent. Nosodes are thought to modulate host resistance, easing symptoms or promoting cure. A few studies have been published about control of plant-parasitic nematodes with HPs, but none with nosodes. Read More

Nanotechnology 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Beijing, CHINA.

Pterostilbene (PTE) is known as resveratrol of the next generation and it has attracted extensive attention in recent years. PTE can inhibit the growth of a variety of tumor cells. To overcome the problem of insolubility, PTE was loaded into nanoparticles (NPs) by anti-solvent precipitation technique using soybean lecithin (SPC) and D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS) as stabilizers. Read More

Food Chem 2021 Apr 24;359:129950. Epub 2021 Apr 24.

State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China; International Joint Laboratory on Tea Chemistry and Health Effects of Ministry of Education, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China. Electronic address:

The black tea could be stored for a long time, and subsequently affects the flavor characteristics. In the present study, the effects of storage years (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 17 and 20 years) on the chemical profiling and taste quality of keemun black tea (KBT) were compared by metabolomics and quantitative sensory evaluation. The main polyphenols were degraded during the storing, especially 10-year storage, but caffeine and theobromine were stable. Read More

Food Chem 2021 Apr 27;359:129961. Epub 2021 Apr 27.

Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Deparment of Agriculture and Nutrition, K. Huguesa 8, 52440 Poreč, Croatia; Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding, Svetošimunska 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

The effects of different fertilisation treatments with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation on AMF root colonisation, fruit yield, nutrient and total phenol contents, volatile compound composition, and sensory attributes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) were investigated. Mineral, organic, and mineral + organic fertiliser application positively affected tomato yield (35%-50%) and phosphorus concentration (24%-29%) compared with controls. Read More

Public Health 2021 May 1;194:156-162. Epub 2021 May 1.

Ken-poku Development Bureau, Fukushima Prefectural Goverment, Japan.

Objectives: This study analyzes the change in the sense of food safety over time, from 2 years before to 8 years after the Fukushima accident in 2011, and its association with social connectedness using cohort data, taking into account regional differences in Fukushima Prefecture.

Study Design: Repeated cross-sectional data from Fukushima Prefectural Government from 2009 to 2018 were used.

Methods: We randomly selected 1300 people every fiscal year (FY). Read More

Syst Appl Microbiol 2021 Apr 17;44(3):126206. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Laboratory of Microbiology, Dept. Biochemistry and Microbiology, Fac. Sciences, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.

Two Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped and yellow-orange pigmented bacterial strains (LMG 31523 and LMG 31524) were isolated from roots of wild-growing Alkanna tinctoria plants collected near Thessaloniki, Greece. Analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that they form a separate cluster related to the genus Roseomonas. A comparative whole genome analysis of the two strains and the type strains of related Roseomonas species revealed average nucleotide identity values from 78. Read More

Phytomedicine 2021 Apr 20;86:153565. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Guangzhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutics, Guangzhou 510515, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Preparation Technology, Guangzhou 510515, China. Electronic address:

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an inflammatory, immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated disease characterized by the typical symptoms of sneezing, rhinorrhea, nasal itching, and congestion. Higenamine (HG) is a plant-based alkaloid, possesses a wide range of activities, including vascular and tracheal relaxation, antioxidative, antiapoptotic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. So far, the effect and the underlying mechanism of HG on AR have not been studied. Read More

Biomed Pharmacother 2021 May 1;139:111648. Epub 2021 May 1.

Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.

Background: Rutaecarpine (Rut) is a plant alkaloid abundant in Euodia ruticarpa which is a Chinese herbal medicine used for treating various cancers. However, the Rut administration effect on prostate cancer in vivo remains unclear.

Aim: In the present study we established an allogenic TRAMP-C1 prostate cancer mouse model to evaluate the Rut administration effect and mechanism in vivo. Read More

Biomed Pharmacother 2021 May 1;139:111644. Epub 2021 May 1.

Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.

Lygodium microphyllum Cav. (Family: Lygodiaceae) is a perennial, snake fern and an invasive weed in Florida and also known as old world climbing fern. This study is intended to evaluate the antipyretic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antidiarrheal and anthelmintic activity of methanol extract of Lygodium microphyllum Cav. Read More

Microb Pathog 2021 May 1:104935. Epub 2021 May 1.

College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China. Electronic address:

Pneumonia is the acute inflammation of lung tissue and is multi-factorial in etiology. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a harmful pathogen present as a normal flora of skin and nares of dairy cattle. Read More

J Insect Physiol 2021 May 1:104248. Epub 2021 May 1.

State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address:

Since 2016, the fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) has invaded large parts of Africa and Asia, impacting millions of hectares of maize crops and thereby posing a major threat to food security. The rapid geographic spread and outbreak dynamics of S. frugiperda are tied to its unique dispersal ability and long-distance migration capability. Read More

Steroids 2021 May 1:108855. Epub 2021 May 1.

OncoWitan, Lille (Wasquehal), 59290, France. Electronic address:

Numerous C-21 steroidal glycosides have been isolated from Cynanchum plants. Many of them derive from the aglycone caudatin (CDT) which includes a tetracyclic deacylmetaplexigenin unit and an ikemaoyl ester side chain. CDT can be found in diverse traditional medicines, such as Baishouwu radix used to treat gastro-intestinal disorders. Read More

Dev Cell 2021 May;56(9):1213-1214

Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address:

Growth control in eukaryotes depends on the TOR kinase, which integrates energy and nutrient signals. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Liu et al. demonstrate that, in plants, inorganic nitrogen and amino acids activate TOR via the GTPase ROP2 to promote cell proliferation and leaf growth in the shoot. Read More

Annu Rev Phytopathol 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA; email:

Fire blight, caused by the bacterial phytopathogen , is an economically important and mechanistically complex disease that affects apple and pear production in most geographic production hubs worldwide. We compile, assess, and present a genetic outlook on the progression of an infection in the host. We discuss the key aspects of type III secretion-mediated infection and systemic movement, biofilm formation in xylem, and pathogen dispersal via ooze droplets, a concentrated suspension of bacteria and exopolysaccharide components. Read More

Annu Rev Phytopathol 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; email:

Hybrid necrosis in plants refers to a genetic autoimmunity syndrome in the progeny of interspecific or intraspecific crosses. Although the phenomenon was first documented in 1920, it has been unequivocally linked to autoimmunity only recently, with the discovery of the underlying genetic and biochemical mechanisms. The most common causal loci encode immune receptors, which are known to differ within and between species. Read More

J Integr Plant Biol 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.

In plants, light signals trigger a photomorphogenic program involving transcriptome changes, epigenetic regulation, and inhibited hypocotyl elongation. The evolutionarily conserved histone variant H2A.Z, which functions in transcriptional regulation, is deposited in chromatin by the SWI2/SNF2-RELATED 1 complex (SWR1c). Read More

Environ Toxicol Chem 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

NiPERA, Durham, NC, 27713.

A review of nickel (Ni) toxicity to aquatic organisms was conducted to determine the primary water quality factors that affect Ni toxicity, and to provide information for the development and testing of a biotic ligand model (BLM) for Ni. Acute and chronic data for 66 aquatic species were compiled for this review. This review found that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and hardness act as toxicity modifying factors (TMFs) because they reduced Ni toxicity to fish and aquatic invertebrates and these effects were consistent in acute and chronic exposures. Read More

J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 2021 Feb 6. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley 94720, USA.

Small molecule natural products are a chemically diverse class of biomolecules that fulfill myriad biological functions, including autoregulation, communication with microbial neighbors and the host, interference competition, nutrient acquisition, and resistance to oxidative stress. Human commensal bacteria are increasingly recognized as a potential source of new natural products, which may provide insight into the molecular ecology of many different human body sites as well as novel scaffolds for therapeutic development. Here, we review the scientific literature on natural products derived from residents of the human nasal/oral cavity, discuss their discovery, biosynthesis, and ecological roles, and identify key questions in the study of these compounds. Read More

PLoS One 2021 4;16(5):e0249959. Epub 2021 May 4.

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

Globally, many biomes are being impacted by significant shifts in total annual rainfall as well as increasing variability of rainfall within and among years. Such changes can have potentially large impacts on plant productivity and growth, but remain largely unknown, particularly for much of the Southern Hemisphere. We investigate how growth of the widespread conifer, Callitris columellaris varied with inter-annual variation in the amount, intensity and frequency of rainfall events over the last century and between semi-arid (<500 mm mean annual rainfall) and tropical (>800 mm mean annual rainfall) biomes in Australia. Read More

PLoS One 2021 4;16(5):e0250902. Epub 2021 May 4.

Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Sucking insects require a surface of plants on which the legs and the eggs of insects will adhere and to which insect mouthparts will access. The primary plant protection against insects is their surface property, which hinders the attachment of the insect's legs and eggs. The epicuticular waxes chemistry influences the fine structure of the cuticular surface. Read More

IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform 2021 May 4;PP. Epub 2021 May 4.

Round genomes are found in bacteria, plant chloroplasts, and mitochondria. Genetic or epigenetic marks can present biologically interesting clusters along a circular genome. The circular data clustering problem groups N points on a circle into K clusters to minimize the within-cluster sum of squared distances. Read More

IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2021 May 4;PP. Epub 2021 May 4.

Instance segmentation is of great importance for many biological applications, such as study of neural cell interactions, plant phenotyping, and quantitatively measuring how cells react to drug treatment. In this paper, we propose a novel box-based instance segmentation method. Box-based instance segmentation methods capture objects via bounding boxes and then perform individual segmentation within each bounding box region. Read More

Microb Genom 2021 May;7(5)

Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is endemic in cattle in Ethiopia, a country that hosts the largest national cattle herd in Africa. The intensive dairy sector, most of which is peri-urban, has the highest prevalence of disease. Previous studies in Ethiopia have demonstrated that the main cause is , which has been investigated using conventional molecular tools including deletion typing, spoligotyping and Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR). Read More

Mycologia 2021 May 4:1-12. Epub 2021 May 4.

Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, Canada.

Target enrichment is a term that encompasses multiple related approaches where desired genomic regions are captured by molecular baits, leaving behind redundant or non-target regions in the genome, followed by amplification and next-generation sequencing of those captured regions. A molecular bait set was developed based on 426 single-copy, oomycete-specific orthologs and 3 barcoding genes. The bait set was tested on 27 oomycete samples (belonging to the Saprolegniales, Albuginales, and Peronosporales) derived from live and herbarium specimens, as well as control samples of true fungi and plants. Read More

Mycologia 2021 May 4:1-17. Epub 2021 May 4.

Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Prédio 43.433, Campus do Vale, Agronomia, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

is a monophyletic genus of polypores that causes white rot of various woody plants. The genus has a worldwide distribution and is ecologically and economically important. Several taxa have been described or reported from the Neotropics, and , described originally from Brazil, is the type species for the genus. Read More

Int J Phytoremediation 2021 May 4:1-13. Epub 2021 May 4.

Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

Compared to noncalcareous soils, data on the soil-to-plant transfer of heavy metals and their response to sewage sludge (SS) in calcareous soils with diverse properties are limited. Cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) transfer from soil to cabbage ( L. var. Read More

J Agric Food Chem 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Key Laboratory of Green Prevention and Control of Tropical Plant Diseases and Pests, Ministry of Education, College of Plant Protection, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, People's Republic of China.

In the current work, a series of 1-trifluoromethyl cinnamyl alcohol derivatives were designed and synthesized and their antifungal activities were evaluated. The bioassay result showed that most compounds exhibited excellent antifungal activity at 10 μg mL. Next, photostable and easily synthesized compound with broad-spectrum antifungal activity was selected as a potential candidate to evaluate its antibacterial and antifungal activities. Read More

Biomacromolecules 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh 176061, India.

Inhibition of hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) and Aβ42 fibrillation have been established as the main models for the treatment of systemic lysozyme amyloidosis and Alzheimer's disease (AD), respectively. Several antiamyloidogenic nanomaterials have been developed over the period; however, their intracellular mechanism of action is still not well understood. In this context, plant-based, gold-conjugated, injectable, hydrophilic cellulose nanoonions (CNOs), viz. Read More

Plant Biotechnol J 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, CREA-VE), Via XXVIII Aprile 26, 31015, Conegliano, TV, Italy.

Traditional breeding or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have for a long time been the sole approaches to effectively cope with biotic and abiotic stresses and implement the quality traits of crops. However, emerging diseases as well as unpredictable climate changes affecting agriculture over the entire globe forces scientists to find alternative solutions required to quickly overcome seasonal crises. In this review, we first focus on cisgenesis and genome editing as challenging biotechnological approaches for breeding crops more tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses. Read More