Structure of Haze Forming Proteins in White Wines: Vitis vinifera Thaumatin-Like Proteins

Grape thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) play roles in plant-pathogen interactions and can cause protein haze in white wine unless removed prior to bottling. Different isoforms of TLPs have different hazing potential and aggregation behavior. Here we present the elucidation of the molecular structures of three grape TLPs that display different hazing potential. The three TLPs have very similar structures despite belonging to two different classes (F2/4JRU is a thaumatin-like protein while I/4L5H and H2/4MBT are VVTL1), and having different unfolding temperatures (56 vs. 62°C), with protein F2/4JRU being heat unstable and forming haze, while I/4L5H does not. These differences in properties are attributable to the conformation of a single loop and the amino acid composition of its flanking regions.     

Isotopic Analysis of some Romanian Wines by 2H NMR and IRMS

Isotopic analyses are now official or standard methods in Europe and North America for routine use in testing the authenticity of several food products. These methods are based on the measurement of stable isotope content (²H, ¹³C, ¹⁸O) of the product or of a specific component such as an ingredient or target molecule of the product. The determinations carried out using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Isotopic Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), provide information on the botanical and geographical origin of the food product. A deuterium natural abundance quantitative NMR method (SNIF-NMR: Site-specific Natural Isotope Fractionation) was developed as an efficient and powerful tool capable of characterizing the chemical origins of organic molecules and distinguishing their biological and geographical origin. The SNIF method is based on the measurement of deuterium / hydrogen (D/H) ratios at the specific sites of the ethanol. Using these methods, we present the obtained results for a series of Romanian wines. Our results may be used like reference data set for authenticity and origin control of wines.     

Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Volatile Esters in Wines

We isolated a new aerobic gram negative collagenolytic bacterium, strain CRZV₁. This strain is yellow pigmented, non motile; it poorly degrades the sugars and its proteolytic activity corresponds to one enzyme, a collagenase which is produced in media with collagen, or collagen like substrates. The strain CRZV_l, presents many similarities with Flavobacteria. However, the GC content of the DNA, which is 65%, excludes our collagenolytic strain from the genus Flavobacterium, where all the species have GC content between 30 and 42%. All the strains, already described as Flavobacteria, the GC contents of which are situated between 55 and 70%, are actually unclassified. They could be included in the genus Empedobacter. This genus is not in the approved list of bacterial names, so we only consider this new collagenolytic bacteria as a gram negative, aerobic, yellow pigmented bacteria.     

黄瓜白色果皮基因遗传规律及定位研究

以黄瓜嫩果深绿色果皮自交系1507(P1)和白色果皮自交系1508(P2)为亲本,构建6世代遗传群体(P1、P2、F1、F2、BC1P1、BC1P2),对黄瓜嫩果白色果皮基因(w)进行遗传规律分析和基因定位研究。结果表明,黄瓜白色果皮性状由隐性单基因(w)控制,深绿色对白色为显性。利用F2群体,结合分离群体分组分析法筛选得到了14个与w基因相关的SSR标记,构建了该基因的SSR连锁群,将其定位到黄瓜3号染色体上,两侧的标记为SSR23517和SSR23141,遗传距离分别为4.9cM和1.9cM。侧翼标记之间的物理距离为1 150kb,在该区域中共预测了500个候选基因。该研究对w基因的初步定位,为该基因精细定位及分子标记辅助选择育种奠定了良好的基础。     

Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Higher Alcohols and Ethyl Acetate in Table Wines

Approximately 40% of defatted perilla seeds consists of proteins which are primarily composed of globulin (84%). The amino acid profile of perilla proteins demonstrated balanced amounts of all essential amino acids, except for lysine. The molecular mass of the predominant globulin was estimated to be 340 kDa by gel filtration. This globulin was separated into three intermediary subunits (54, 57 and 59 kDa) by SDS–PAGE. It is suggested from these results that the globulin exists as a hexamer. A treatment with 50 mM dithiothreitol enabled the intermediary subunits to be separated into three acidic subunits (31–34 kDa) and four basic subunits (23–25 kDa). It is interesting that this subunit structure is the same as that of sesame α-globulin, despite them coming from different families. Compared to sesame α-globulin, the heat-induced gel of perilla globulin had better water-holding ability, despite it displaying the same degree of gel hardness.     

The Collaborative Image of The City: Mapping the Inequality of Urban Perception

A traveler visiting Rio, Manila or Caracas does not need a report to learn that these cities are unequal; she can see it directly from the taxicab window. This is because in most cities inequality is conspicuous, but also, because cities express different forms of inequality that are evident to casual observers. Cities are highly heterogeneous and often unequal with respect to the income of their residents, but also with respect to the cleanliness of their neighborhoods, the beauty of their architecture, and the liveliness of their streets, among many other evaluative dimensions. Until now, however, our ability to understand the effect of a city''s built environment on social and economic outcomes has been limited by the lack of quantitative data on urban perception. Here, we build on the intuition that inequality is partly conspicuous to create quantitative measure of a city''s contrasts. Using thousands of geo-tagged images, we measure the perception of safety, class and uniqueness; in the cities of Boston and New York in the United States, and Linz and Salzburg in Austria, finding that the range of perceptions elicited by the images of New York and Boston is larger than the range of perceptions elicited by images from Linz and Salzburg. We interpret this as evidence that the cityscapes of Boston and New York are more contrasting, or unequal, than those of Linz and Salzburg. Finally, we validate our measures by exploring the connection between them and homicides, finding a significant correlation between the perceptions of safety and class and the number of homicides in a NYC zip code, after controlling for the effects of income, population, area and age. Our results show that online images can be used to create reproducible quantitative measures of urban perception and characterize the inequality of different cities.     

Song Perception by Professional Singers and Actors: An MEG Study

The cortical correlates of speech and music perception are essentially overlapping, and the specific effects of different types of training on these networks remain unknown. We compared two groups of vocally trained professionals for music and speech, singers and actors, using recited and sung rhyme sequences from German art songs with semantic and/ or prosodic/melodic violations (i.e. violations of pitch) of the last word, in order to measure the evoked activation in a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) experiment. MEG data confirmed the existence of intertwined networks for the sung and spoken modality in an early time window after word violation. In essence for this early response, higher activity was measured after melodic/prosodic than semantic violations in predominantly right temporal areas. For singers as well as for actors, modality-specific effects were evident in predominantly left-temporal lateralized activity after semantic expectancy violations in the spoken modality, and right-dominant temporal activity in response to melodic violations in the sung modality. As an indication of a special group-dependent audiation process, higher neuronal activity for singers appeared in a late time window in right temporal and left parietal areas, both after the recited and the sung sequences.     

Population Dynamics of Intermediate-Host Snails in the White Nile River,Sudan: A Year-Round Observational Descriptive Study

We aimed to explore the population dynamics of snail in 3 sites of the White Nile in Sudan. More specifically, we aimed to investigate the annual patterns of snail populations that act as intermediate hosts of schistosomes and monthly snail infection rates and ecological characteristics presumably related to snail populations. We collected snails for 1 year monthly at 3 different shore sites in the vicinity of El Shajara along the White Nile river in Khartoum State, Sudan. In addition, we measured air and water temperatures, water turbidities, vegetation coverages, and water depths and current speeds. Most of the collected snails were Biomphalaria pfeifferi and Bulinus truncatus. The population densities of snails and their infection rates varied across survey sites. The collected snails liberated S. mansoni and S. haematobium cercariae as well as Amphistome and Echinostome cercariae. Infected snails were found during March–June. The ecological characteristics found to be associated with the absence of snails population were: high turbidity, deep water, low vegetation coverage (near absence of vegetation), high water temperature, and high current speed. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study of the snail population and ecological characteristics in the main basin of the White Nile river.     

Descriptive characters of growth form in Poaceae—An overview

The architecture of the shoot branching system in Poaceae defines the growth forms within this family. The specific characteristics of the main axis as well as the disposition and characteristics of the lateral shoots determine the main structural variations found among species. In this work, we discuss the set of parameters to be taken into account in describing the vegetative structure of Poaceae in order to achieve a full diagnosis of the system and to thoroughly assess and interpret its variations.     

Determination of Carboxylic Acids in Wines by Liquid Ion-Exclusion Chromatography

The chromatographic behavior of aromatic and aliphatic acids was studied using an ion-exclusive column. The conditions were determined under which the separation of the acids by single-column ion-exclusion chromatography with UV detection was the most selective and efficient. The method developed was employed for determining the content of carboxylic acids in wines.     

两种白斑小鼠突变基因的染色体定位

以本中心ENU诱变获得的两种白斑突变小鼠W-4Bao与Kitl-1Bao为研究对象[均为C57BL/6J(B6)背景],遗传试验表明它们都为单基因显性遗传,W-4Bao及Kitl-1Bao突变基因纯合子小鼠的表型分别为全白色及“黑头白”;将白斑杂合子小鼠与DBA/2(D2)交配获得具有白斑表型的F1小鼠,F1小鼠再回交D2繁殖[(B6×D2)F1×D2]F2小鼠,利用微卫星标记对F2代小鼠进行连锁分析。结果发现W-4Bao与微卫星D5Mit356、D5Mit308之间的LOD值分别为56.82、51.50,从而把该突变基因定位于第5号染色体D5Mit356与D5Mit308之间;Kitl-1Bao与微卫星D10Mit70、D10Mit68之间的LOD值分别为27.37、21.20,从而把该突变基因定位于第10号染色体上D10Mit70与D10Mit68之间。经过检索小鼠基因组数据库确认它们的候选基因分别为kit及kitl。     

Retention of Browning Compounds by Yeasts Involved in the Winemaking of Sherry Type Wines

Wine model solutions were used to study the ability of dehydrated yeasts to retain the brown products formed in the reaction between (+)-catechin and acetaldehyde. Saccharomyces cerevisiae races capensis and bayanus, two typical flor yeasts involved in the biological aging of sherry wines, had a higher capacity to retain coloured compounds than S. cerevisiae fermentative yeast. Of the flor yeasts, capensis exhibited a higher colour reduction capacity than bayanus. Such differences may account for the different rate at which browning compounds are removed at different times of year during the biological aging of wines.     

Determination of Polyphenolic Complex in Wines by Electrochemical Methods and Using the Enzymes Tyrosinase and Laccase

Several red wines were studied to find a correlation between the physicochemical parameters characterizing the antioxidant status of wine and the total content of phenols in samples. The content of dissolved oxygen (its value varied from 0.75 to 3.28 mg/ml), pH (3.10–3.63), redox potential (–186 to –106 mV), mass concentration of free and total sulfur dioxide (10–30 and 36–200 mg/dm³, respectively), absorption spectra, and total phenol content were determined. The wines fell into two main groups—with a relatively low (1850–2050 mg/dm³) and high (2300–2900 mg/dm³) content of polyphenols. It was demonstrated that the physicochemical parameters (except for the content of sulfur dioxide) correlate with the total phenol content in the wines studied.