玉米灵芝菌粮营养成分及加工特性变化研究

玉米作为主要的杂粮谷物,营养价值高,维生素、膳食纤维等含量丰富,可以预防多种亚健康疾病,受到市场追捧。但是玉米粉营养结构不均衡、加工性差,限制其应用。有研究表明,微生物发酵技术可以改善谷物的营养成分、大分子物质结构和加工特性。基于此,利用灵芝固态发酵玉米,得到玉米灵芝菌粮（简称菌粮）,从营养成分、大分子物质结构和加工特性3个方面对其进行评价。结果显示,与未发酵玉米相比,菌粮中碳水化合物、蛋白质含量分别提高了748%、28.00%,且蛋白质的氨基酸评分提高,而脂肪含量降低了52.56%;维生素C、核黄素和烟酸含量均显著提高（P<0.05）,分别提高了56.19%、73.91%和20.27%,且玉米中缺乏的硫胺素在菌粮中被检测到;菌粮中各类淀粉和纤维的含量也发生了显著变化（P<0.05）,淀粉、支链淀粉含量分别降低了11.17%、34.70%,直链淀粉含量提高了26.66%,粗纤维、不溶性膳食纤维含量分别降低了21.07%、21.47%,可溶性膳食纤维含量提高了13.57%;菌粮粉粘度降低,水溶性指数提高,吸水性指数和溶胀力降低;此外,与灵芝子实体相比,菌粮中灵芝三萜和灵芝酸含量均显著提高（P<0.05）,分别为灵芝子实体的1.68和2.07倍。灵芝固态发酵玉米得到的玉米灵芝菌粮,营养结构更加均衡,功能活性提高,具有更高的营养价值;大分子物质结构发生改变,加工特性得到改善,冲调特性更好。研究结果为食用菌发酵改良谷物特性的研究提供了参考和指导。     

双斑蟋营养成分分析及评价

由于具有较好的营养价值以及较高的食物转化效率,食用昆虫特别是蟋蟀受到普遍关注。在双斑蟋（Gryllus bimaculatus,GB）营养成分测定的基础上,对比家蟋（Acheta domesticus,AD）和黑蟋（Gryllus testaceus,GT）的营养及含量,分析评价了双斑蟋的使用价值。结果显示：双斑蟋水分含量71.0%、粗蛋白含量58.60%（干重）、粗脂肪含量28.90%（干重）、粗纤维含量7.23%（干重）、灰分4.93%（干重）;蛋白含量与黑蟋相当而高于家蟋,粗脂肪和灰分含量要高于家蟋和黑蟋;双斑蟋含有17种氨基酸,总氨基酸含量51.03%（干重）,必需氨基酸含量24.76%（干重）、占总氨基酸的48.3%,氨基酸含量低于其他两种蟋蟀;双斑蟋中常量元素含量最高的为钾（6 416 mg/kg,干重）、含量最低的是钙（92 mg/kg,干重）,微量元素中锌含量较高（241 mg/kg,干重）;双斑蟋油脂中不饱和脂肪酸的相对含量为65.33%,以亚油酸（37.05%）和油酸（25.86%）为主、饱和脂肪酸以棕榈酸（25.44%）和硬脂酸（8.74%）为主。双斑蟋的脂肪酸组成、含量与家蟋相近,而与黑蟋的脂肪酸组成差别较大,三种蟋蟀中含量最高的饱和脂肪酸为棕榈酸,而含量最高的不饱和酸为亚油酸。结果表明,双斑蟋的必需氨基酸组成符合FAO/WHO推荐的氨基酸构成比例的蛋白条件,具有较高的营养价值和食用价值。     

Automated localisation and boundary identification of superficial femoral artery on MRI sequences

In this paper, an automated method to localise the right superficial femoral artery (SFA) and identify its boundary on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences without contrast medium injection is proposed. Some anatomical knowledge combined with the mathematical morphology is used to distinguish SFA from other vessels. Afterwards, the directional gradient, continuity and the local contrast are applied as features to identify the artery's boundary using dynamic programming. The accuracy analysis shows that the system has average unsigned errors 3.1 ± 3.1% on five sequences compared to experts' manual tracings.     

Gestational diabetes mellitus epigenetically affects genes predominantly involved in metabolic diseases

Offspring exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an increased risk for chronic diseases, and one promising mechanism for fetal metabolic programming is epigenetics. Therefore, we postulated that GDM exposure impacts the offspring’s methylome and used an epigenomic approach to explore this hypothesis. Placenta and cord blood samples were obtained from 44 newborns, including 30 exposed to GDM. Women were recruited at first trimester of pregnancy and followed until delivery. GDM was assessed after a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at 24–28 weeks of pregnancy. DNA methylation was measured at > 485,000 CpG sites (Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips). Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was conducted to identify metabolic pathways epigenetically affected by GDM. Our results showed that 3,271 and 3,758 genes in placenta and cord blood, respectively, were potentially differentially methylated between samples exposed or not to GDM (p-values down to 1 × 10⁻⁰⁶; none reached the genome-wide significance levels), with more than 25% (n = 1,029) being common to both tissues. Mean DNA methylation differences between groups were 5.7 ± 3.2% and 3.4 ± 1.9% for placenta and cord blood, respectively. These genes were likely involved in the metabolic diseases pathway (up to 115 genes (11%), p-values for pathways = 1.9 × 10⁻¹³ < p < 4.0 × 10⁻⁰³; including diabetes mellitus p = 4.3 × 10⁻¹¹). Among the differentially methylated genes, 326 in placenta and 117 in cord blood were also associated with newborn weight. Our results therefore suggest that GDM has epigenetic effects on genes preferentially involved in the metabolic diseases pathway, with consequences on fetal growth and development, and provide supportive evidence that DNA methylation is involved in fetal metabolic programming.     

Maternal weight affects placental DNA methylation of genes involved in metabolic pathways in the common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus)

Accumulating evidence suggests that dysregulation of placental DNA methylation (DNAm) is a mechanism linking maternal weight during pregnancy to metabolic programming outcomes. The common marmoset, Callithrix jaccus, is a platyrrhine primate species that has provided much insight into studies of the primate placenta, maternal condition, and metabolic programming, yet the relationships between maternal weight and placental DNAm are unknown. Here, we report genome-wide DNAm from term marmoset placentas using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. We identified 74 genes whose DNAm pattern is associated with maternal weight during gestation. These genes are predominantly involved in energy metabolism and homeostasis, including the regulation of glycolytic and lipid metabolic processes pathways.     

Resource conversion: a generalizable mechanism for resource-mediated positive species interactions

Positive species interactions are ubiquitous in natural communities, but the mechanisms through which they operate are poorly understood. One proposed mechanism is resource conversion – the conversion by a benefactor species of a resource from a resource state that is inaccessible to a potential beneficiary species into a resource state that is accessible. Such conversion often occurs as a byproduct of resource consumption, and sometimes in exchange for non-resource benefits to the benefactor species. At least five known classes of interactions, including both facilitative and mutualistic ones, may be classified as resource conversion interactions. We formulated a generalizable mathematical model for resource conversion interactions and examined two model variants that represent processing chain and nurse plant interactions. We examined the conditions under which these conformed to the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH), which predicts increased interaction benefits in more stressful environments. These yielded four key insights: 1) resource conversion interactions can be positive (towards the resource recipient) only when facilitator-mediated resource conversion is more efficient than the baseline, spontaneous, facilitator-independent resource conversion; 2) the sign of resource conversion interaction outcomes never switches (e.g. from net positive to net negative) with changing levels of resource availability, when all other parameters are kept constant; 3) processing chain interactions at equilibrium can never be positive in a manner that conforms to the SGH; 4) nurse plant interactions can be positive and conform to the SGH, although the manner in which they do depends largely on how resource stress is defined, and the environmental supply rate of surface soil moisture. The first two insights are likely to be generalizable across all resource conversion interactions. The general agreement of the model with empirical studies suggest that resource conversion is the mechanism underlying the aforementioned interactions, and an ecologically meaningful way of classifying these previously unassociated positive species interactions.     

First estimates of metabolic rate in Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae

Atlantic bluefin tuna is an iconic scombrid species with a high commercial and ecological value. Despite their importance, many physiological aspects, especially during the larval stages, are still unknown. Metabolic rates are one of the understudied aspects in scombrid larvae, likely due to challenges associated to larval handling before and during respirometry trials. Gaining reliable estimates of metabolic rates is essential to understand how larvae balance their high growth needs and activity and other physiological functions, which can be very useful for fisheries ecology and aquaculture. This is the first study to (a) estimate the relationship between routine metabolic rate (RMR) and larval dry weight (DW) (mass scaling exponent) at a constant temperature of 26°C, (b) measure the RMR under light and darkness and (c) test whether the interindividual differences in the RMR are related to larval nutritional status (RNA/DNA and DNA/DW). The RMR scaled nearly isometrically with body size (b = 0.99, 0.60–31.56 mg DW) in contrast to the allometric relationship observed in most fish larvae (average b = 0.87). The results show no significant differences in larval RMR under light and darkness, suggesting similar larval activity levels in both conditions. The size explained most of the variability in RMR (97%), and nutritional condition was unrelated to the interindividual differences in routine metabolism. This is the first study to report the metabolic rates of Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae and discuss the challenges of performing bioenergetic studies with early life stages of scombrids.     

Approaching mathematical model of the immune network based DNA Strand Displacement system

One biggest obstacle in molecular programming is that there is still no direct method to compile any existed mathematical model into biochemical reaction in order to solve a computational problem. In this paper, the implementation of DNA Strand Displacement system based on nature-inspired computation is observed. By using the Immune Network Theory and Chemical Reaction Network, the compilation of DNA-based operation is defined and the formulation of its mathematical model is derived. Furthermore, the implementation on this system is compared with the conventional implementation by using silicon-based programming. From the obtained results, we can see a positive correlation between both. One possible application from this DNA-based model is for a decision making scheme of intelligent computer or molecular robot.