Marine bioactives as functional food ingredients: potential to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases

The marine environment represents a relatively untapped source of functional ingredients that can be applied to various aspects of food processing, storage, and fortification. Moreover, numerous marine-based compounds have been identified as having diverse biological activities, with some reported to interfere with the pathogenesis of diseases. Bioactive peptides isolated from fish protein hydrolysates as well as algal fucans, galactans and alginates have been shown to possess anticoagulant, anticancer and hypocholesterolemic activities. Additionally, fish oils and marine bacteria are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, while crustaceans and seaweeds contain powerful antioxidants such as carotenoids and phenolic compounds. On the basis of their bioactive properties, this review focuses on the potential use of marine-derived compounds as functional food ingredients for health maintenance and the prevention of chronic diseases.     

塑盘抛秧均匀度差的原因及解决办法

1995～1999年,我县累计推广塑料软盘抛秧7.24万hm2,在几年的抛秧实践中,我们发现,秧苗抛植均匀度的高低,对产量影响很大。均匀度高,秧蔸之间地下部根系吸肥均匀,地上部株叶受光好、面积大,单株个体生长健壮、群体结构布局合理,有利夺取高产;均匀度差,即使单位面积内保证了高产所需的蔸数和苗数,也很难夺得高产。因此,提高抛秧均匀度,是实现抛秧高产、加速抛秧推广的一项重要措施。一、均匀度差的表现1.秧蔸分布不均匀同一块田内,局部与局部之间秧蔸密度大小不一,有的2个盘孔的秧甚至3、4个盘孔的秧连在一起形成“核心禾”;而有的地方则出现0…     

Progress in ideotype breeding to increase rice yield potential

The ideotype approach has been used in breeding programs at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and in China to improve rice yield potential. First-generation new plant type (NPT) lines developed from tropical japonica at IRRI did not yield well because of limited biomass production and poor grain filling. Progress has been made in second-generation NPT lines developed by crossing elite indica with improved tropical japonica. Several second-generation NPT lines outyielded the first-generation NPT lines and indica check varieties. China's “super” rice breeding project has developed many F₁ hybrid varieties using a combination of the ideotype approach and intersubspecific heterosis. These hybrid varieties produced grain yield of 12 t ha⁻¹ in on-farm demonstration fields, 8–15% higher than the hybrid check varieties. The success of China's “super” hybrid rice was partially the result of assembling the good components of IRRI's NPT design in addition to the use of intersubspecific heterosis. For example, both designs focused on large panicle size, reduced tillering capacity, and improved lodging resistance. More importantly, improvement in plant type design was achieved in China's “super” hybrid rice by emphasizing the top three leaves and panicle position within a canopy in order to meet the demand of heavy panicles for a large source supply. The success of “super” hybrid rice breeding in China and progress in NPT breeding at IRRI suggest that the ideotype approach is effective for breaking the yield ceiling of an irrigated rice crop.     

新昌县稻米消费嫌籼喜粳演变趋势及其对我们的启示

新昌地处浙江东部 ,为山区小县 ,现拥有人口43万 ,耕地1.6万hm2 ,其中水田1.1万hm2。近年社会经济发展很快 ,“八五”时期从浙江省17个贫困县之一发展成为浙江省经济中等发达县 ;经“九五”努力 ,1998年又被评为省定小康县 ;经国家统计局农村社会经济调查总队综合测评结果 ,2001年跻身全国百强县 (市 )行列。2002年农民人均纯收入达4930元 ,城镇居民人均可支配收入达11683元 ,分别比2001年增加293元和1263元。当地传统上以消费籼米为主 ,其中稻米严重短缺的20世纪50年代以前 ,为中晚籼米 ;进入60年代因水稻改制成功 ,主要消费转向早籼米 ;从…     

利用水稻品种抗性遗传多样性持续控制稻瘟病研究进展

利用作物品种抗性的遗传多样性持续控制作物病害是当今植物病害防治研究与应用的热点。对利用水稻品种抗性遗传多样性持续控制稻瘟病研究的原理、现有研究状况和防病机理进行了较系统的评述。     

Effects of rice-water chestnut intercropping on rice sheath blight and rice blast diseases

Both sheath blight and blast are important rice diseases worldwide. The exploration of environmentally sound practices to control these diseases will help to reduce fungicide application. Effects of rice (Oryza sativa) intercropping with water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis) on rice sheath blight and rice blast disease as well as the extracts of different plant parts and root exudates from water chestnut on pathogens of rice sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani) and rice blast disease (Magnaporthe oryzae) were investigated using pot experiments and bioassay tests. The results from pot tests showed that rice-water chestnut intercropping system suppressed sheath blight and blast and improved land equivalent ratio (LER). The results from bioassay tests indicated that extracts and root exudates from water chestnut had significant effects to inhibit the expansion of these pathogens. The scales of these inhibitions were time and concentration dependent. The antifungal activities of the extracts from aboveground parts and pulp of water chestnut were significantly higher than the extracts from other parts and root exudates. The water extracts of aboveground parts showed the highest antifungal activity on both pathogens according to EC₅₀ values. The antifungal activities of the same extracts from water chestnut on R. solani were significantly higher than on M. oryzae. The result suggests that water chestnut possesses bioactive substances to suppress rice sheath blight disease and rice blast disease. The rice-water chestnut intercropping system can be used as an environment-friendly method for diseases control in rice field.     

Seedling broadcasting as a potential method to reduce apple snail damage to rice

Exotic apple snails (Pomacea spp.) are a major threat to the productivity and profitability of rice farming globally. Cultural methods that are applicable to traditional rice transplanting are often successful in reducing snail damage to rice. However, high labor and irrigation costs associated with transplanting highlight the need to develop modern rice crop establishment methods to replace traditional, labor-intensive methods. This study examined four broad categories of rice crop establishment for their vulnerability to apple snail damage. Seedlings from dapog nurseries and wet-direct seeding were highly vulnerable to damage and produced no grain in snail-infested ponds in the Philippines. Rice transplanted from dry bed nurseries at 21 days after sowing (DAS) had high mortality (85%) and consequently low yields. In contrast, seedling broadcasting (21 DAS) significantly reduced rice vulnerability (22% seedling mortality) to snail damage compared to all other methods and resulted in the highest grain yields per plot in our experiments. We attribute lower vulnerability to snail damage and successful stand development to reduced transplanting shock at the time of seedling broadcasting and to the generally good condition of seedlings even after 21 days in polyvinyl chloride trays. We suggest that seedling broadcasting be considered as a crop establishment method with potential to sustainably manage apple snails in irrigated rice.     

Exploration of rice yield potential:Decoding agronomic and physiological traits

Rice grain yield is determined by three major"visible"morphological traits:grain weight, grain number per panicle, and effective tiller number, which are affect...     

Variations of endoreduplication and its potential contribution to endosperm development in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

ABSTRACT

Endoreduplication is the phenomenon by which cells increase their ploidy. Endoreduplication is initiated by the transition from the mitotic cell cycle to the endocycle, in which DNA replication occurs without a subsequent chromosome separation and cytokinesis, and is enhanced by endocycle reiteration. This process appears to play an important role in endosperm development, but the characteristics of endoreduplication in the endosperm of rice (Oryza sativa) remain unclear. To elucidate the features and variations of endoreduplication in rice endosperm, endoreduplication progression in the developing endosperm was compared among 10 cultivars based on flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. The flow cytometric analysis detected significant differences among 10 cultivars in the following three parameters: mean ploidy of all nuclei, the proportion of nuclei ≥6C (%E, an estimate of the initiation of the endocycle), and the mean ploidy of nuclei ≥6C (E6P, an estimate of the reiteration of the endocycle). However, no significant correlation between %E and E6P was observed, suggesting that the initiation and reiteration of the endocycle are independently regulated. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that the ploidy of the nuclei was higher in the intermediate region than in the central and peripheral regions of the endosperm. Cells with a higher ploidy were larger in the developing endosperm. Furthermore, the mean ploidy in the developing endosperm was significantly correlated with the mean cell size in the mature endosperm. These results indicate that endoreduplication progression in the endosperm differed significantly among the 10 rice cultivars and such differences may influence endosperm cell size.     

A potential method to fix heterosis of rice(Oryza sativa L.)with autoployploid

By crossing homologuos triploid plants derivedfrom twin-seedlings with diploid plants,manykinds of aneuploid were produced as expectedbecause the abnormal chromosome pairing oc- curred in triploid itself and F_1.In the mean- time,we also obtained a few normal developeddiploid F_1 plants.The self progeny(F_2)showed agronomic stability,checked withSSLP and RFLP markers.It was found thatthe F_1 was non-segregated hybrid.In thisstudy,the triploid served as male parent andthe diploid indica rice variety R725 served as     

Quantitative genetics of rice III. The potential of a pair of new plant type crosses

This paper reports the results obtained from an investigation of the potential of two crosses that were taken at random from the new plant type (NPT) programme initiated recently at the International Rice Research Institute, whose objective is to increase the yield potential of the direct-seeded, irrigated crop in the lowland tropics to 13–15 t/ha. The pedigrees in the NPT programme have been initiated by crossing temperate japonica varieties from China, Japan and Korea with tropical javanica land races from southeast Asia and are, thus, of a novel kind. The parents, F₁ and F₃ families of each of the two crosses were raised in completely randomised blocks and their individuals scored for twelve quantitative characters, nine of which were those specified in the NPT ideotype. The results showed that every character was heritable in both crosses, except for harvest index in the first, their heritabilities being mostly moderate to high. An assessment of the potential of these crosses indicated that it should be relatively easy to obtain transgressive segregants from both for the six characters where the NPT targets take the form of an interval, such as days to heading, culm length, number of panicles per plant and number of spikelets per panicle, but more difficult, if not impossible to accomplish this for percentage of filled spikelets and grain yield, whose targets lie well above the parental range. A striking feature of the results obtained from the second cross was a marked loss of fertility, in terms of percentage of filled spikelets, in the F₂ and backcross generations which, it is argued, was caused by the disruption of the independently co-adapted gene complexes of the parents by recombination and segregation at F₁ meiosis. The pattern of genetic correlations between characters differed markedly between the crosses, suggesting that the chief cause of these correlations was the linkage disequilibrium of genes linked in their inheritance.     

The nature of the relationship of electronic capacitance meter readings to pastures on offer in short swards

The residual standard deviations and distribution of residuals around five models were used to investigate the relationship between recordings from an electronic pasture probe and dry matter harvested from annual pastures (predominantly subterranean clover) at low levels of green feed on offer. Pasture material harvested was that considered to have the greatest influence on the probe i.e., within 5 cm of it.
The following conclusions were drawn. When measuring short dense green pastures yielding up to 3000 kg dry matter ha^-1 the model best describing the relationship is a split line. Curvilinear models are better than a linear model; however, both single linear and curvilinear models give biased estimates particularly near the middle and at the lower end of the range.
The best fitted model is discussed in terms of the structure of the sward and the probe.     

提高稻米品质的主要技术措施

从适量施用氮肥,增施钾肥、不施或少施农药、适时收获等几个方面总结出优质稻米栽培的主要技术措施,为提高稻米品质奠定了良好基础。     

Valorization of rice by-products: Protein-phenolic based fractions with bioactive potential

Rice bran (RB) is an important by-product from the rice production with a high valorization potential. The aim of the present work was to explore this potential by considering combined protein and phenolic fractions and enzymatic hydrolysis. The influence of different protocols in the recovery/fractioning of protein were evaluated, including defatting procedures, in rice brans from two very different locations: Portugal and Colombia. The different protein fractions achieved were characterized. Proteins were further hydrolyzed using trypsin and their hydrolysates were characterized in terms of degree of hydrolysis and peptide size. Moreover, the total phenolic content (TPC) and phenolic compounds’ profile on extracted fractions and hydrolysates of RB from Portugal and Colombia were determined. The functional potential was assessed in terms of antioxidant and antihypertensive activities. Though the protein concentrates had already significant potential bioactivities, protein hydrolysates showed that the TPC, antioxidant and antihypertensive activities significantly increased with the digestion by trypsin. Hydrolysates of RB from Portugal presented a higher antioxidant and hypertensive activities in comparison with hydrolysates of RB from Colombia, moreover it presented a higher content of TPC. This study indicated that the exploitation potential of rice bran can be increased with simple fractioning procedures, that combined protein/phenolic fractions are important to deliver functionality and that hydrolysis can be a relevant tool to release that functionality. Furthermore, regional differences in rice bran composition are also important factors to consider. Overall, this knowledge can be used to increase the industrial potential of valorization for this by-product.     

Marine bioactives: pharmacological properties and potential applications against inflammatory diseases

Inflammation is a hot topic in medical research, because it plays a key role in inflammatory diseases: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of arthritis, diabetes, heart diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, allergies, asthma, even cancer and many others. Over the past few decades, it was realized that the process of inflammation is virtually the same in different disorders, and a better understanding of inflammation may lead to better treatments for numerous diseases. Inflammation is the activation of the immune system in response to infection, irritation, or injury, with an influx of white blood cells, redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved. Although the pathophysiological basis of these conditions is not yet fully understood, reactive oxygen species (ROS) have often been implicated in their pathogenesis. In fact, in inflammatory diseases the antioxidant defense system is compromised, as evidenced by increased markers of oxidative stress, and decreased levels of protective antioxidant enzymes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). An enriched diet containing antioxidants, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, β-carotene and phenolic substances, has been suggested to improve symptoms by reducing disease-related oxidative stress. In this respect, the marine world represents a largely untapped reserve of bioactive ingredients, and considerable potential exists for exploitation of these bioactives as functional food ingredients. Substances such as n-3 oils, carotenoids, vitamins, minerals and peptides provide a myriad of health benefits, including reduction of cardiovascular diseases, anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory activities. New marine bioactives are recently gaining attention, since they could be helpful in combating chronic inflammatory degenerative conditions. The aim of this review is to examine the published studies concerning the potential pharmacological properties and application of many marine bioactives against inflammatory diseases.     

云霄县杂交水稻产量潜力制约原因分析及其丰产栽培技术

充分挖掘杂交水稻的高产潜力,是在有限耕地面积上努力提高单产的重要途径.迄今配制出来的杂交水稻在高产、超高产方面已有很多实例,而大面积生产状况与科研单位种植表现尚有一定差距,即有相当的生产潜力可发挥.笔者根据多年生产实践对云霄县目前杂交水稻产量潜力的制约原因及其丰产栽培配套技术做些探讨.