Effects of Sewage on the Chemical Composition of Piracicaba River,Brazil

Water samples were collected from 7 locations along major rivers of Piracicaba River basin for 22 months. The 4 upstream points represent non-polluted sites and the 3 downriver points represent polluted sites. Due to sewage input, concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), major conservative cations and anions increased significantly in the polluted sites. The major increases were observed for sodium, chloride and sulfate. Nitrate was an exception for this pattern, with similar concentrations between polluted and non-polluted sites. The probable cause was reduction of nitrate to ammonium in the polluted sites, where anoxic conditions prevail. Most of the variables had an inverse correlation with water discharge, especially in the polluted points. The sewage load was diluted by precipitation and surface waters.     

Assessing the impact of interfering organic matter on soil metaproteomic workflow

Soil organic matter (SOM) is biologically, chemically, and physically complex. As a major store of nutrients within the soil, it plays an important role in nutrient provision to plants. An enhanced understanding of SOM utilisation processes could underpin better fertiliser management for plant growth, with reduced environmental losses. Metaproteomics can allow the characterisation of protein profiles and could help gain insights into SOM microbial decomposition mechanisms. Here, we applied three different extraction methods to two soil types to recover SOM with different characteristics. Specifically, water-extractable organic matter, mineral-associated organic matter and protein-bound organic matter were targeted with the aim to investigate the metaproteome enriched in those extractions. As a proof-of-concept, replicated extracts from one soil were further analysed for peptide identification using liquid chromatography followed by tandem mass spectrometry. We employed a framework for mining mass spectra for both peptide assignment and fragmentation pattern characterisation. Different extracts were found to exhibit contrasting total protein and humic substance content for the two soils investigated. Overall, water extracts displayed the lowest humic substance content (in both soils) and the highest number of peptide identifications (in the soil investigated) with the most frequent peptide hits associated with diverse substrate/ligand binding proteins of Proteobacteria and derived taxa. Our framework also highlighted a strong peptidic signal in unassigned and unmatched spectra, information that is currently not captured by the pipelines employed in this study. Taken together, this work points to specific areas for optimisation in chromatography and mass spectrometry to adequately characterise SOM-associated metaproteomes.     

Influence of redox conditions and rice straw incorporation on nitrogen availability in fertilized paddy soils

Biology and Fertility of Soils - Temporal nitrogen (N) availability in fertilized rice paddies is the result of a balance of processes, mainly the gross rates of N mineralization, microbial and...     

Peptides isolated from in vitro digests of milk enhance iron uptake by caco-2 cells

Milk proteins, during digestion, produce a range of biologically active peptides. Among those are peptides that may enhance iron absorption. The objective of this project was to investigate the effect of isolated milk peptides on iron uptake. Cow's milk, 0% fat, was subjected to a modified in vitro digestion process. The milk digest was further fractionated by gel filtration. All eluted fractions as well as beta-casein synthetic peptides (a tripeptide and a hexapeptide) were subsequently tested for effects on iron uptake with Caco-2 cell monolayers. Fractions of milk digests obtained through Sephadex G-25 gel filtration had a significant enhancing effect on iron uptake in Caco-2 cells compared to nonfractionated milk digests. Two fractions (P = 0) and the hexapeptide (P < 0.0001) enhanced iron uptake by up to 3-fold, whereas others and the tripeptide had no effect. These results suggest that selected peptides produced during the in vitro digestion of milk may enhance iron absorption; however, it remains to be demonstrated whether this effect may be nutritionally significant.     

Characterization of Sardinian cork oak (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Quercus suber</Emphasis> L.) genetic resources for economically important traits

Considering the very high socio economic value of cork oak (Quercus suber L.) in Mediterranean areas, a better knowledge of local genetic resources is necessary in order to reach a good balance between the conservation issues and the need of an efficient cork production network. In such frame, local germplasm of Q. suber from the main cork production areas of Sardinia was analysed for DNA and isozyme polymorphisms and for cork quality in relation to some environmental parameters. A total number of 24 sample stands of cork oak were selected, representing typical vegetation, sylvicultural and cork quality features within the eight identified cork growing areas in Sardinia. Considerable variation was found between cork oak stands of the different areas. Results of the principal component analysis performed on the cork quality data and environmental characters of the eight areas, showed that the first three components explain 72.2% of the variation. The major characters involved in this differentiation were cork quality characters such as dimensional recover, moisture and Mg content of the cork and also elevation of stands m a.s.l. for the first component. The second component appears to be determined by some climatic parameters (average annual temperature and average of the minimum temperatures of coldest month) and by the Fe and Zn in the cork. For the third component, major characters involved in differentiation are average annual rainfall, bark thickness and Ca content in the cork.     

Beef authentication and retrospective dietary verification using stable isotope ratio analysis of bovine muscle and tail hair

Stable isotope ratio analysis (SIRA) was used as an analytical tool to verify the preslaughter diet of beef cattle. Muscle and tail hair samples were collected from animals fed either pasture (P), a barley-based concentrate (C), silage followed by pasture (SiP), or silage followed by pasture with concentrate (SiPC) for 1 year (n = 25 animals per treatment). The (13)C/(12)C, (15)N/(14)N, (2)H/(1)H, and (34)S/(32)S isotope ratios in muscle clearly reflected those of the diets consumed by the animals. By applying a stepwise canonical discriminant analysis, a good discrimination of bovine meat according to dietary regimen was obtained. On the basis of the classification success rate, the (13)C/(12)C and (34)S/(32)S ratios in muscle were the best indicators for authentication of beef from animals consuming the different diets. Analysis of (13)C/(12)C and (15)N/(14)N in tail hair sections provided an archival record of changes to the diet of the cattle for periods of over 1 year preslaughter.     

Organic‐carbon fractions in an agricultural topsoil assessed by the determination of the soil mineral surface area

According to recent conceptual models, the organic carbon (OC) of soils can be divided into OC fractions of increasing stability from labile free OC to resistant OC associated with the soil mineral phase. In this study, we present a method for quantifying two OC fractions based on soil aggregate–size fractionation and the N₂ gas–adsorption method. For this purpose, we analyzed soil material of the plow layer of a Haplic Chernozem subjected to different fertilizer treatments (no fertilizer, mineral fertilizer, mineral and organic fertilizer). The total organic‐C concentration (TOC) and the clay content of the different size fractions were determined as well as the specific surface area (SSA_mineral) and the sample pore volume after thermal oxidation (OC‐free). The TOC of the different soil‐aggregate fractions was linearly related to SSA_mineral. Clay‐associated OC and nonassociated OC fractions of the different soil samples were quantified using two methods based on the OC surface loading at the clay fraction. The application of organic fertilizer increased the amount of nonassociated OC but hardly affected the concentration of clay‐associated OC. This finding agrees with previous studies on C dynamics in soils and indicates a finite capacity of soil materials to sequester OC. Even without any addition of organic fertilizer, the mineral phase of the analyzed soil material appears to be C‐saturated.     

Usefulness of amino acid composition to discriminate between honeydew and floral honeys. Application to honeys from a small geographic area

With the aim of finding methods that could constitute a solid alternative to melissopalynological and physicochemical analyses to determine the botanical origin (floral or honeydew) of honeys, the free amino acid content of 46 honey samples has been determined. The honeys were collected in a small geographic area of approximately 2000 km(2) in central Spain. Twenty-seven honey samples were classified as floral and 19 as honeydew according to their palynological and physicochemical analyses. The resulting data have been subjected to different multivariant analysis techniques. One hundred percent of honey samples have been correctly classified into either the floral or the honeydew groups, according to their content in glutamic acid and tryptophan. It is concluded that free amino acids are good indicators of the botanical origin of honeys, saving time compared with more tedious analyses.