Nondestructive colorimetric method to determine the oxygen diffusion rate through closures used in winemaking

Oxygen is one of the most important factors determining the aging potential of bottled wine, and oxygen diffusion into bottled wine is extremely dependent on the sealing effectiveness of the closure. A nondestructive colorimetric method was developed to measure oxygen diffusion from 1 to 9.8 mg/L during the postbottling period. This method was used to study oxygen diffusion through different closures available on the market. After 365 days of horizontal storage, only the control bottle was impermeable to atmospheric oxygen; all other closures exhibited variable rates of oxygen diffusion, which were much greater in the first month than in the following months. It was shown that the rate of diffusion was clearly influenced by the type of closure material used.     

CYP1A1 immunolocalization in the olfactory organ of rainbow trout and its possible induction by β-naphthoflavone: analysis in adults and embryos around hatching

Cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1) isoform, which is known as being of major toxicological significance, has been well-studied in the mammalian olfactory mucosa. Only few studies have dealt with this biotransformation system in the fish olfactory organ which is particularly vulnerable to waterborne xenobiotics since sensory neurons are in direct contact with the aquatic environment. The present immunocytochemical study describes the cellular and subcellular distributions of CYP1A1 in the olfactory organ of rainbow trout in both adults and embryos around hatching. The enzyme inducibility in response to a 4-day exposure to waterborne -naphthoflavone (0.1 mg l^–1), a model inducer of CYP1A1, was also examined. In untreated adult fish, CYP1A1 was almost exclusively expressed in the nonsensory epithelium which covers the edges and the tip of the lamellae. Both goblet and ciliated nonsensory cells appeared immunoreactive. In -naphthoflavone-treated fish, in addition to a strong labeling in the nonsensory epithelium, ciliated nonsensory cells in the olfactory epithelium appeared well-labeled. Four days before hatching, only a few cells were weakly stained in the placodal epithelium of some embryos. By 7 days post-hatching, the enzyme expression was increased in the olfactory pit and it was restricted to ciliated nonsensory cells. No evident CYP1A1 induction was detected in either embryos or alevins. Results suggest the presence of a two-line CYP1A1 biotransformation system in the adult fish olfactory organ: a basal level of enzyme expression insured by the nonsensory epithelium and an additional line in which the sensory epithelium is activated in response to CYP1A1 inducers. This system might take place during development in parallel with the onset of the nonsensory epithelium.     

Untargeted Metabolomics Approach for the Discovery of Environment-Related Pyran-2-Ones Chemodiversity in a Marine-Sourced Penicillium restrictum

Very little is known about chemical interactions between fungi and their mollusc host within marine environments. Here, we investigated the metabolome of a Penicillium restrictum MMS417 strain isolated from the blue mussel Mytilus edulis collected on the Loire estuary, France. Following the OSMAC approach with the use of 14 culture media, the effect of salinity and of a mussel-derived medium on the metabolic expression were analysed using HPLC-UV/DAD-HRMS/MS. An untargeted metabolomics study was performed using principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal projection to latent structure discriminant analysis (O-PLSDA) and molecular networking (MN). It highlighted some compounds belonging to sterols, macrolides and pyran-2-ones, which were specifically induced in marine conditions. In particular, a high chemical diversity of pyran-2-ones was found to be related to the presence of mussel extract in the culture medium. Mass spectrometry (MS)- and UV-guided purification resulted in the isolation of five new natural fungal pyran-2-one derivatives—5,6-dihydro-6S-hydroxymethyl-4-methoxy-2H-pyran-2-one (1), (6S, 1’R, 2’S)-LL-P880β (3), 5,6-dihydro-4-methoxy-6S-(1’S, 2’S-dihydroxy pent-3’(E)-enyl)-2H-pyran-2-one (4), 4-methoxy-6-(1’R, 2’S-dihydroxy pent-3’(E)-enyl)-2H-pyran-2-one (6) and 4-methoxy-2H-pyran-2-one (7)—together with the known (6S, 1’S, 2’S)-LL-P880β (2), (1’R, 2’S)-LL-P880γ (5), 5,6-dihydro-4-methoxy-2H-pyran-2-one (8), (6S, 1’S, 2’R)-LL-P880β (9), (6S, 1’S)-pestalotin (10), 1’R-dehydropestalotin (11) and 6-pentyl-4-methoxy-2H-pyran-2-one (12) from the mussel-derived culture medium extract. The structures of 1-12 were determined by 1D- and 2D-MMR experiments as well as high-resolution tandem MS, ECD and DP4 calculations. Some of these compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic, antibacterial, antileishmanial and in-silico PTP1B inhibitory activities. These results illustrate the utility in using host-derived media for the discovery of new natural products.     

Determination of microbial community structures of shrimp floc cultures by biomarkers and analysis of floc amino acid profiles

Simple, rapid and reliable methods are required to monitor the microbial community change in aquatic pond for better animal performance. Four floc (suspended organic matter) samples were collected from outdoor raceways and tanks used for culturing Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Twenty‐two chlorophyll (Chl) and carotenoid pigments were separated, identified and quantified using high‐performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet/Vis‐mass spectrometry in the freeze‐dried floc samples. Algal community composition (diatoms, chlorophytes, cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates and cryptophytes) was determined by measuring concentrations of the respective taxonomic biomarkers (carotenoid fucoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, peridinin and alloxanthin) as independent variables and Chl a as the dependent variable using a multiple regression model. This analysis found that the phytoplankton community of the floc samples from two groups of shrimp tanks (32 g L^?1‐salinity) were diatom‐dominated (81.7% and 84.4%); and two floc samples from shrimp raceways (5 and 18 g L^?1‐salinity) were chlorophyte‐dominated (75.4% and 82.3%). Assessment of total algal and bacterial biomass by quantification of Chl a and muramic acid, respectively, indicated that the 18 g L^?1‐salinity raceway sample was bacteria‐dominated, whereas the other three floc samples were algae‐dominated. Sample protein quality was evaluated by its essential amino acid (AA) score and index. Arginine and lysine were found to be the two most limiting AAs for all floc samples.     

Rapid fabrication and optimization of silk fibers supported and stabilized MnO<Subscript>2</Subscript> catalysts

We report on the in situ synthesis and stabilization of manganese dioxide (MnO₂) onto four different silk yarns (mulberry, tasar, muga and eri silks). A new ultrasound-assisted procedure was used to reduce permanganate (MnO₄ ^?) and yielded MnO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) on/in the different silk fibers. Using a factorial design we assessed the influence of the silk type, manganese precursor concentration, sonication time, and temperature. The results indicated no measurable effect of the process parameters on the silk structures, but significant correlation with the rate of degradation of methylene blue (MB) and the fraction of permanganate consumed. Further optimization of the factorial model identified the optimal process conditions for each silks: mulberry (150 min sonication, 20 mM permanganate), eri (360 min, 10 mM), tasar (150 min, 10 mM) and Muga (20 min, 10 mM). The operational stability (successive catalysis) of the optimum hybrids showed good performance over 5 cycles and most importantly reduced direct dye absorption relatively to dye oxidation. Overall, we found that all silks could template the formation and stabilization of different MnO₂ polymorphs and yielded catalytic instead of stoichiometric hybrid fibers.     

Waste excretion characteristics of Manila clams (Tapes philippinarum) under different temperature conditions

Water recirculating systems have been used in the shellfish industry for depuration and wet-storage. Knowledge of shellfish excretion characteristics is critical to recirculating system design. In this study, the excretion rate of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) from Manila clams (Tapes philippinarum) were investigated under both laboratory and commercial conditions. The laboratory tests were conducted under temperatures ranging from 3 to 30°C. The experimental results showed that temperature was a key factor in determining the excretion rate of all the above parameters. The relationship between TAN excretion rate (R_TAN) and temperature (T) can be represented by an exponential function (R_TAN=0.57×1.25^T). For the temperature range between 3 and 20°C, the daily mean excretion rates of TAN, TKN and BOD₅ ranged between 1.5–46.1, 4.8–131.0 and 57.4–219.4 mg per kilogram of the clams (wet weight with shell on), respectively. There were linear correlations between TAN, TKN and BOD₅ production rates. The data presented in this paper can be used to estimate waste generation from a given shellfish processing operation and to size the waste treatment components for a recirculating depuration (or wet-storage) system.     

Feeding and gut evacuation of cultured juvenile spiny lobsters, Jasus edwardsii

Low feed consumption has been suggested as a major impediment for the development of effective formulated diets for spiny lobsters. To seek an explanation for the low feed consumption, this study compared the feed consumption, appetite revival, foregut evacuation and fecal production of different sizes of spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii juveniles fed a fresh natural diet (i.e. mussel flesh) and a dry formulated diet. In addition, the effect of feeding frequency was determined by feeding juvenile lobsters the same ration of formulated diet at different time intervals. i.e., same ration delivered 3 week^− 1, 1 day^− 1, 2 day^− 1, 5 day^− 1 and 5 night^− 1. Lobster (10–15 g) growth and feed consumption (1.15% BW day^− 1) was maximized when receiving a single ration daily of the formulated diet. A slow appetite revival (AR > 18 h) on the formulated diet was consistent with the negative effect of increasing feeding frequency on growth and consumption. In addition, there appeared to be no major advantage in dry matter intake by providing the nutrient dense dry formulated diet to Jasus edwardsii. Lobsters fed fresh mussel flesh (79.8% moisture) consumed similar levels of dry matter as those lobsters fed the dry formulated feed (7.3% moisture). This appears to be due to high moisture gain and expansion of the dry feed in the lobster foregut. Foregut evacuation lasted 10 h for the two diets but a delay in initial foregut evacuation and processing of the formulated diet was evident, and may have negatively affected feed consumption, appetite revival and dry matter digestibility (61.2%) of the dry formulated diet compared to the mussel flesh diet (89.2%). Appetite revival on mussel flesh was almost complete by 12 h after a satiation ration and was governed primarily by the rate of foregut evacuation. Differences in the timing of foregut evacuation and fecal production between the two diets suggested that a greater proportion of the formulated diet entered the midgut directly.The results indicate that J. edwardsii cannot achieve high levels of feed consumption on formulated diets because gut throughput is reduced due to a small foregut capacity, expansion of the feed post-ingestion, lengthy foregut filling time (1–2 h) and clearance time (10 h), combined with slow gut throughput time (34–42 h) and appetite revival (> 18 h). A slow appetite revival and difficulties in processing and digestion of formulated diets appear as major issues to be resolved to improve the performance of formulated diets required for the commercial aquaculture of J. edwardsii and possibly other spiny lobsters.     

Eggshell matrix proteins as defense mechanism of avian eggs

This study focused on the role of eggshell matrix proteins as a function of potential natural antimicrobial defenses of avian eggs. The electrophoretic profile of SDS-PAGE showed that the soluble eggshell matrix proteins had three major bands of 15 000, 36 000, and 66 000 and several minor bands comprising 17 000, 25 000, 30 000, and 75 000, while insoluble matrix proteins were consisting of various bands comprising at least 16 distinct migration bands between 10 000 and 200 000. Three bacteria species, Pseudomonas aureginosa, Bacillus cereus, and Staphylococcus aureus, were found to be inhibited in the presence of soluble eggshell matrix proteins (100 microg/mL). On the other hand, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis were weakly inhibited at only an early stage of incubation time (up to 4 h). Scanning electron microscopy revealed that eggshell matrix proteins might interact and disrupt the membrane integrity of bacteria. The present study clearly indicated that avian eggshell matrix proteins possess a potential of novel antimicrobial defensin mechanism.     

Vascular epiphytes loss in exploited trees of the semi deciduous managed forest of Ndelele,East Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Forest Management Unit (FMU) is a growing phenomenon in Cameroon, impacting biodiversity negatively. This study was initiated to assess vascular epiphytes’ species loss on exploited trees to suggest conservation strategies. We hypothesized that: 1) epiphyte loss in this managed forest was significantly high and different with respect to phorophyte species; 2) epiphyte diversity loss has threatened status. Epiphyte survey was conducted on four most exploited trees in this study area. 63 exploited trees (Phorophytes) were surveyed. Shannon, Chao1 and Sorensen’s similarity indexes were used. Kruskal–wallis test was used to test the hypotheses. We recorded (70 epiphyte species, 33 genera and 12 families). Orchidaceae constituted highest epiphyte species with 43 species (61.4%). Epiphytes diversity was similar with respect to different phorophyte species (Sorensen?50%). Shannon’s index (3.36) showed a high epiphyte diversity loss. Kruskal–wallis showed no significant difference in epiphyte loss between phorophytes but a significant difference between zones, with canopies losing the highest epiphytes. With one epiphyte species’ status almost threatened and epiphyte diversity loss (significant); strict sustainable conservation methods like: epiphyte shade-houses and relocation are solicited. More data are needed from similar and different managed forest strata for epiphyte conservation policy enactment in Cameroon.