Effects of Soil Type and Tillage on Protein and Starch Quality in Three Related Wheat Genotypes

An experiment was conducted using three related wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes grown on two different soil types (a grey vertosol and a red kandosol) using two different tillage practices (complete and zero) to test the effects of environmental influence on grain quality. Wheat grains from plants grown in each environment were milled into flour; protein and starch were analyzed. The soil type had the biggest impact on both protein and starch content, with the grains from the grey vertosol soil having higher total, insoluble, and soluble protein contents, and lower starch content and flour swelling values. When protein was analyzed using SDS‐PAGE, the major difference observed between grains from the two soil types was an increased intensity of polypeptide bands corresponding to β‐amylase in grains from plants grown on grey vertosol soils.     

Induction of Triploidy and Tetraploidy in Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.)

Abstract.— Induction of triploidy and tetraploidy in Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus , was investigated by heat shock, cold shock, hydrostatic pressure, and/or chemicals (cytochalasin A, B, and D). Additionally, efficacy of combined protocols was determined. Heat shock 10 min after fertilization induced triploidy when incubation temperature was 24 C but not when incubation temperature was 31 C. Heat shock of 40–41 C at 4–6 min after fertilization was effective in inducing up to 100% triploidy with hatchability similar to controls. Cold shock at 13 C for 45 min five min after fertilization induced 85–100% triploids. Heat shock and multiple heat shocking were the most effective treatments for the induction of tetraploidy. Two heat treatments of 41 C applied at 65 and 80 min after fertilization for 5 min each produced approximately 80% tetraploidy in hatched fry. Immersion of fertilized eggs in cytochalasin A, B, or D at concentrations up to 10 μg/L applied at various times and durations was ineffective in inducing triploidy or tetraploidy.     

A unique race of the wheat stem rust pathogen with virulence on Sr31 identified in Spain and reaction of wheat and durum cultivars to this race

Wheat stem rust, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, is a re-emerging disease, posing a threat to wheat production. In Spain, stem rust has been rarely detected since the 1970s, but infection was observed in wheat fields in 2018. We analysed six stem rust samples collected in Rota, Cádiz province and one from Monteagudo del Castillo, Teruel province. All the samples from Rota were typed as race TKTTF, whereas the sample from Monteagudo del Castillo, collected in a wheat field adjacent to barberry bushes, was typed as race TKHBK. This race has a unique and significant virulence combination that includes virulence to Sr31, Sr33, Sr53 and Sr59, and is avirulent to Rusty, a durum line developed for universal susceptibility to the wheat stem rust pathogen. TKHBK is the first race outside the Ug99 race group with virulence to Sr31 and the first known race with virulence to Sr59. Genotyping studies indicate that race TKHBK does not belong to the Ug99 or TKTTF race groups and constitutes a previously unknown lineage. Two hundred bread and durum wheat cultivars and breeding lines from Spain were evaluated against TKHBK, TKTTF, and six additional races. Resistance was observed to all the races evaluated. Molecular markers confirmed the presence of Sr7a, Sr24, Sr31, Sr38 and Sr57 in bread wheat, and Sr13 in durum wheat. The re-emergence of wheat stem rust in Spain and the occurrence of unique virulences underscore the need to continue surveying and monitoring this disease.     

Dietary composition manipulation to enhance the performance of juvenile barramundi (Lates calcarifer Bloch) reared in cool water

Barramundi Lates calcarifer reared in cool water (20–22°C) grow slowly and feed is used poorly compared with fish in warm water (28–32°C). Two comparative slaughter growth assays were carried out with juvenile barramundi to see if increasing the digestible energy (DE) and/or the n‐3 highly unsaturated fatty acid (n‐3 HUFA) content of the feed would improve growth of fish raised in cool water. Increasing the DE content of the feed from 15 to 17 or 19 MJ kg⁻¹ while maintaining a constant protein to energy ratio in Experiment 1 brought about significant improvements in feed conversion ratio (FCR) (from 2.01 to 1.19) and daily growth coefficient (DGC; from 0.69 to 1.08%/day) for fish at 20°C. For fish at 29°C, improvements, while significant, were of a lesser magnitude: from 1.32 to 0.97 for FCR and from 3.24 to 3.65%/day for DGC. Increasing the absolute amount of dietary n‐3 HUFA, expressed as the sum of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic fatty acids, from 0.5% to 2.0% in Experiment 2 improved DGC linearly and FCR curvilinearly for fish at 29°C whereas at 20°C, DGC was not affected while FCR improved slightly (from 1.83 to 1.68). Feed conversion ratio was optimized with a dietary n‐3 HUFA of about 1.5%. Providing barramundi with a feed that is high in DE (viz 19 MJ kg⁻¹) and a digestible protein to DE ratio of 22.5 g MJ⁻¹ is a practical strategy for improving the productivity of barramundi cultured in cool water whereas increasing dietary n‐3 HUFA conferred very little additional benefit.     

The puzzle of the missing meat:Food away from home and China’s meat statistics

From 1985, an increasing gap has emerged between the ofifcial statistical measures of meat production and meat con-sumption in China, which has raised concerns from many researchers using such data. In...     

Effect of repeated heating and cooling cycles on the pasting properties of starch

The properties of starch and starch–lipid pastes have been explored using a novel extended Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) profile, in which the heating and cooling cycles are repeated five times. Starches from four wheat varieties with amylose content ranging from 23 to 27%, and waxy starches of wheat, rice and maize were tested, alone and in mixtures with lauric acid and monopalmitin (glyceryl-1-monopalmitin). Gels of all of the starches formed and melted reproducibly during repeated heating and cooling in the RVA. The addition of lauric acid to the waxy starches had no effect on the multiple RVA profile. Monopalmitin caused an increase in viscosity during the heating stage of the second to the fifth cycles with the waxy starches, which was attributed to the presence of monopalmitin aggregates. Changes in the multiple cycle viscosity traces observed when monopalmitin or lauric acid was added to the amylose-containing starches were complex. It was concluded that RVA paste viscosities were determined by starch–lipid interactions, as well as by free lipid in the starch mixtures. The water solubility of the lipid and association of proteins with starch granules influence these interactions.     

Amylolysis of wheat starches. II. Degradation patterns of native starch granules with varying functional properties

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to investigate degradation patterns of native starch granules from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by different starch-degrading enzymes. The starches examined were from a waxy wheat and four varieties with slightly elevated amylose content, but with different functional properties. Differences in the digestion patterns after partial α-amylolysis of starch granules were noted between the starches. The waxy starch seemed to be degraded by endocorrosion, whereas the amylose-rich starches followed a slower mode of hydrolysis starting from the granular surface. X-ray diffractograms of the amylose-rich starches were not significantly altered by 2 h of α-amylolysis, whereas partial hydrolysis of the waxy starch decreased scattering intensity at higher 2θ angles, consistent with a different mode of attack by α-amylase in the initial digestion stages of granules of waxy and amylose-rich starches. We propose these differences are due to the combined effects of the change in packing density and partial preference for hydrolysis of amorphous material. The native starch granules were also attacked by beta-amylase, isoamylase and amyloglucosidase, which indicates that α-amylase is not the only starch-degrading enzyme that is able to initiate starch hydrolysis of native granules.