发酵食品中微生物多样性研究方法进展

发酵食品中的微生物是食品发酵体系中与发酵食品的品质和风味有着密切联系的组成成分.对发酵食品中微生物的多样性及其所扮演角色进行调查,能为改进传统食品发酵工艺、探究发酵食品风味形成机理等方面提供技术支持.文中介绍了目前研究发酵食品中微生物多样性的多种方法,并分析比较了各种技术方法的优缺点.     

A biotechnological perspective on the application of iron oxide nanoparticles

In recent decades,magnetic iron nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much attention due to properties such as superparamagnetism,high surface area,large surface-to-volume ratio,and easy separation under external magnetic fields.Therefore,magnetic iron oxides have potential for use in numerous applications,including magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement,tissue repair,immunoassay,detoxification of biological fluids,drug delivery,hyperthermia,and cell separation.This review provides an updated and integrated focus on the fabrication and characterization of suitable magnetic iron NPs for biotechnological applications.The possible perspective and some challenges in the further development of these NPs are also discussed.     

生物工程下游技术课程教学改革的探索

生物工程下游技术是生物技术专业的主干课程,具有综合性和实践性。我们对教学内容、教学方法和手段以及实践教学进行了改革与探索,注重传授学生专业知识,更注重传授学习的方法。     

Competitive Sperm-Marked Beetles for Monitoring Approaches in Genetic Biocontrol and Studies in Reproductive Biology

Sperm marking provides a key tool for reproductive biology studies, but it also represents a valuable monitoring tool for genetic pest control strategies such as the sterile insect technique. Sperm-marked lines can be generated by introducing transgenes that mediate the expression of fluorescent proteins during spermatogenesis. The homozygous lines established by transgenesis approaches are going through a genetic bottleneck that can lead to reduced fitness. Transgenic SIT approaches have mostly focused on Dipteran and Lepidopteran pests so far. With this study, we provide sperm-marked lines for the Coleopteran pest model organism, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, based on the β2-tubulin promoter/enhancer driving red (DsRed) or green (EGFP) fluorescence. The obtained lines are reasonably competitive and were thus used for our studies on reproductive biology, confirming the phenomenon of ‘last-male sperm precedence’ and that the spermathecae are deployed for long-term sperm storage, enabling the use of sperm from first mating events even after secondary mating events for a long period of time. The homozygosity and competitiveness of the lines will enable future studies to analyze the controlled process of sperm movement into the long-term storage organ as part of a post-mating cryptic female choice mechanism of this extremely promiscuous species.     

How chemophobia affects public acceptance of pesticide use and biotechnology in agriculture

Protecting crops from infestations is critical to ensuring stable, safe food production. However, many consumers are concerned about the use of pesticides and agricultural biotechnology (agri-biotech) applications. A lack of consumer acceptance can prevent potentially beneficial applications from being utilized. This study examines consumer acceptance of pesticide use in conventional and organic agriculture and agri-biotech applications as crop-protection measures. An online between-subject experiment was conducted with participants from the German-speaking part of Switzerland (N = 643). The results revealed that consumers were most willing to accept gene transfers as a protection measure, provided the gene came from a wild variety of the same species as the cultivated plant. Both chemophobia and the importance of naturalness in food influence consumer acceptance of pesticide use and agri-biotech applications. Addressing chemophobia and informing consumers about the role of technologies in pest-management and crop-protection could lead them to trust and accept related agricultural policies.     

New Directions in Bioinformatics

Two decades have passed since the first large scale, public access computer-based information systems were developed to store and disseminate the knowledge of medicine and biology. These first systems were bibliographic, and though the searching of computer files of citations remains the most common use of biological databases, there are dramatic forces at work in basic biology which are driving a transition from the printed page to the factual database. Unlike bibliographic systems, which contain only a pointer to information located elsewhere, factual data-bases contain the information sought. Development of automated methods to sequence DNA, RNA, proteins, and other macromolecules have yielded oceans of cryptic symbols, for which there is an absolute dependence upon computerized factual databases to acquire, store, retrieve, and analyze data. The Human Genome Project has focussed attention on the information science aspects of nucleic acid data, yet for the practicing scientist nucleic acids and other sequence data are just one piece of an increasingly complex biological puzzle whose solution will be expressed in terms of structure and function. Access to and integration of information across multiple related biological data-bases is a major challenge facing information system builders, a challenge which holds the promise of creating knowledge synergy from what are today disconnected, stand-alone information sources.     

沼气中硫化氢气体的生物处理法

沼气中硫化氢的存在限制了沼气能源的推广。文章阐述了沼气生物脱硫法的原理、方法和可行性,介绍了该方法在国内外的研究发展现状。     

Accelerated ripening of cheese using liposome-encapsulated enzyme

Improved efficiency of liposome encapsulation of a cheese-ripening enzyme and increased retention of encapsulated enzyme by cheese curd are reported. The economy of enzyme usage for accelerating the rate of ripening of Cheddar cheese has been improved about 100-fold over previously reported methods. This has made feasible the use of microencapsulated enzymes for large-scale cheese production. Objective measurement of cheese ripening by proteolytic indices, and subjective evaluation of flavour quality and intensity by trained taste panels, indicate that cheeses are ripened by the microencapsulated enzyme in half the normal time. Investigations aimed at further improving the efficiency and commercial feasibility of the process are reported, and the possibility of using this technology for other aspects of food processing are discussed.     

Plant biotechnology and food crop development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Biotechnology represents the newest challenge in the ongoing scientific progress in this millennium. Indeed what were seen as promising technologies a few years ago have already produced results; new crop varieties, animal species and agricultural processes. In crop improvement, for example, biotechnology has produced a wide range of applications including micro-propagation of crop varieties for commercial purposes, somatic embryogenesis, inter-specific crosses, gene transfers, and disease control and haploid production. Although modest in comparison with the prospects originally envisaged, mankind cannot but acknowledge these achievements, the regulatory control and commercial exploitation of biotechnology on standards of living of the human society.