Synergistic effect of high-intensity ultrasound and β-cyclodextrin treatments on browning control in apple juice

This work evaluated the synergistic effects of combined high-intensity ultrasound (HIU) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) treatments on inhibiting browning of apple juice and explored the mechanism through simulation system. The combined treatment of 300 W HIU with 0.006 g mL⁻¹ β-CD had a synergistic impact on maintaining juice colour, resulting in a 39.06% reduction in browning degree, only a 36.64% decrease in total phenolic content, and a 17.82% reduction in PPO activity. The inhibition of enzymatic browning in simulated system revealed that HIU suppressed the enzyme (Polyphenol oxidase, PPO) and β-CD inhibited enzyme (PPO) and embedded substrate (polyphenol). The results of spectroscopic analysis showed that the particle-size distribution of PPO narrowed, the content of α-helix in the secondary structure increased, the fluorescence intensity increased, and the maximum wavelength was red-shifted after HIU and β-CD treatment. Changes in structure could further result in PPO activity loss. Hence, the combined treatment could synthetically alleviate the browning of apple juice.     

Angiotensin I‐converting enzyme inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities of peptides prepared from tuna cooking juice and spleen proteases

Tuna cooking juice is a by‐product from the tuna canning industry. In this study, tuna cooking juice was hydrolysed by proteases extracted from the spleen. Tuna cooking juice showed the highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities after hydrolysis for 270 and 180 min, respectively. The hydrolysate was further fractionated by ultrafiltration. The permeate exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities when passed through 1 and 5 kDa cut‐off membranes, respectively. Gel filtration chromatography was used to determine the MW of bioactive peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities. Those peptides that exhibited highest ACE inhibitory and Ca‐binding activities were the MW range of 238–829 Da and 1355–1880 Da, respectively. These results suggest that the tuna cooking juice and the spleen protease extract are a potential source of bioactive peptides that can be utilised as bioactive ingredients in functional food and nutraceuticals.     

Crossing the Border: From Keto- to Imine Reduction in Short-Chain Dehydrogenases/Reductases

The family of NAD(P)H-dependent short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs) comprises numerous biocatalysts capable of C=O or C=C reduction. The highly homologous noroxomaritidine reductase (NR) from Narcissus sp. aff. pseudonarcissus and Zt_SDR from Zephyranthes treatiae, however, are SDRs with an extended imine substrate scope. Comparison with a similar SDR from Asparagus officinalis (Ao_SDR) exhibiting keto-reducing activity, yet negligible imine-reducing capability, and mining the Short-Chain Dehydrogenase/Reductase Engineering Database indicated that NR and Zt_SDR possess a unique active-site composition among SDRs. Adapting the active site of Ao_SDR accordingly improved its imine-reducing capability. By applying the same strategy, an unrelated SDR from Methylobacterium sp. 77 (M77_SDR) with distinct keto-reducing activity was engineered into a promiscuous enzyme with imine-reducing activity, thereby confirming that the ability to reduce imines can be rationally introduced into members of the “classical” SDR enzyme family. Thus, members of the SDR family could be a promising starting point for protein approaches to generate new imine-reducing enzymes.     

Alteration of the Route to Menaquinone towards Isochorismate-Derived Metabolites

Chorismate and isochorismate constitute branch-point intermediates in the biosynthesis of many aromatic metabolites in microorganisms and plants. To obtain unnatural compounds, we modified the route to menaquinone in Escherichia coli. We propose a model for the binding of isochorismate to the active site of MenD ((1R,2S, 5S,6S)-2-succinyl-5-enolpyruvyl-6-hydroxycyclohex-3-ene-1-carboxylate (SEPHCHC) synthase) that explains the outcome of the native reaction with α-ketoglutarate. We have rationally designed variants of MenD for the conversion of several isochorismate analogues. The double-variant Asn117Arg–Leu478Thr preferentially converts (5S,6S)-5,6-dihydroxycyclohexa-1,3-diene-1-carboxylate (2,3-trans-CHD), the hydrolysis product of isochorismate, with a >70-fold higher ratio than that for the wild type. The single-variant Arg107Ile uses (5S,6S)-6-amino-5-hydroxycyclohexa-1,3-diene-1-carboxylate (2,3-trans-CHA) as substrate with >6-fold conversion compared to wild-type MenD. The novel compounds have been made accessible in vivo (up to 5.3 g L⁻¹). Unexpectedly, as the identified residues such as Arg107 are highly conserved (>94 %), some of the designed variations can be found in wild-type SEPHCHC synthases from other bacteria (Arg107Lys, 0.3 %). This raises the question for the possible natural occurrence of as yet unexplored branches of the shikimate pathway.     

Research on Chromium Retrieval of Black Soil with Hyperspectral Imagery in Northeast of China#br#

According to the definition of spectral integral，a new spectral characteristic parameter，with the name Reversed Spectral Absorption Integral(RSAI)，is proposed and used to retrieve the chromium content based on the Partial Least Squares Regression(PLSR) model.The contrastive study with other traditional spectral characteristic parameters，including differential transformation，inverse transformation，absorption area，etc.indicates that(1) the first derivation of square root transformed model can predict the chromium content quantitatively in terms of spectral transformations.(2) the stability of the absorption area model is slightly poor，and the chromium content of samples can only be estimated roughly.(3) However，as to the inversed spectral absorption integral model，the adjustment determination coefficient(Ad-R²) of the modeling and verification is 0.73 and 0.77，while the Root Mean Squared Error(RMSE) is 2.63 mg/kg and 2.36 mg/kg respectively with Relative Percent Deviation(RPD) being 3.21，which shows that the RSAI model has excellent prediction ability.So，the inversed spectral absorption integral new model can improve the accuracy and stability used to retrieve the chromium content，which provides a new idea for monitoring the chromium contamination in soil.