E-Mail When herring are filleted, more than half their weight becomes a low-value side stream that never reaches our plates - despite being rich in protein and healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Now, scientists from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a special dipping solution, with ingredients including rosemary extract and citric acid, which can significantly extend the side streams shelf life, and increase the opportunities to use them as food.
Techniques for upgrading these side-streams to food products such as minces, protein isolates, hydrolysates and oils are already available today, and offer the chance to reduce the current practices of using them for animal feed, or, in the worst cases, simply throwing them away.
A team led by Kanazawa University, Japan, discovered that applying the vitamin nicotinamide (NIM) to plants prevents development of fungal disease. Pre-treatment with NIM activates the plant immune response and increases amounts of antimicrobial compounds that suppress the growth of the fungus. The results could lead to novel approaches to tackling crop diseases, potentially replacing toxic fungicide sprays with new, safer ways to stimulate the plant s own defense systems.
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IMAGE: Mechanisms of symbiotic engagement three principles by which plants may select for or restrict potential mutualists or pathogens. view more
Credit: David Thoms, Yan Liang, and Cara H. Haney
Plants are constantly exposed to microbes: pathogens that cause disease, commensals that cause no harm or benefit, and mutualists that promote plant growth or help fend off pathogens. For example, most land plants can form positive relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve nutrient uptake. How plants fight off pathogens without also killing beneficial microbes or wasting energy on commensal microbes is a largely unanswered question.
In fact, when scientists within the field of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions were asked to come up with their Top 10 Unanswered Questions, the #1 question was How do plants engage with beneficial microorganisms while at the same time restricting pathogens? Put more simply, how do plants tell good microbes from
A new study published at the scientific journal Frontiers in Plant Science by CRAG and IRTA researchers reveals the gene that determines Japanese plum skin colour due to the presence or absence of antioxidant pigment anthocyanin. This work provides a highly efficient molecular marker for early selection of coloured and non-coloured fruits in plum breeding programmes, with potential applications in other Rosaceae species.
Delicious to some, but a bitter bane to others taste buds, vegetables like broccoli rabe, bok choy and turnips are a dinner staple and picky eater conflict around the world.
It all likely started in the mountains near present-day Afghanistan, where humans first domesticated turnips 3,500 to 6,000 years ago, according to a new study recently published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.