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Bread is an important staple food that is susceptible to spoilage, making it one of the most wasted foods. To determine the safety of partially moldy bread, five types of bread were inoculated with common mold species. After incubation, the metabolite profile was determined in and under the inoculation spot, as well as at a lateral distance of 3 cm from the moldy spot. The result showed that the metabolites were exclusively concentrated in the inoculation area and directly below the inoculation area. The only exception was citrinin, a mycotoxin produced by Penicillia such as Penicillium citrinum , which was detected in almost all tested bread areas when inoculated with the corresponding strains. The results of our study suggest that the removal of moldy parts may be a solution to reduce food waste if the remaining bread is to be used, for example for insect farming to produce animal feed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Palm oil has a bad reputation due to the exploitation of farmers and the destruction of endangered animal habitats. Therefore, many consumers wish to avoid the use of palm oil. Decorative sugar contains a small amount of palm oil to prevent the sugar from melting on hot bakery products. High-oleic sunflower oil used as a substitute for palm oil was analyzed in this study via multispectral imaging and an electronic nose, two methods suitable for potential large-batch analysis of sugar/oil coatings. Multispectral imaging is a nondestructive method for comparing the wavelength reflections of the surface of a sample. Reference samples enabled the estimation of the quality of unknown samples, which were confirmed via acid value measurements. Additionally, for quality determination, volatile compounds from decorative sugars were measured with an electronic nose. Both applications provide comparable data that provide information about the quality of decorative sugars.

Scope: Sea buckthorn (Hippophaes rhamnoides) is capable of ameliorating disturbed glucose metabolism in animal models and human subjects. Here, the effect of sea buckthorn oil as well as of extracts of fruits, leaves, and press cake on postprandial glucose metabolism is systematically investigated., Methods and Results: Sea buckthorn did neither exert decisive effects in an in vitro model of intestinal glucose absorption nor did it alter insulin secretion. However, sea buckthorn stimulates GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane comparable to insulin, indicative of increased glucose clearance from the circulation. Isorhamnetin is identified in all sea buckthorn samples investigated and is biologically active in triggering GLUT4 cell surface localization. Consistently, sea buckthorn products lower circulating glucose by ≈10% in a chick embryo model. Moreover, sea buckthorn products fully revert hyperglycemia in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans while they are ineffective in Drosophila melanogaster under euglycemic conditions., Conclusion: These data indicate that edible sea buckthorn products as well as by-products are promising resources for hypoglycemic nutrient supplements that increase cellular glucose clearance into target tissues., (© 2022 The Authors. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Analysis of protein-protein interactions in living cells by protein micropatterning is currently limited to the spatial arrangement of transmembrane proteins and their corresponding downstream molecules. Here, we present a robust and straightforward method for dynamic immunopatterning of cytosolic protein complexes by use of an artificial transmembrane bait construct in combination with microstructured antibody arrays on cyclic olefin polymer substrates. As a proof, the method was used to characterize Grb2-mediated signaling pathways downstream of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Ternary protein complexes (Shc1:Grb2:SOS1 and Grb2:Gab1:PI3K) were identified, and we found that EGFR downstream signaling is based on constitutively bound (Grb2:SOS1 and Grb2:Gab1) as well as on agonist-dependent protein associations with transient interaction properties (Grb2:Shc1 and Grb2:PI3K). Spatiotemporal analysis further revealed significant differences in stability and exchange kinetics of protein interactions. Furthermore, we could show that this approach is well suited to study the efficacy and specificity of SH2 and SH3 protein domain inhibitors in a live cell context. Altogether, this method represents a significant enhancement of quantitative subcellular micropatterning approaches as an alternative to standard biochemical analyses.

Bioactive plant compounds and extracts are of special interest for the development of pharmaceuticals. Here, we describe the screening of more than 1100 aqueous plant extracts and synthetic reference compounds for their ability to stimulate or inhibit insulin secretion. To quantify insulin secretion in living MIN6 β cells, an insulin- Gaussia luciferase (Ins-GLuc) biosensor was used. Positive hits included extracts from Quillaja saponaria , Anagallis arvensis , Sapindus mukorossi , Gleditsia sinensis and Albizia julibrissin , which were identified as insulin secretion stimulators, whereas extracts of Acacia catechu , Myrtus communis , Actaea spicata L., Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Calendula officinalis were found to exhibit insulin secretion inhibitory properties. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) were used to characterize several bioactive compounds in the selected plant extracts, and these bioactives were retested for their insulin-modulating properties. Overall, we identified several plant extracts and some of their bioactive compounds that may be used to manipulate pancreatic insulin secretion.