Search

Nowadays, considerable interest has been expressed in using oil/metal oxide hybrid bionanocomposite, particularly organic/inorganic, to engineer different biomedical applications. The fabricated Oleum cumini oil/PVP/MgO bionanocomposite in this study was characterized using different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques as well as a thermal stability study. The obtained results proved excellent dispersion of MgO nanoparticles in the PVP–Oleum cumini oil matrix with particle size 50–60 nm. The green synthesized Oleum cumini oil/PVP/MgO bionanocomposite was evaluated for antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer activities. The prepared bionanocomposite displayed excellent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida tropicalis, and Candida Glabrata. Also, the bionanocomposite showed anticancer activity against the pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC-1), and exhibited significant antioxidant effects against the DPPH and ABTS scavenging free radicals. Conclusively, the fabricated Oleum cumini oil/PVP/MgO bionanocomposite combine the benefits of Oleum cumini oil and MgO, and thus might hold a great promise for biomedical applications in the near future.

Early diagnosis and clinical treatments of breast cancer provide a highly successful chance for patients to survive. Herein, the detection of CA 27-29 breast cancer antigen was conducted using a label-free ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor Au/MoS2/rGO nanocomposite system. The high electrochemical sensitivity of the as-prepared nanocomposites was provided as a result of the high synergistic effect between AuNPs, MoS2 and rGO. Signal amplification of the amperometric detection was evaluated by monitoring the electrocatalytic current response of hydrogen peroxide reduction through the immunoreaction between the anti-CA 27-29 and CA 27-29 antigen on the surface of the Au/MoS2/rGO nanocomposites. The immunosensor displayed an excellent specificity and high sensitivity towards the detection of CA 27-29 breast cancer antigen in human serum with low detection limits of 0.08 U mL−1. The reproducibility, stability and specificity of the suggested immunosensor were evaluated and the recorded results indicated that this type of immunosensor can play an important role in the clinical diagnosis of different types of tumor markers.

Oat avenanthramides have long been known to possess potential nutraceutical and therapeutical properties. The change in avenanthramides 2p, 2c and 2f concentration in four salinity tolerant transgenic oat plants containing CBF 3 gene and non-transgenic control exposed to different levels of salinity stress was investigated. Determination of oat avenanthramides at the nano-scale level was performed using a well-optimized and highly sensitive sequential injection chemiluminescence (SIA-CL) method enhanced by eco-friendly gold nanoparticles biosynthesized from oat biomass extract. Under the conditions of this study, the predominant avenanthramide, which also exhibited the strongest scavenging capacity, was 2c followed by 2p and 2f. At no stress, there was no significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference between the transgenic lines and control regarding the concentrations of the three determined avenanthramides. After exposure to 250 mmol L −1 NaCl, avenanthramide 2c dramatically increased by 170.9%, 580%, 353.6%, 457.6% and 229.1% in the control and the four transgenic lines, respectively. Among the transgenic lines, Agrogle-1 maintained the highest avenanthramides concentration under all salinity levels with maximum values of 71.5 mg kg −1 for 2p, 221.0 mg kg −1 for 2c and 62.0 mg kg −1 for 2f detected at 250 mmol L −1 NaCl. The results of this study demonstrated that oat avenanthramides might have a potential role in enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in oats.

Aristolochic acid-I (AA-I) is commonly present as a natural product in medicinal plants such as Asarum and Radix aristolochiae. The misuse of some slimming products and dietary, supplements containing AA-I as a regulator has been reported to cause cancer, acute hepatitis and renal failure. Hence, quality control and quantification of AA-I in these products at a trace level are significantly necessary. In this approach, a simple and accurate sequential injection analysis (SIA) chemiluminescence (CL) detection method was employed for AA-I determination. Gold nanoparticles were used to enhance the CL signal of luminol-ferricyanide-AA-I reaction. The results showed that the proposed method displayed linear relationship of 10–20,000 ng mL−1, (r = 0.9992) with 10 and 3 ng mL−1 as the minimum quantification and detection limits, respectively. The possible interferences such as some common metals, additives and related pharmacological action compounds were tested. The recorded SIA-CL results were statistically assessed and compared to those obtained from other published methods.

Garden cress (Lepidium sativum Linn.), belong to Brassicaceae family, is a fast-growing, edible annual herb and considered as an important medicinal plant and widely grown in several countries. L. sativum seeds, oil, and powder contain high levels of flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, anthracene glycosides, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and fibers, which are incorporated in novel beverages and foods. In Ayurveda, L. sativum is considered as hot, bitter, galactogogue, and aphrodisiac and claimed to prevent Vata and Kapha. L. sativum seed is a good source of phenolics, amino acids, and used as a novel source of hydrocolloids. Seed extracts exhibited strong shear-thinning behavior and are used a substitute for gum arabica. L. sativum seed oil has a balanced amount of poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. L. sativum seed oil contains natural antioxidants including tocols, sterols, carotenoids, and eugenol that help in the protection of oil rancidity. Clinical trials were carried out on the experimental animals to support the efficacy of L. sativum seeds. Seed extracts have been screened for various biological traits like hypotensive, antimicrobial, bronchodilator, hypoglycemic, and allelopathic, whereas its seed coat mucilage has been isolated to make it excipient of desired functionality as a part of pharmaceuticals. Through this article, the readers will get valuable information about L. sativum chemical composition, functional properties, pharmacological profile, and health-promoting applications.

The clinical detection of carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), a tumor marker in biological samples, improves and facilitates the rapid screening and diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. A simple, low cost, fast, and green synthesis method to prepare a viable carbon quantum dots/gold (CQDs/Au) nanocomposite fluorescence immunosensing solution for the detection of CA 19-9 was reported. The present method is conducted by preparing glucose-derived CQDs using a microwave-assisted method. CQDs were employed as reducing and stabilizing agents for the preparation of a CQDs/Au nanocomposite. The immobilized anti-CA 19-9-labeled horseradish peroxidase enzyme (Ab–HRP) was anchored to the surface of a CQDs/Au nanocomposite by a peptide interaction between the carboxylic and amine active groups. The CA 19-9 antigen was trapped by another monoclonal antibody that was coated on the surface of microtiter wells. The formed sandwich capping antibody–antigen–antibody enzyme complex had tunable fluorescence properties that were detected under excitation and emission wavelengths of 420 and 530 nm. The increase in fluorescence intensities of the immunoassay sensing solution was proportional to the CA 19-9 antigen concentration in the linear range of 0.01–350 U mL−1 and had a lower detection limit of 0.007 U mL−1. The proposed CQDs/Au nanocomposite immunoassay method provides a promising tool for detecting CA 19-9 in human serum.

Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) seeds and its essential oil have been widely used in functional foods, nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical products. Analysis of Nigella sativa essential oil using GC and GC-MS resulted in the identification of many bioactive compounds representing ca. 85 % of the total content. The main compounds included p-cymene, thymoquinone, α-thujene, longifolene, β-pinene, α-pinene and carvacrol. Nigella sativa essential oil exhibited different biological activities including antifungal, antibacterial and antioxidant potentials. Nigella sativa essential oil showed complete inhibition zones against different Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria including Penicillium citrinum Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The essential oil showed stronger antioxidant potential in comparison with synthetic antioxidants (i.e., BHA and BHT) in a rapeseed oil model system. The oil exhibited also stronger radical scavenging activity against DPPH·radical in comparison with synthetic antioxidants. The diversity of applications to which Nigella sativa essential oil can be put gives this oil industrial importance.

This study was conducted to test the impact of the nutrient solution temperature and the application of different stress treatments at tuberization on several growth variables for two potato cultivars grown in an aeroponic system. At 25 days after transplanting, low pH level, wilting stress and nitrogen withdrawal under warm (24 °C) and cool (18 °C) root-zone temperatures were applied to potato plants cv. Mystere and Chieftain. Significant differences in mini-tuber production, stolon number and length and root length were observed among root zone temperatures, stress treatments and cultivars. Cooling the nutrient solution temperature to 18 °C significantly increased most growth variables and tuber yield for both cultivars. Plants subjected to nitrogen withdrawal at tuberization out-performed plants of the other treatments as well as the control and exhibited faster tuberization, higher mini-tuber number and weight as well as significantly higher root length, stolon number/plant and number of stolon branches/plant. The low pH and wilting treatments reduced plant growth and mini-tuber number/plant. They dramatically increased the number of stolon branches/plant and stolon number respectively. However, this increase did not counteract the negative effects on the other variables. The results of this study demonstrate that a judicious use of these stresses can effectively promote tuberization in aeroponics.

The impact of suppressing the caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene on lignin and fiber content as well as seed oil composition of Brassica napus was studied. Transgenic lines showed significant reduction in COMT enzyme activity ranging between 21 and 31 % residual activity. Lignin in the transgenic Cruciferin:COMT line 34-3 seeds was reduced by 35 % of the wild type, which decreased acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber by 17.92 and 13.04 % of the control, respectively. The main fatty acids were monounsaturated (67.2–69.5 %) followed by polyunsaturated (20.9–23.3 %). The content of tocols ranged between 338 and 440 mg/100 g oil. The highest antiradical action toward 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and galvinoxyl radicals was in the oil of the transgenic line 34-3, which contained the highest amount of total phenolic compounds and total tocols. The results show the possibility of reducing lignin in B. napus with no effect on oil content and quality.

in the oat background, and the salt tolerance trait complexity (Cushman and Bohnert, 2000). Crop improveA major cause of oat crop yield loss worldwide is osmotic stress ment strategies that are based on the use of new technolduetodroughtand/orsalinity.Thisstudyinvestigatedthethirdgenerationoftransgenicoat(AvenasativaL.)expressingbarleyHVA1stress ogies, such as biotechnology, can be used in conjunction tolerance, -glucuronidase (uidA; gus) and bar herbicide resistance with traditional breeding efforts (Abebe et al., 2003; genes. Transgenic plants showed normal 9:7 third generation inheri- Epstein et al., 1980; Ribaut and Hoisington, 1998), offertance for glufosinate ammonium herbicide resistance. Molecular and ing a responsible way to enhance agricultural productivhistochemical studies confirmed the presence and stable expression ity. Biotechnology could help eliminate many obstacles of all three genes. Compared with the nontransgenic control plants, limiting crop production in developing countries. The transgenicR3plantsexhibitedgreatergrowthandshowedasignificant development of crops with the internal capacity to with(P 0.05) increase in tolerance to salt stress conditions (200 mM stand abiotic stresses would help to reduce the use of NaCl) for traits including number of days to heading, plant height, water (FAO, 1999), thus promoting sustainable yields flag leaf area, root length, panicle length, number of spikelets/panicle

Immature zygotic embryo has been the widely used explant source to develop embryogenic callus lines, cell suspensions and protoplasts for transformation of cereal crops including maize, wheat, rice, oat, barley, sorghum, and millet. However, the lack of competence of immature embryos in certain elite lines is still a barrier to routine production of transgenic cereal crops in certain commercial cultivars. In addition, a great deal of effort is required to produce immature embryos, manipulate cultures of immature embryos or their cell suspensions, and cryopreserve cultures for further use. In addition, undifferentiated cells may have reduced regenerability after a few months of in vitro culture. Alternative explants and regeneration systems for efficient transformation of cereal crops are needed to avoid or reduce the above limitations. During the past decade, scientists have successfully manipulated the shoot apical meristems from seedlings of maize, oat, sorghum, millet, wheat, and barley in an effort to develop a less genotype-dependent and efficient cereal regeneration system that can be maintained in vitro for long periods of time without the need for cryopreservation. Furthermore, apical meristem regeneration systems were used to stably transform maize, wheat, rice, oat, barley, sorghum, and millet.

While the United States owns only three percent (3%) of the total world petro-oil reserves, it uses over twenty-five percent (25%) of its total global output on an annual basis. Furthermore, the US petro-oil consumption is expected to double by 2050. While the sources for US oil are innumerable, many of the countries which contribute vastly to the US oil supply are economically and politically unstable. This has led to concerns about the security of the US oil supply, since a major political disturbance could be devastating. This article describes a model for the production of affordable and renewable biofuels as well as recombinant high-value industrial co-products from crop residues—waste products in today’s farming environment without competition between commodities critical to global food and feed supplies. This model represents a uniquely attractive business case giving the environmental and economic advantage it would have over petro-oil derived fuels and byproducts. Moreover, it can assist the developed nations to reduce their dependence on imported petro-oil fuels as well as improves the lives of agriculture producers in developed and developing nations around the globe.

Salinity is a major abiotic constraint affecting oat productivity. Several physiological and biochemical traits have been found to be related to yield maintenance under salinity. The impact of introducing the Arabidopsis CBF3 gene controlled by the rd29A stress-inducible promoter in T(2) transgenic oat on salinity tolerance and associated physiological changes were studied. Compared with the non-transgenic control, transgenic T(2) plants exhibited greater growth and showed significant maintenance of leaf area, relative water content, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic and transpiration rates as well as increased levels of proline and soluble sugars under high salt stress. These physiological changes delayed leaf-wilting symptoms, increased tolerance and reduced yield loss. At a salinity stress level of 100mM, the CBF3-overexpressing transgenic oat showed a yield loss of 4-11% compared with >56% for the non-transgenic control. These results demonstrate that stress-inducible over-expression of CBF3 may have the potential to enhance abiotic stress tolerance in oat.

Oat (Avena sativa L.), a worldwide temperate cereal crop, is deficient in tolerance to osmotic stress due to drought and/or salinity. To genetically transform the available commercial oat cultivars, a genotype-independent and efficient regeneration system from shoot apical meristems was developed using four oat cultivars: Prairie, Porter, Ogle, and Pacer. All these oat cultivars generated a genotype-independent in vitro differentiated multiple shoots from shoot apical meristems at a high frequency. Using this system, three oat cultivars were genetically co-transformed with pBY520 (containing hva1 and bar) and pAct1-D (containing gus) using biolistic trade mark bombardment. Transgenic plants were selected and regenerated using herbicide resistance and GUS as a marker. Molecular and biochemical analyses of putative transgenic plants confirmed the co-integration of hva1 and bar genes with a frequency of 100%, and 61.6% of the transgenic plants carried all three genes (hva1, bar and gus). Further analyses of R0, R1, and R2 progenies confirmed stable integration, expression, and Mendalian inheritance for all transgenes. Histochemical analysis of GUS protein in transgenic plants showed a high level of GUS expression in vascular tissues and in the pollen grains of mature flowers. Immunochemical analysis of transgenic plants indicated a constitutive expression of hva1 at all developmental stages. However, the level of HVA1 was higher during the early seedling stages. The characteristic of HVA1 expression for osmotic tolerance in transgenic oat progeny was analyzed in vitro as well as in vivo. Transgenic plants exhibited significantly (P0.05) increased tolerance to stress conditions than non-transgenic control plants. The symptoms of wilting or death of leaves as observed in 80% of non-transgenic plants due to osmotic stress was delayed and detected only in less than 10% of trans-genic plants. These observations confirmed the characteristic of HVA1 protein as providing or enhancing the osmotic tolerance in transgenic plants against salinity and possible water-deficiency stress conditions.

Oat (Avena sativa L.), a worldwide temperate cereal crop, is deficient in tolerance to osmotic stress due to drought and/or salinity. To genetically transform the available commercial oat cultivars, a genotype-independent and efficient regeneration system from shoot apical meristems was developed using four oat cultivars: Prairie, Porter, Ogle, and Pacer. All these oat cultivars generated a genotype-independent in vitro differentiated multiple shoots from shoot apical meristems at a high frequency. Using this system, three oat cultivars were genetically co-transformed with pBY520 (containing hva1 and bar) and pAct1-D (containing gus) using biolistic trade mark bombardment. Transgenic plants were selected and regenerated using herbicide resistance and GUS as a marker. Molecular and biochemical analyses of putative transgenic plants confirmed the co-integration of hva1 and bar genes with a frequency of 100%, and 61.6% of the transgenic plants carried all three genes (hva1, bar and gus). Further analyses of R0, R1, and R2 progenies confirmed stable integration, expression, and Mendalian inheritance for all transgenes. Histochemical analysis of GUS protein in transgenic plants showed a high level of GUS expression in vascular tissues and in the pollen grains of mature flowers. Immunochemical analysis of transgenic plants indicated a constitutive expression of hva1 at all developmental stages. However, the level of HVA1 was higher during the early seedling stages. The characteristic of HVA1 expression for osmotic tolerance in transgenic oat progeny was analyzed in vitro as well as in vivo. Transgenic plants exhibited significantly (P

The catalytic domain of Acidothermus cellulolyticus thermostable endoglucanase gene (encoding for endo-1,4-beta-glucanase enzyme or E1) was constitutively expressed in rice. Molecular analyses of T1 plants confirmed presence and expression of the transgene. The amount of E1 enzyme accounted for up to 4.9% of the plant total soluble proteins, and its accumulation had no apparent deleterious effects on plant growth and development. Approximately 22 and 30% of the cellulose of the Ammonia Fiber Explosion (AFEX)-pretreated rice and maize biomass respectively was converted into glucose using rice E1 heterologous enzyme. As rice is the major food crop of the world with minimal use for its straw, our results suggest a successful strategy for producing biologically active hydrolysis enzymes in rice to help generate alcohol fuel, by substituting the wasteful and polluting practice of rice straw burning with an environmentally friendly technology.

Summary FLOWERING LOCUS C ( FLC ), a gene from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. that acts as a flowering repressor, was expressed in tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L. ‘Samsun’). Five putative transgenic lines were selected and examined for the presence of FLC . Genomic DNA and total RNA were isolated from the leaves and used for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and RNA blot analysis, respectively. Both DNA and RNA tests confirmed the integration and transcription of FLC in all five lines and their T 1 progenies. Transgenic plants in one line showed an average of 36 d delay in flowering time compared to control plants, and the overall mean for all lines was 14 d. Transgenic plants also displayed increased leaf size and biomass yield and reduced height at flowering time. It is important to note that the delay in flowering might have been caused by a slower rate of leaf initiation (i.e. nodes/day) rather than by a change in the flowering mechanism itself.

1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt 2 Institut fur Lebensmittelchemie, Hamburg University, Grindelallee 117, 20146 Hamburg, Germany 3Cellulosic Biofuel Network, Soils and Crops Research and Development Center, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada 4 Institute for Lipid Research, Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Food, Germany 5Food Sciences and Technology Department, College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science & Technology, P.O. Box 71 Khartoum North, Sudan