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Passion fruit has edible arils with a complicated structure. Each aril has three different membranes; an external membrane, an internal membrane with a fimbriate structure at the basal area, and a transparent membrane that completely envelops the seed. It was reported that juice quality, including organic acid and sugar contents, varied depending on the extraction method. So, organic acid and sugar are potentially localized inside the aril. In this study, using three cultivars (purple passion fruit, yellow passion fruit, and ‘Summer Queen’, a hybrid variety between the two), juice qualities of different aril parts were determined. The aril was separated into three parts, that is, the outer pulp (OP), the distal part of the inner pulp (DIP), and the basal part of the inner pulp (BIP). The OP included the external membrane and the juice held by this membrane. The DIP surrounding the seed and the BIP was a fimbriate structure attached to the internal membrane. In all varieties, titratable acidity (TA) and citric acid content at DIP were higher than those at OP and BIP, although there were some differences among the varieties. Malic acid content did not vary among the parts. Total soluble solid content (TSS) at BIP was the highest among the parts, and glucose, sucrose, and fructose contents at DIP were lower than those at BIP. Purple passion fruit had a high juice content at OP and the yellow cultivar had high juice content at DIP, while the hybrid between the two showed intermediate characteristics. Organic acid and sugar were localized inside the aril in the passion fruit cultivars; the citric acid content and TA at DIP were higher than those at OP and BIP, and TSS at BIP was higher than those at DIP and OP. Therefore, adjusting the juice extraction intensity may be needed depending on the required juice quality.

Cowpea is a legume with the potential to serve as an alternative food source to replace soybeans in Indonesia; soybeans are primarily used in traditional foods such as tempeh and tofu. Currently, 70% of Indonesia's soybean demand is met through imports. Cowpea exhibits the ability to thrive in suboptimal soils with low fertility levels. One of the major challenges in Indonesian agriculture is the prevalence of acidic soils, which are typically deficient in essential nutrients. Notably, a lack of phosphorus (P) is a significant limiting factor affecting crop productivity in these acidic soils. To address this issue, a study was conducted to investigate how cowpea can adapt and grow in acidic soil conditions. The first experiment aimed to understand the impact of plant density and fertilization methods on the growth and yield of cowpea. The results indicated that planting one cowpea plant per hole resulted in a higher number of leaves and branches. Additionally, the treatment with complete NPK showed a higher number of pods, although this was not significantly different from the treatment with reduced phosphorus (minus P). These findings suggest that cowpea can thrive in acidic soil even under conditions of phosphorus deficiency. Cowpea has developed an external adaptation mechanism through the secretion of organic acids from its roots to survive in low-phosphorus acidic soils. As a follow-up to these findings, a second experiment was conducted to identify the types of organic acids secreted by cowpea roots under conditions of phosphorus deficiency, using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results revealed that the organic acids produced by cowpea root exudates were primarily malic acid and oxalic acid. These research outcomes provide valuable information for growers, indicating that cowpea can be successfully cultivated in acidic soils. Cowpea's ability to produce organic acids allows it to thrive in such environments even when phosphorus levels are l

BACKGROUND: Somatic and germline variants are not distinguishable by circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing without analyzing non-tumor samples. Although confirmatory germline testing is clinically relevant, the criteria for selecting presumed germline variants have not been established in ctDNA testing. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of pathogenic germline variants in clinical ctDNA testing through their variant allele fractions (VAFs). METHODS: A total of consecutive 106 patients with advanced solid tumors who underwent ctDNA testing (Guardant360®) between January 2018 and March 2020 were eligible for this study. To verify the origin of pathogenic variants reported in ctDNA testing, germline sequencing was performed using peripheral blood DNA samples archived in the Clinical Bioresource Center in Kyoto University Hospital (Kyoto, Japan) under clinical research settings. RESULTS: Among 223 pathogenic variants reported in ctDNA testing, the median VAF was 0.9% (0.02-81.8%), and 88 variants with ≥ 1% VAFs were analyzed in germline sequencing. Among 25 variants with ≥ 30% VAFs, seven were found in peripheral blood DNA (BRCA2: n = 6, JAK2: n = 1). In contrast, among the 63 variants with VAFs ranging from 1 to < 30%, only one variant was found in peripheral blood DNA (TP53: n = 1). Eventually, this variant with 15.6% VAF was defined to be an acquired variant, because its allelic distribution did not completely link to those of neighboring germline polymorphisms. CONCLUSION: Our current study demonstrated that VAFs values are helpful for selecting presumed germline variants in clinical ctDNA testing.

BACKGROUND: Tumor heterogeneity has been known to cause inter-assay discordance among next-generation sequencing (NGS) results. However, whether preclinical factors such as sample type, sample quality and analytical features of gene panel can affect the concordance between two different assays remains largely unexplored. METHODS: Replicate sets of DNA samples extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues (FFPE) (n = 20) and fresh frozen (FF) tissues (n = 10) were herein analyzed using a tumor-only (TO) and paired tumor-normal (TN) gene panel in laboratories certified by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment. Reported variants from the TO and TN panels were then compared. Furthermore, additional FFPE samples were sequentially sliced from the same FFPE block and submitted to another TN panel assay. RESULTS: Substantial discordance (71.8%) was observed between the results of the two panels despite using identical DNA samples, with the discordance rate being significantly higher for FFPE samples (p < 0.05). Among the 99 variants reported only in the TO panel, 32.3% were consistent with germline variants, which were excluded in the TN panel, while 30.3% had an allele frequency of less than 5%, some of which were highly likely to be artificial calls. The comparison of two independent TN panel assay results from the same FFPE block also showed substantial discordance rate (55.3%). CONCLUSIONS: In the context of clinical settings, our comparative analysis revealed that inter-NGS assay discordance commonly occurred due to sample types and the different analytical features of each panel.

To determine the effects of drought stress, especially light drought stress, on flower number in passion fruit, one-year-old passion fruit plants grown in 7.5 L plastic pots were subjected to different soil water content treatments, namely wetness, light drought, and heavy drought for two months. Average, maximum, and minimum soil water contents (v/v) were 44, 47, and 41% in the wetness treatment, 23, 40, and 11% in the light drought treatment and 11, 33, and 6% in the heavy drought treatment. Flower number decreased as the strength of drought stress increased, although the number of nodes and flower buds did not. Flowering periods were from June 27 to July 19 in the wetness treatment and June 26 to July 16 in the light drought treatment with three peaks around July 1, 6, and 13. In the heavy drought treatment, the flowering period was from July 11 to 18 with one peak. The flower bud number was not affected by drought stress. Light drought stress did not suppress vegetative growth, such as vine length, leaf number, leaf length, or photosynthetic rate, although heavy drought stress did. Stomatal conductance was suppressed by light drought only at 12:00PM and by heavy drought throughout the day. Leaf water potential was decreased by heavy drought at 3:00PM, but not by light drought. In the wetness and light drought treatments, visible wilting was not observed, and in the heavy drought treatment the plants wilted before irrigation, although they recovered about 15 min after irrigation. In conclusion, even light drought stress, which did not suppress vegetative growth, reduced the flower number in passion fruit. Drought stress suppressed flower bud development but not differentiation.