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The 'Catalogna' chicory ( Cichorium intybus L.) is a typical Italian vegetable cultivated for leaves and stems ('puntarelle'); these latter are novel foods, consumed as fresh or processed, and rapidly moving to global markets. The holistic characterization of stems was carried - out by combining NMR metabolic and RNAseq profiling of 'Galatina' (Gal) and 'Molfettese' (Mol) landraces, grown in Apulia and Lazio, in order to investigat e on the nutritional quality and performance in ex situ cultivation. The content variation of thirty - two compounds was affected by the genotype (G), environment (E) and GxE interaction; PCA explained over 90% of variation, and PC1 and PC2 components neatly discriminated Gal vs Mol based on growth sites and genotypes, respectively. Focusing on carbohydrates and amino acids, the total amount of the former was higher in Gal than Mol in both areas (consistently with predicted sweetness and sensory test), whilst the opposite trend occurred for total amino acid content. The Mol vs Gal gene differential transcription was performed based on a Gal reference transcriptome ; G, E, and GxE effects were found and KEGG analysis showed the enrichment of differentially expre ssed genes within the sucrose and phenylalanine metabolisms, consistently with the metabolic profile variations. Pearson's correlation analyses of gene expression vs metabolite amount variations allowed the selection of gene sets that could explain sugar a nd amino acid content differences between Gal and Mol stems. Overall, these analyses widened knowledge on the pathways that influence nutritive quality traits and pointed at target genes useful for plant breeding.

The 1H-NMR methodology used in the study of genetically modified (GM) foods is discussed. Transgenic lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv "Luxor") over-expressing the Arabidopsis KNAT1 gene is presented as a case study. Twenty-two water-soluble metabolites (amino acids, organic acids, sugars) present in leaves of conventional and GM lettuce were monitored by NMR and quantified at two developmental stages. The NMR spectra did not reveal any difference in metabolite composition between the GM lettuce and the wild type counterpart. Statistical analyses of metabolite variables highlighted metabolism variation as a function of leaf development as well as the transgene. A main effect of the transgene was in altering sugar metabolism.

In this paper we report a comparative characterization of Small Unilamellar Vesicles (SUVs), Large Unilamellar Vesicles (LUVs) and Multilamellar Vesicles (MLVs) prepared from 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospatidylcholine (POPC), carried out using two NMR techniques, namely High Resolution NMR in solution and High Resolution-Magic Angle Spinning (HR-MAS). The size and size distributions of these vesicles were investigated using the dynamic light scattering technique. An improved assignment of the H-1-NMR spectrum of MLVs is also reported.

A detailed analysis of the proton high-field (600 MHz) NMR spectra of tomato juice and pulp is reported for the first time. A combination of J-resolved, COSY, TOCSY, DOSY, 1H-13C HSQC and 1H-13C HMBC 2D sequences was used to assign each spin system and to separate the components of the complex patterns in the 1D overlapped proton spectra. To obtain resolved proton spectra of tomato pulps the high-resolution magic angle spinning technique was used; a comparison with the liquid-state NMR spectra of the corresponding juices was accomplished. On the basis of the assignments made, the chemical composition of tomato juices from two cultivars (Red Setter and Ciliegino

Se describe en este artículo el descubrimiento de la degradación de la micotoxina patulina por una levadura, The infection of stored apples by the fungus Penicillium expansum causes the contamination of fruits and fruit-derived products with the mycotoxin patulin, which is a major issue in food safety. Fungal attack can be prevented by beneficial microorganisms, so-called biocontrol agents. Previous time-course thin layer chromatography analyses showed that the aerobic incubation of patulin with the biocontrol yeast Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae strain LS11 leads to the disappearance of the mycotoxin spot and the parallel emergence of two new spots, one of which disappears over time. In this work, we analyzed the biodegradation of patulin effected by LS11 through HPLC. The more stable of the two compounds was purified and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance as desoxypatulinic acid, whose formation was also quantitated in patulin degradation experiments. After R. kratochvilovae LS11 had been incubated in the presence of 13C-labeled patulin, label was traced to desoxypatulinic acid, thus proving that this compound derives from the metabolization of patulin by the yeast. Desoxypatulinic acid was much less toxic than patulin to human lymphocytes and, in contrast to patulin, did not react in vitro with the thiol-bearing tripeptide glutathione. The lower toxicity of desoxypatulinic acid is proposed to be a consequence of the hydrolysis of the lactone ring and the loss of functional groups that react with thiol groups. The formation of desoxypatulinic acid from patulin represents a novel biodegradation pathway that is also a detoxification process.

Multifarious applications of NMR (high-resolution NMR in liquid-state and in semi-solid matrices, low-field NMR relaxometry, and NMR-imaging) in the analysis of food components and entire food samples are described using examples of different food matrices and different problems related to food safety, traceability, geographical and botanical origin, farming methods, food processing, maturation and ageing, etc. Althoug NMR has not yet been recognized as an official methodology for the food control the numerous applications of NMR reported in the literature show the potenziality of this methodology also as an approach complementary to the other recognized conventional methodologies.