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Featured Application: This ex situ biofloc technology has high potential to be a strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation, which is useful for improving shrimp farming practice in the Asia Pacific region and for enhancing food security with high quality of shrimp to serve consumers worldwide. Shrimp is an important food source consumed worldwide. An intensive aquaculture system with overuse of feed in combination with detrimental effects from climate change are serious problems leading to mass mortality of cultured shrimp. Biofloc technology is an approach to managing water quality and controlling the disease to counter the negative side of intensive culture system; however, most of the biofloc applications are naturally formed, which could be inconsistent. In this study, we employed an established optimal ratio of microbial consortium called "ex-situ biofloc (BF)" to be used as a feed supplement in shrimp cultured in a zero-water discharged system at low salinity conditions. Three feeding groups (100%commercial pellet (C), 95%C+BF, 90%C+BF) of shrimp were cultured for six weeks. The effect of an ex-situ biofloc supplement with commercial pellet reduction showed that levels of ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate were significantly decreased in water culture. Shrimp fed with ex-situ biofloc supplement with commercial pellet reduction exhibited significantly increased shrimp weight and survival, and significantly expressed growth-related genes involving lipolysis and energy metabolism higher than those fed with 100% commercial pellet. Nutritional analysis indicated a significant increase of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosenoic acid (C20:1) concentrations in the ex-situ biofloc supplemented shrimp. This finding revealed the potential of ex-situ biofloc to manage water quality, improve shrimp growth performance and enhance shrimp nutritional value under intensive culture at low salinity conditions. The beneficial effects of the ex-situ biofloc in shrimp culture system make it a promising alternative strategy to mitigate climate change effects leading to the sustainable production of high-quality shrimp in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brown planthopper (BPH; Nilaparvata lugens) is a phloem feeding insect which is one of the most serious threats to rice crops in many countries throughout Asia. H NMR spectroscopy, combined with chemometrics, was used to analyze the polar metabolome from leaf extracts of Thai Jasmine rice (brown planthopper (BPH)-susceptible KD) and its BPH resistant isogenic lines (BPH-resistant IL7 and BPH-resistant IL308 varieties) with and without BPH infestation at various time points (days 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8). Physiological changes of the rice isogenic lines were different based on the quantitative trait loci of BPH resistance. Multivariate models were capable of distinguishing between the susceptible and the resistant rice varieties throughout the infestation. The concentration of 10 metabolites were significantly altered ( p < 0.05) between the infested and the control groups of each examined rice variety. Metabolic pathway analysis suggested that BPH infestation could perturb transamination during the early stages of infestation (days 1-3) for all rice varieties. In addition, the IL7 and IL308 varieties responded earlier (day 3) than the KD variety (day 8) by perturbing amino acid metabolism, shikimate and gluconeogenesis pathways. By day 8 of the infestation, the KD cultivar responded by activating the amino acid-mediated-de novo pathway whereas the IL308 variety activated the purine and pyrimidine compound-mediated-salvage pathway for nucleotide biosynthesis. This study has identified, for the first time, several potential metabolic pathways for acclimatization and defense mechanisms against BPH infestation. These findings provide a valuable, first insight into BPH resistance mechanisms in Thai Jasmine rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were established from various tissues of the giant tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon). To simultaneously examine expression patterns of a large number of transcripts in ovaries and testes of P. monodon, a cDNA microarray (ReproArrayGTS) containing 4992 features amplified from cDNAs of ovary (1920) and testis (3072) EST libraries was constructed and subjected to high-throughput gene expression analysis in four different stages of ovarian development (previtellogenesis, vitellogenesis, early cortical rod and late cortical rod stages). Several transcripts were found to be differentially expressed during P. monodon ovarian development. Among many important reproduction-related genes with differential expression from microarray data, nuclear autoantigenic sperm protein (NASP) was further characterized by RACE-PCR. The full-length cDNA of P. monodon NASP (PmNASP) was 2126 bp in length containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 1812 bp corresponding to a deduced protein of 603 amino acids with 5′ and 3′UTRs of 93 and 202 bp (excluding the poly A tail), respectively. Higher PmNASP transcript levels at later stages of ovarian development was consistently confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. This study indicated that ReproArrayGTS is effective for high-throughput screening of genes that play important roles in ovarian development of P. monodon. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many previous reports suggested that conventional antioxidant assays could not forecast antioxidant performance of plant extracts, especially when it came to a real food system such as oil‐in‐water emulsion. In this study, antioxidant activities of aqueous and ethanolic plant extracts are investigated using multiple conventional assays (TPC, ABTS, FRAP, ORAC) and the oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion‐based high throughput assays (the CAT and ApoCAT) in a comparison with an autoxidative O/W emulsion model monitored by formation of lipid hydroperoxide and TBARS values. Results suggest that only the ApoCAT assay is able to forecast the antioxidative performances of the extracts in O/W emulsions, regardless of the differences in extraction solvents, while the CAT assay can explain only the performance of ethanolic plant extracts in O/W emulsions. According to untargeted metabolite analysis, the antioxidants activities of plant extracts might be strongly influenced by extraction solvents. As a result, not only is the quantity of particular metabolites impacted, but also the whole metabolite (antioxidant) profiles of the extracts are modified. In addition, this study demonstrates that both the chemical reaction scheme and physical‐state of a model are important parameters for designing a better antioxidant assay in the future. Practical Applications: The ApoCAT assay would be a more practical method for screening antioxidant compounds and/or crude plant extracts than conventional antioxidant assays and the original CAT assay. The antioxidant capacity of plant extracts obtaining from the ApoCAT can be used to represent their antioxidant performances in food emulsions regardless of their extraction solvents. Several crude plant extracts using different solvents are used to validate the performance of the CAT and the ApoCAT assays in comparisons with multiple conventional antioxidant assays. These assays differ from each other in terms of scheme of reaction and physical state of the test. In addition, oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion model is used as a reference method representing the antioxidant activities in food matrices. Principal component analysis (PCA) is performed to better understand the relationship among all assays. The results suggest that only the ApoCAT assay exhibits a close relationship with O/W emulsion model in both crude ethanolic and aqueous plant extracts. Furthermore, putative metabolite profiles of crude plant extracts are identified using LC‐orbitrap MS/MS. Several crude plant extracts using different solvents are used to validate the performance of the CAT and the ApoCAT assays in comparisons with multiple conventional antioxidant assays. These assays differ from each other in terms of scheme of reaction and physical state of the test. In addition, oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion model is used as a reference method representing the antioxidant activities in food matrices. Principal component analysis (PCA) is performed to better understand the relationship among all assays. The results suggest that only the ApoCAT assay exhibits a close relationship with O/W emulsion model in both crude ethanolic and aqueous plant extracts. Furthermore, putative metabolite profiles of crude plant extracts are identified using LC‐orbitrap MS/MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]