Analysis of plant gene expression during passion fruit–Xanthomonas axonopodis interaction implicates lipoxygenase 2 in host defence
In this study we describe a first analysis of host gene expression in this pathosystem. We used suppression subtractive hybridization to construct two cDNA libraries enriched for transcripts induced and repressed by Xap, respectively, 24 h post inoculation with a highly virulent strain. High‐quality sequences were obtained resulting in 998 unisequences that were used for annotation. In accordance with BLASTX results performed by Blast2GO tool, 86.7% of the unisequences showed similarity to other plant species' proteins related to different functional categories. Sixty‐three transcripts were similar to Arabidopsis thali...
Source: Annals of Applied Biology - March 1, 2015 Category: Biology Authors: C.F. Munhoz, A.A. Santos, R.A. Arenhart, L. Santini, C.B. Monteiro‐Vitorello, M.L.C. Vieira Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research
Nutraceuticals in psychiatric practice.
Authors: Chiappedi M, de Vincenzi S, Bejor M
Abstract
Nutraceuticals can be defined as food components or active principles present in aliments which have positive effects for health and quality of life, including preventing or treating disorders. Herbal and "natural" food supplements are increasingly used to treat different psychiatric disorders, often as "self-prescribed" therapies. With factors such as chronic illness, poor health, emotional distress, and quality of life influencing the desire for complementary medicine, patients with comorbid medical and psychiatric problems seem likely to turn to this...
Source: Recent Patents on CNS Drug Discovery - November 20, 2014 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Recent Pat CNS Drug Discov Source Type: research
Escape from extreme specialization
A striking example of plant/pollinator trait matching is found between Andean species of Passiflora with 6–14-cm-long nectar tubes and the sword-billed hummingbird, Ensifera ensifera, with up to 11-cm-long bills. Because of the position of their anthers and stigmas, and self-incompatibility, these passionflower species depend on E. ensifera for pollination. Field observations show that the bird and plant distribution match completely and that scarcity of Ensifera results in reduced passionflower seed set. We here use nuclear and plastid DNA sequences to investigate how often and when these mutualisms evolved and unde...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 1, 2014 Category: Biology Authors: Abrahamczyk, S., Souto-Vilaros, D., Renner, S. S. Tags: ecology, evolution Special feature Source Type: research
Chimaphilin induces apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells through a ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway.
In this study, the anticancer activity and underlying mechanisms of chimaphilin towards human breast cancer MCF-7 cells are firstly investigated. Chimaphilin could inhibit the viability of MCF-7 cells in a concentration-dependent manner, and the IC50 value was 43.30 μM for 24 h. Chimaphilin markedly induced apoptosis through the investigation of characteristic apoptotic morphological changes, nuclear DNA fragmentation, annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide (PI) double staining. Flow cytometry assay revealed that chimaphilin triggered a significant generation of ROS and disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential. Additionall...
Source: Food and Chemical Toxicology - April 30, 2014 Category: Food Science Authors: Ma WD, Zou YP, Wang P, Yao XH, Sun Y, Duan MH, Fu YJ, Yu B Tags: Food Chem Toxicol Source Type: research
Mitigation of 5-Fluorouracil induced renal toxicity by chrysin via targeting oxidative stress and apoptosis in wistar rats.
Abstract
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a potent antineoplastic agent commonly used for the treatment of various malignancies. It has diverse adverse effects such as cardiotoxicity, nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity which restrict its wide and extensive clinical usage. It causes marked organ toxicity coupled with increased oxidative stress and apoptosis. Chrysin (CH), a natural flavonoid found in many plant extracts, propolis, blue passion flower. It has antioxidative and anti-cancerous properties. The present study was designed to investigate the protective effects of CH against 5-FU induced renal toxicity in w...
Source: Food and Chemical Toxicology - January 30, 2014 Category: Food Science Authors: Rashid S, Ali N, Nafees S, Hasan SK, Sultana S Tags: Food Chem Toxicol Source Type: research
New Ecological
Lubricants on the Basis of Lyotropic
Liquid Crystals Formed by Solutions of Maracuja Oil Ethoxylate
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry ResearchDOI: 10.1021/ie401147u (Source: Industrial and Engineering Chemical Research)
Source: Industrial and Engineering Chemical Research - November 12, 2013 Category: Chemistry Authors: Marian Włodzimierz Sułek and Anna Bąk-Sowińska Source Type: research
Sexual selection in a hermaphroditic plant through female reproductive success
Abstract
Sexual selection is well accepted as a mechanism of shaping traits in animals. However, whether and how floral traits are sexually selected in hermaphroditic plants remains less clear. Here, we use Passiflora incarnata to address how floral traits that affect pollination success are selected via female function. We manipulated the ecological context by limiting pollination and adding resources to expand the phenotypic distribution and alter the intensity of sexual selection. Total sexual selection favoured lower style deflexion because of its impact on pollen receipt and subsequent seed number. However, total sele...
Source: Journal of Evolutionary Biology - October 7, 2013 Category: Biology Authors: C. Dai, L. F. Galloway Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research
Glycosidic Inhibitors of Melanogenesis from Leaves of Passiflora edulis.
Abstract
A new flavonoid glycoside, chrysin 6-C-β-rutinoside (chrysin α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-C-β-glucopyranoside; 2), and two new triterpene glycosides, (31R)-31-O-methylpassiflorine (7) and (31S)-31-O-methylpassiflorine (8), along with 14 known glycosides, including three flavonoid glycosides, 1, 3, and 4, six triterpene glycosides, 5, 6, and 9-12, three cyano glycosides, 13-15, and two other glycosides, 16 and 17, were isolated from a MeOH extract of the leaves of Passiflora edulis (passion flower; Passifloraceae). The structures of new compounds were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectros...
Source: Chemistry and Biodiversity - October 1, 2013 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Zhang J, Koike R, Yamamoto A, Ukiya M, Fukatsu M, Banno N, Miura M, Motohashi S, Tokuda H, Akihisa T Tags: Chem Biodivers Source Type: research
UV-MALDI mass spectrometric quantitation of uracil based pesticides in fruit soft drinks along with matrix effects evaluation.
This study focused on the development of the accurate and precise quantitative method for the determination of pesticides bromacil (1), terbacil (2), lenacil (3), butafenacil (4) and flupropacil (5) in fruit based soft drinks. Three different types of drinks are bought from market; huddled orange fruit drink (100%) (I), red-oranges (II) and multivitamin drink containing strawberry, orange, banana and maracuja (III). Samples were analyzed "with" and "without" pulp utilizing LC-ESI (or APCI) MS/MS, HPLC-ESI-(or APCI)-MS/MS and UV-MALDI-Orbitrap-MS methods. The effect of high complexity of the food matrix on the analysis was ...
Source: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety - September 6, 2013 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Ivanova B, Spiteller M Tags: Ecotoxicol Environ Saf Source Type: research
Female Behaviour Drives Expression and Evolution of Gustatory Receptors in Butterflies
We report in silico gene predictions of 73 Gr genes in the H. melpomene reference genome, including putative CO2, sugar, sugar alcohol, fructose, and bitter receptors. The majority of these Grs are the result of gene duplications since Heliconius shared a common ancestor with the monarch butterfly or the silkmoth. Among Grs but not Ors, CNVs are more common within species in those gene lineages that have also duplicated over this evolutionary time-scale, suggesting ongoing rapid gene family evolution. Deep sequencing (∼1 billion reads) of transcriptomes from proboscis and labial palps, antennae, and legs of adult H. melp...
Source: PLoS Genetics - July 11, 2013 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Adriana D. Briscoe et al. Source Type: research
Saffron, Passionflower, Valerian and Sage for Mental Health
This article discusses clinically relevant scientific information on medicinal extracts of 4 herbs: saffron, passionflower, valerian, and sage. (Source: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America)
Source: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America - March 1, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Amirhossein Modabbernia, Shahin Akhondzadeh Tags: SECTION 2. HERBAL MEDICINES Source Type: research
A strategy for the identification of plants in illegal pharmaceutical preparations and food supplements using chromatographic fingerprints.
This article presents a feasibility study of the use of chromatographic fingerprints for the detection of plants in pharmaceutical preparations. Fingerprints were developed for three non-regulated common herbal products-Rhamnus purshiana, Passiflora incarnata L. and Crataegus monogyna-and this was done by combining three different types of detection: diode-array detection, evaporative light scattering detection and mass spectrometry. It is shown that these plants could be detected in respective triturations of the dry extracts with lactose and three different herbal matrices as well as in commercial preparations purchased ...
Source: Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - January 11, 2013 Category: Chemistry Authors: Deconinck E, De Leersnijder C, Custers D, Courselle P, De Beer JO Tags: Anal Bioanal Chem Source Type: research
