Arabidopsis thaliana DOF6 negatively affects germination in non-after ripened seeds and interacts with TCP14

Seed dormancy prevents seeds from germinating under environmental conditions unfavourable for plant growth and development and constitutes an evolutionary advantage. Dry storage, also known as after-ripening, gradually decreases seed dormancy by mechanisms not well understood. An Arabidopsis thaliana DOF transcription factor gene (DOF6) affecting seed germination has been characterized. The transcript levels of this gene accumulate in dry seeds and decay gradually during after-ripening and also upon seed imbibition. While constitutive over-expression of DOF6 produced aberrant growth and sterility in the plant, its over-expression induced upon seed imbibition triggered delayed germination, abscisic acid (ABA)-hypersensitive phenotypes and increased expression of the ABA biosynthetic gene ABA1 and ABA-related stress genes. Wild-type germination and gene expression were gradually restored during seed after-ripening, despite of DOF6-induced over-expression. DOF6 was found to interact in a yeast two-hybrid system andin planta with TCP14, a previously described positive regulator of seed germination. The expression of ABA1 and ABA-related stress genes was also enhanced in tcp14 knock-out mutants. Taken together, these results indicate that DOF6 negatively affects seed germination and opposes TCP14 function in the regulation of a specific set of ABA-related gene

Early amniotomy after cervical ripening for induction of labor: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

OBJECTIVE DATA: Timing of artificial rupture of membranes (ie, amniotomy) in induction of labor is controversial, because it has been associated not only with shorter labors, but also with fetal nonreassuring testing, at times necessitating cesarean delivery. The aim of this systematic review and metaanalysis of randomized trials was to evaluate the effectiveness of early amniotomy vs late amniotomy or spontaneous rupture of membranes after cervical ripening. STUDY: The search was conducted with the use of electronic databases from inception of each database through February 2019. Review of articles included the abstracts of all references that were retrieved from the search. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS: Selection criteria included randomized clinical trials that compared early amniotomy vs control (ie, late amniotomy or spontaneous rupture of membranes) after cervical ripening with either Foley catheter or prostaglandins at any dose. The primary outcome was the incidence of cesarean delivery. The summary measures were reported as summary relative risk with 95% of confidence interval with the use of the random effects model of DerSimonian and Laird. RESULTS: Four trials that included 1273 women who underwent cervical ripening with either Foley catheter or prostaglandins and then were assigned randomly to either early amniotomy, late amniotomy, or spontaneous rupture of membranes (control subjects) were included in the review. Women who were assigned randomly to early amniotomy had a similar risk of cesarean delivery (31.1% vs 30.9%; relative risk, 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.71-1.56) compared with control subjects and had a shorter interval from induction to delivery of approximately 5 hours (mean difference, -4.95 hours; 95% confidence interval, -8.12 to -1.78). Spontaneous vaginal delivery was also reduced in the early amniotomy group, but only 1 of the included trials reported this outcome (67.5% vs 69.1%; relative risk, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.93). No between-group differences were reported in the other obstetrics or perinatal outcomes. CONCLUSION: After cervical ripening, routine early amniotomy does not increase the risk of cesarean delivery and reduces the interval from induction to delivery

Development of enterococci and production of tyramine during the manufacture and ripening of Cheddar cheese

peer-reviewedThe effect of six strains of enterococci (three strains of Enterococcus faecalis, and one strain each of Ec. faecium, Ec. durans and Ec. casseliflavus) on flavour development and tyramine production in Cheddar cheese during manufacture and ripening was studied in two trials. No strain produced gelatinase or haemolysin and all of them grew well during manufacture reaching 107 colony forming units (cfu)/g in 6 h, after which they remained more or less constant during at least 48 weeks of ripening. There was no relationship between tyramine production in a broth containing tyrosine and tyramine production in the cheese. All strains, except Ec. casseliflavus, produced tyramine in the cheese, with the greatest concentration (162 mg/kg) being produced by Ec. durans after 9 months ripening at 8 ºC. There was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) between the flavour of the control cheese and any cheese containing an enterococcus. Nevertheless, cheese made with Ec. faecium E-24 received the best score in each trial at both time points. No off-flavours were found. Regarding proteolysis, only Ec. faecalis E-140 showed significant (P < 0.05) increases in both phosphotungstic acid and pH 4.6 soluble N. It is concluded that enterococci have little effect on the flavour of Cheddar cheese.This project was partly financed under FAIR Contract CT97-3078 from the E

Effect of ripening and in vitro digestion on the evolution and fate of bioactive peptides in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

The influence of ripening and in vitro digestion on the peptidomic profile of Parmigiano-Reggiano (PR) cheeses was investigated. Ripening and in vitro digestion thoroughly modified the peptidomic profile of the three cheeses. Twenty-six bioactive peptides were identified in undigested PR. Some peptides were degraded and others released during ripening. After digestion, 52 bioactive peptides were identified. Semi-quantitative data suggested that bioactive peptides released after digestion can be clustered in 5 groups according to the ripening time. VPP and IPP peptide levels in undigested samples were in the range of 4.52–11.34 and 0.66–4.24 mg kg−1, with the highest amounts found in 18-month ripened PR. YPFPGPI peptide was absent in undigested PRs but was released after digestion, especially in the 12-month-old sample (20.18 mg kg−1). The present study suggests possible differences in bioactive peptide levels after digestion as a function of the duration of ripening of PR cheese

Addressing potential sources of variation in several non-destructive techniques for measuring firmness in apples

Measurements of firmness have traditionally been carried out according to the Magness Taylor (MT) procedure; using a texture analyser or penetrometer in reference texture tests. Non-destructive tests like the acoustic impulse response of acoustic firmness sensors (AFSs), a low-mass impact firmness sensor Sinclair International (SIQ-FT) and impact test (Lateral Impact – UPM) have also been used to measure texture and firmness. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the influence of different sources of variation in these three non-destructive tests and to evaluate their respective capabilities of discriminating between fruit maturity at two different harvest dates, turgidity before and after dehydration treatment and ripening after different storage periods. According to our results, fruit studied an unexpected AFS trend with turgidity. Contact measurements (Lateral Impact – UPM and SIQ-FT) appeared highly sensitive to changes in turgidity, but were less able to follow changes in ripening caused by storage period. Contact measurements were suitable for detecting differences between fruits from different harvest dates and showed higher correlation coefficients with reference texture tests than acoustic measurements. The Lateral Impact – UPM test proved better at separating fruits according to turgidity than the SIQ-FT instrumen

Pola Respirasi Dan Pemasakan Buah Avokad

H. SUTARNO & M.H. SIAGIAN, 1986.respiration type and ripening of avocado fruits. Berita Biologi 3(6) : 283 - 286. Respiratiqn late and ripening of avocado fruits under storage at 25°, 28 ± 1°, 31°, and 33°C were investigated. Respiration, rate increased obviously after stored for seven days. The longest ripening period was six days i.e. from 6th to 11th days under 31°C storage.The best ripening fruit performance was obtained from storage at 31°C and 28±1°C for 7 days