The potential for the use of leghemoglobin and plant ferritin as sources of iron

Iron is an essential component for the body, but it is also a major cause for the development of many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases. It has been suggested that a diet rich in meat products, especially red meat and highly processed products, constitute a nutritional model that increases the risk of developing. In this context, it is indicated that people on an elimination diet (vegetarians and vegans) may be at risk of deficiencies in iron, because this micronutrient is found mainly in foods of animal origin and has lower bioavailability in plant foods. This article reviews the knowledge on the use of leghemoglobin and plant ferritin as sources of iron and discusses their potential for use in vegetarian and vegan diets

Surface recombination and space-charge-limited photocurrent-voltage (PC-V) measurements in (Cd,Mn)Te samples. Kinetics of photocurrent (PC)

Photocurrent-voltage characteristic (PC-V) is a method of determining the critical parameter in X-ray and gamma-ray detector plates, i.e., the carrier mobility - lifetime product, mt. We show on the (Cd,Mn)Te samples that the measurement results depend strongly on the surface treatment and the charge space distribution. The PC-V characteristics obtained for hv > Eg and hv ~ Eg indicated that etching with 20% HCl caused an appearance of a significant concentration of very shallow surface traps at the (Cd,Mn)Te sample surface. These traps seriously changed the measurements of PC-V characteristics and PC kinetics. We also noticed a small contribution of holes to photoconductivity in the PC kinetics. The PC-V characteristics measurements for hv > Eg may test the detector plate surface quality.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Exome Sequencing Reveals Novel Variants and Expands the Genetic Landscape for Congenital Microcephaly

Congenital microcephaly causes smaller than average head circumference relative to age, sex and ethnicity and is most usually associated with a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. The underlying etiology is highly heterogeneous and can be either environmental or genetic. Disruption of any one of multiple biological processes, such as those underlying neurogenesis, cell cycle and division, DNA repair or transcription regulation, can result in microcephaly. This etiological heterogeneity manifests in a clinical variability and presents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge, leaving an unacceptably large proportion of over half of microcephaly patients without molecular diagnosis. To elucidate the clinical and genetic landscapes of congenital microcephaly, we sequenced the exomes of 191 clinically diagnosed patients with microcephaly as one of the features. We established a molecular basis for microcephaly in 71 patients (37%), and detected novel variants in five high confidence candidate genes previously unassociated with this condition. We report a large number of patients with mutations in tubulin-related genes in our cohort as well as higher incidence of pathogenic mutations in MCPH genes. Our study expands the phenotypic and genetic landscape of microcephaly, facilitating differential clinical diagnoses for disorders associated with most commonly disrupted genes in our cohort