Antioxidants, radical-scavenging and protein carbonylation inhibition capacity of six monocultivar virgin olive oils in Istria (Croatia)

Six monocultivar virgin olive oils (VOOs) produced from five autochthonous (Buža, Buža Puntoža, Istarska Bjelica, Porečka Rosulja, and Rosinjola) and one referent cultivar (Leccino), were investigated. The mass fractions of orthodiphenols (ORT) and tocopherols (TOC) were analysed by VIS spectroscopy and HPLC. The radical-scavenging capacity was evaluated by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) using galvinoxyl free radical and the DPPH test. Results revealed a high level of total TOC in VOOs of Buža Puntoža (243 mg kg−1) and Porečka Rosulja (325 mg kg−1). VOOs contained in 100 g from 79% (Istarska Bjelica) to 261% (Porečka Rosulja) of recommended daily allowance of α-tocopherol. The mass fraction of ORT in Istarska Bjelica and Rosinjola was >250 mg kg−1 (on average 30–40% higher in comparison to other studied cultivars). Istarska Bjelica and Porečka Rosulja showed the highest antioxidant capacity in both methods of measurement. The highest capacity to inhibit protein carbonylation (PC) in response to oxidative stress (54–56%) was displayed by Buža Puntoža, Leccino, and Buža. High level of positive linear correlation between ORT mass fraction and radical-scavenging capacity measured by DPPH test (r=0.768), as well as strong negative correlation between PC inhibition and mass fraction of ORT (r= −0.697), were observed

The evolutionary signal in metagenome phyletic profiles predicts many gene functions

Background. The function of many genes is still not known even in model organisms. An increasing availability of microbiome DNA sequencing data provides an opportunity to infer gene function in a systematic manner. Results. We evaluated if the evolutionary signal contained in metagenome phyletic profiles (MPP) is predictive of a broad array of gene functions. The MPPs are an encoding of environmental DNA sequencing data that consists of relative abundances of gene families across metagenomes. We find that such MPPs can accurately predict 826 Gene Ontology functional categories, while drawing on human gut microbiomes, ocean metagenomes, and DNA sequences from various other engineered and natural environments. Overall, in this task, the MPPs are highly accurate, and moreover they provide coverage for a set of Gene Ontology terms largely complementary to standard phylogenetic profiles, derived from fully sequenced genomes. We also find that metagenomes approximated from taxon relative abundance obtained via 16S rRNA gene sequencing may provide surprisingly useful predictive models. Crucially, the MPPs derived from different types of environments can infer distinct, non-overlapping sets of gene functions and therefore complement each other. Consistently, simulations on > 5000 metagenomes indicate that the amount of data is not in itself critical for maximizing predictive accuracy, while the diversity of sampled environments appears to be the critical factor for obtaining robust models. Conclusions. In past work, metagenomics has provided invaluable insight into ecology of various habitats, into diversity of microbial life and also into human health and disease mechanisms. We propose that environmental DNA sequencing additionally constitutes a useful tool to predict biological roles of genes, yielding inferences out of reach for existing comparative genomics approaches

Antioxidants, radical-scavenging and protein carbonylation inhibition capacity of six monocultivar virgin olive oils in Istria (Croatia)

Six monocultivar virgin olive oils (VOOs) produced from five autochthonous (Buza, Buza Puntoza, Istarska Bjelica, Porecka Rosulja, and Rosinjola) and one referent cultivar (Leccino), were investigated. The mass fractions of orthodiphenols (ORT) and tocopherols (TOC) were analysed by VIS spectroscopy and HPLC. The radical-scavenging capacity was evaluated by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) using galvinoxyl free radical and the DPPH test. Results revealed a high level of total TOC in VOOs of Buza Puntoza (243 mg kg(-1)) and Porecka Rosulja (325 mg kg-1). VOOs contained in 100 g from 79% (Istarska Bjelica) to 261% (Porecka Rosulja) of recommended daily allowance of a-tocopherol. The mass fraction of ORT in Istarska Bjelica and Rosinjola was > 250 mg kg-1 (on average 30-40% higher in comparison to other studied cultivars). Istarska Bjelica and Porecka Rosulja showed the highest antioxidant capacity in both methods of measurement. The highest capacity to inhibit protein carbonylation (PC) in response to oxidative stress (54-56%) was displayed by Buza Puntoza, Leccino, and Buza. High level of positive linear correlation between ORT mass fraction and radical-scavenging capacity measured by DPPH test (r=0.768), as well as strong negative correlation between PC inhibition and mass fraction of ORT (r=-0.697), were observed