Mealiness Detection in Agricultural Crops: Destructive and Nondestructive Tests: A Review

Mealiness is known as an important internal quality attribute of fruits/vegetables, which has significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions. Mealiness has been a topic of research interest over the past several decades. A number of destructive and nondestructive techniques are introduced for mealiness detection. Nondestructive methods are more interesting because they are rapid, noninvasive, and suitable for real-time purposes. In this review, the concept of mealiness is presented for potato, apple, and peach, followed by an in-depth discussion about applications of destructive and nondestructive techniques developed for mealiness detection. The results suggest the potential of electromagnetic-based techniques for nondestructive mealiness evaluation. Further investigations are in progress to find more appropriate nondestructive techniques as well as cost and performance

American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research

McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, et al. American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. mSystems. 2018;3(3):e00031-18

Natural Enemies of Bark Beetles

The occurrence and action of natural enemies of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) are reviewed. Bark beetles have a diverse and important community of natural enemies. The community includes predators such as birds, beetles, flies, true bugs, and mites; parasitoids such as wasps and flies; pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, microsporidia, and protozoa; as well as nematodes. The general ecology of the various taxonomic groups is discussed and some of the species most relevant to biological control are treated in detail. Morphological descriptions and the biology of pathogens, field data on natural enemies’ prevalence and geographical distribution are presented. The role of these antagonistic agents in bark beetle population dynamics and their potential for use as biological control agents are evaluated based on literature, data from experiments, observations in the field, and from controlled laboratory experiments