Understanding the effects of chitosan, chia mucilage, levan based composite coatings on the shelf life of sweet cherry

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) fruits are prone to quality and quantity loss in shelf-life conditions and cold storage due to their short post-harvest life. Until now efforts have been made to extend the shelf life of the sweet cherry. However, an efficient and commercially scalable process remains elusive. To contribute to this challenge, here in this study, biobased composite coatings consisting of chitosan, mucilage, and levan, were applied on sweet cherry fruits and tested for postharvest parameters in both market and cold storage conditions. Results demonstrated that the shelf life of sweet cherries can be extended until the 30th day while retaining important post-harvest properties like decreased weight loss, fungal deterioration, increased stem removal force, total flavonoid, L-ascorbic acid, and oxalic acid. Given the cost-effectiveness of the polymers used, the findings of this study indicate the feasibility of extending the shelf-life of sweet cherries on a larger scale

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on knowledge, perceptions, and effects of telemedicine among the general population of Pakistan: A national survey

BackgroundTelemedicine is the provision of healthcare services through information and communication technology with the potential to mobilize all facets of the health sector to prevent the spread of COVID-19, provide quality healthcare, protect patients, doctors, and the public from exposure to disease, and reduce the burden on the healthcare system. This study aims to identify knowledge, perceptions, willingness to use, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine awareness.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from 27 May 2020 to 17 June 2020 using the convenient sampling technique in the general population of Pakistan. Data were collected by designing an online questionnaire consisting of demographic information, knowledge, attitude perceptions, barriers, utilization, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine.ResultsOf the 602 participants included in the study, 70.1% had heard about telemedicine, 54.3% had a good understanding of the definition of “telemedicine,” 81.4% had not used telemedicine in the past, 29.9% did not know that telemedicine was available before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 70.4% responded that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed their attitudes toward telemedicine. Gender (p = 0.017) and family income (p = 0.027) had a significant association with the perception of the benefits of telemedicine.ConclusionThe knowledge and usage of telemedicine are lacking due to inadequate awareness and technology. The need of the hour is to maximize the application of telemedicine to overcome the deficiencies of the healthcare system. Hence, it is essential to increase awareness through various means and develop an appropriate infrastructure to attain maximum benefits from telehealth services

Shelf life of cocktail tomato extended with chitosan, chia mucilage and levan

Tomato is among the most important parts of the human diet globally. However, due to its short shelf life, the produce faces the non-desired huge postharvest losses that can be ascribed to high ethylene emission, high respiration rate, and weight loss. Conventional approaches used to enhance the shelf life of cocktail tomatoes come with certain disadvantages such as chilling injury and investment cost. This study aimed to investigate the effects of bio-based coatings on the shelf life of cocktail tomatoes. The breaker stage tomato fruit were treated with chitosan (CS), chitosan+levan (CS-LVN), chitosan+mucilage (CS-MCLG), and chitosan+ mucilage+levan (CS-MCLG-LVN) edible coatings. Control (CTL) fruit received no treatment. Tomatoes were kept in cold storage (CST) for 30 days (d) at 10 °C temperature and 90–95% relative humidity (RH). At every removal, the fruit was kept for an additional 3 d at 20 °C and 60 ± 5% RH to determine the shelf life (SL) performance. Edible coating treatments minimized the weight loss, ethylene emission, respiration rate, and amount of unmarketable fruit and slowed down the synthesis of lycopene. The minimum weight losses and amount of unmarketable fruit were determined in the CS-MCLG-LVN coating treatment. CS-MCLG-LVN and CS-MCLG-treated fruit had the lowest ethylene emission and respiration rates. CS coating treatment manifested the highest L* value and malic acid content while the maximum total phenolic and total flavonoid contents were in CS-LVN. It can be concluded that CS-LVN, CS-MCLG, and CS-MCLG-LVN edible coatings maintained the postharvest quality of tomatoes for 30 d.</p

Nanocarrier-Mediated Delivery of miRNA, RNAi, and CRISPR-Cas for Plant Protection: Current Trends and Future Directions

Funding Information: M.M. thanks the Biotechnology Institute of Ankara University and Bioproducts and Biosystems department, Aalto University for support during the study. L.F.F., J.L.O., and L.B.C. thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, 2017/21004-5, 2018/21142-1, and 2018/23608-8). The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by CAPES (Project 88881.191767/2018-01). A.E.S.P. is grateful for a postdoctoral grant provided by CAPES-COFECUB (88887.363975/2010-00). In addition, L.F.F. thanks the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). All authors are greatful to FinELib for the support to make this article open access. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.Current trends in plant genetic transformation technologies, i.e., designing and applying molecules like miRNA, RNAi, and CRISPR-Cas, largely enable researchers to target specific sites in the plant genome to avert the growing biotic and abiotic threats to plants. However, the delivery of these molecules through conventional techniques brings an array of drawbacks such as low efficiency due to the cell wall barrier, tissue damage that leads to browning or necrosis, degradation of these biomolecules by physiological conditions (high temperature, harsh pH, and light), and plant-specific protocols. The advancements in nanotechnology offer an excellent alternative for the safe and highly efficient delivery of biomolecules such as miRNA, CRISPR-Cas, and RNAi without damaging the plant tissues. Nanoparticle (polymeric, metallic, magnetic, silica, carbon, etc.)-based delivery of biomolecules can be efficiently utilized especially for plant protection applications. Herein, we present a comprehensive overview of current trends (with a focus on the previous five years) in nanoparticle-based delivery of miRNA, RNAi, CRISPR-Cas and simillar biomolecules for plant protection applications. In addition, a future perspective focuses on the research gaps and unexplored potentials of nanoparticles for the delivery of biomolecules.Peer reviewe