Characterization of fish protein concentrate obtained from the Nile tilapia filleting residues

This study aimed to obtain fish protein concentrate from mechanically deboned Nile tilapia using a modified methodology, as well as perform physical-chemical, microbiological and sensory analysis of the obtained product. The protein concentrate was obtained from mechanically deboned meat of Nile tilapia, by modifying an existing methodology, with changes in deodorizing and lipids removal steps. Chemical and physical-chemical raw material and product consisted of following analysis: moisture, fat, protein, ash, water activity and degree of lipid oxidation by the TBA test. The microbiological analysis consisted in the determination of Staphylococcus aureus, Coliforms at 45 degrees C and Salmonella sp. Test of Hedonic Scale assessed the acceptability of sensory attributes of appearance, color and aroma. Mechanically deboned meat and fish protein concentrate obtained, respectively, following values of chemical composition: moisture (77.24 and 4.85%), protein (17.48 and 85.16%), lipids (4.46 and 8.20%) and ash (1.02 and 2.45%). Attributes of color and appearance obtained following percentages of acceptance, 46.67 and 60.0%. Aroma had a great rejection, reaching a frequency of 70.0%. The modification made in the methodology for processing of fish protein concentrate allowed to obtain a product with low fat content, reduced moisture, high protein content, and appropriate microbiological quality that enabling to get a product that can be used for enrichment protein of various foods.33269770

Large-scale mapping of bioactive peptides in structural and sequence space

Health-enhancing potential bioactive peptide (BP) has driven an interest in food proteins as well as in the development of predictive methods. Research in this area has been especially active to use them as components in functional foods. Apparently, BPs do not have a given biological function in the containing proteins and they do not evolve under independent evolutionary constraints. In this work we performed a large-scale mapping of BPs in sequence and structural space. Using well curated BP deposited in BIOPEP database, we searched for exact matches in non-redundant sequences databases. Proteins containing BPs, were used in fold-recognition methods to predict the corresponding folds and BPs occurrences were mapped. We found that fold distribution of BP occurrences possibly reflects sequence relative abundance in databases. However, we also found that proteins with 5 or more than 5 BP in their sequences correspond to well populated protein folds, called superfolds. Also, we found that in well populated superfamilies, BPs tend to adopt similar locations in the protein fold, suggesting the existence of hotspots. We think that our results could contribute to the development of new bioinformatics pipeline to improve BP detection.Fil: Nardo, Agustina Estefania. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Añon, Maria Cristina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Parisi, Gustavo Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0 × 10−21. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410þ160 −180 Mpc corresponding to a redshift z ¼ 0.09þ0.03 −0.04 . In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36þ5 −4M⊙ and 29þ4 −4M⊙, and the final black hole mass is 62þ4 −4M⊙, with 3.0þ0.5 −0.5M⊙c2 radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger

Antioxidant activities and functional properties of soy protein isolate hydrolysates obtained using microbial proteases

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Soy protein isolate (SPI) hydrolysates were prepared using microbial proteases to produce peptides with antioxidant activity. The process parameters (substrate and enzyme concentrations), hydrolysis time, functional properties and the effects of ultrafiltration were further investigated. The results showed that the soy protein isolate exhibited a 7.0-fold increase in antioxidant activity after hydrolysis. The hydrolysis parameters, defined by the experimental design, were a substrate concentration of 90mgmL(-1) and the addition of 70.0U of protease per mL of reaction. The maximum antioxidant activities were observed between 120 and 180min of hydrolysis, where the degree of hydrolysis was approximately 20.0%. The hydrolysis increased solubility of the soy protein isolate; however, the hydrolysates exhibited a tendency to decrease in the interfacial activities and the heat stability. The SPI hydrolysates fractions obtained by ultrafiltration showed that the enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in samples with homogenous size and strong antioxidant activity.492317328Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Engineering, State University of CampinasFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [2011/10429-9

Synergistic effects of agroindustrial wastes on simultaneous production of protease and alpha-amylase under solid state fermentation using a simplex centroid mixture design

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Wheat bran, soybean meal and cottonseed meal, alone or in combinations, were used as the substrates for simultaneous production of protease and alpha-amylase by Aspergillus oryzae under solid state fermentation using a simplex centroid mixture design. The substrates with highest water absorption index and more homogeneous granulometric distribution have positively influenced on enzymes production. Synergistic effects of agroindustrial wastes observed on the production of protease and alpha-amylase resulted in increases ranged from 6.3 to 106.1% at 24h fermentation. Mixtures contained wheat bran (1/2) and soybean meal (1/2) or wheat bran (1/2) and cottonseed meal (1/2) may be added to improve the enzymes production in shorter time fermentation. However, at 48 and 72 h fermentation, the most of the interaction effects observed were antagonistic and the highest protease and alpha-amylase activities were obtained wheat bran as the substrate. This innovative process showed maximization of alpha-amylase and proteases production when mixtures were used compared to the isolated substrates and can be extended to other enzymes groups for obtaining multi-enzyme complex. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.49813821Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Department of Food Science, School of Food Engineering, University of CampinasFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [2011/10429-9

Statistical Optimization Of Protein Hydrolysis Using Mixture Design: Development Of Efficient Systems For Suppression Of Lipid Accumulation In 3t3-l1 Adipocytes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Soy protein isolate (SPI), bovine whey protein (BWP) and egg white protein (EWP) were hydrolyzed with the protease Flavourzyme (TM) 500 L, and the interactions of these substrates for the inhibition of the relative lipid accumulation (RLA) in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes during differentiation was studied using a simplex-centroid mixture design. The results indicated that there were synergistic effects for mixtures of non-hydrolyzed and hydrolyzed proteins. The hydrolyzed mixture containing BWP (1/2) and EWP (1/2) at 800 mu g mL(-1) showed increases of up to 220 and 27% in their activities, respectively, compared to the isolated substrates, reaching a maximum RLA suppression of 15.5%. The treatment in which the two-day postconfluent 3T3-L1 preadipocytes received 1200 tg mL(-1) of the mixture containing BWP (1/2) and EWP (1/2) at day zero and every two days afterwards until the end of the experiment at day eight was demonstrated to be more effective, reaching an RLA suppression of 47.9%. The results from the fractionation by ultrafiltration indicated that the non-fractionated sample of BWP (1/2) and EWP (1/2) was the most active for the anti-adipogenic activity and indicated that there is an important contribution of peptide fractions with various molecular sizes in the RLA suppression in 3T3-L1 cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.51723Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP [2011/10429-9]Department of Food Science, University of CampinasSchool of Food Engineering, University of CampinasDepartment of Anatomy, Institute of Biology, University of CampinasFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Biochemical Characterization Of Solvent, Salt, Surfactant And Oxidizing Agent Tolerant Proteases From Aspergillus Niger Produced In Different Agroindustrial Wastes

Proteases produced by Aspergillus niger LBA 02 under solid state fermentation using different agroindustrial wastes had their enzyme activities tested in the presence of organic solvents, NaCI, surfactants and oxidizing agents. The results showed that according to the fermentation substrate, the microorganism was able to secrete proteases with different biochemical characteristics. When wheat bran was used as the substrate, the proteases showed the highest relative activity in 50% (v/v) petroleum ether, reaching 114.3%, while the proteases produced in soybean meal and cottonseed meal presented 94.7% and 106.1%, respectively. These enzymes also presented high relative activity values in 50% (v/v) chloroform, retaining up to 85% of their initial protease activities after 3 h at 37 degrees C. When surfactants and oxidizing agents were tested, the proteases produced in soybean meal proved to have remarkable and the highest activity followed by the proteases produced in wheat bran and cottonseed meal. Since the protease produced in wheat bran showed considerable tolerance at high concentrations of NaCI, with relative activity of 61.1% at 15% NaCI (w/v), while the proteases produced in soybean meal and cottonseed meal retained 48.7% and 46.3% of their initial activities, respectively. This work provides an interesting approach about the modulation of biochemical properties of enzymes in response to different substrates, what can be used for obtaining proteases with specific applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.59498Department of Food Science, School of Food Engineering, University of Campina