Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits To Drosophila melanogaster

The ‘‘organic food’’ market is the fastest growing food sector, yet it is unclear whether organically raised food is nutritionally superior to conventionally grown food and whether consuming organic food bestows health benefits. In order to evaluate potential health benefits of organic foods, we used the well-characterized fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. Fruit flies were raised on diets consisting of extracts of either conventionally or organically raised produce (bananas, potatoes, raisins, soy beans). Flies were then subjected to a variety of tests designed to assess overall fly health. Flies raised on diets made from organically grown produce had greater fertility and longevity. On certain food sources, greater activity and greater stress resistance was additionally observed, suggesting that organic food bestows positive effects on fly health. Our data show that Drosophila can be used as a convenient model system to experimentally test potential health effects of dietary components. Using this system, we provide evidence that organically raised food may provide animals with tangible benefits to overall health

<b>Indigenous oil crops as a source for production of biodiesel in Kenya</b>

In this study, oils extracted from four crops, <i>Jatropha curcas</i> L., <i>Croton megalocarpus</i> Hutch, <i>Calodendrum capense</i> (L.f.) Thunb. (cape chestnut) and <i>Cocos nucifera</i> L. (coconut) were transesterified in methanol using sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. Methyl esters obtained were characterized by GC-MS and further tested for fuel properties relative to convectional diesel fuels (automotive and kerosene). Methyl esters of commercial oils: sunflower and soybean were also tested for fuel properties for comparison. Some of parameters tested included kinematic viscosity, flash point, distillation temperatures, copper corrosion, cetane number, ash content, and gross heating value. The results showed hexadecanoate and octadecanoate were common fatty acids esters identified in the four analyzed methyl esters. Total unsaturation was highest for <i>Croton</i> ester with 86.6 %, <i>Jatropha</i> and <i>C. capense</i> esters had unsaturation of 65.2 % and 61.2 %, respectively, while coconut ester recorded only 2.8 %. The ester viscosities at 40 ^°C were with range of 4.16-4.63 mm²/s except coconut ester with viscosity 2.71 mm²/s, which is close to that of kerosene 2.35 mm²/s. The esters were found to be less volatile that diesel fuels with coconut esters registering as most volatile among the esters. Esters of sunflower and soybean have their volatility very close to that of <i>Jatropha</i> ester. The flash points of the esters were typically much higher (> 100 ^°C) than petroleum diesels, automotives and kerosene (74 and 45.5 ^°C, respectively). <i>Jatropha</i>, sunflower and soybean esters passed the ASTM standard D6751 for flash point; 130 ^°C minimum, all the esters however were within the European standard EN-14214 for biodiesel of above 101 ^°C. The density of the esters was found to be 2-4 % higher than that of petroleum automotive diesel and 10-12 % more than that of kerosene. The heating values of the esters were however 12 % lower than diesel fuels on average. In general, coconut esters were found to compare well with kerosene while the rest of the esters showed properties very close to that of automotive diesel and can thus be used as neat or blended fuels in diesel engines without any modifications

Oxidative stress resistance of <i>Drosophila</i> raised on organic food.

<p>Survivorship curves of female flies raised for 10 days on the indicated food sources. Flies were then transferred to media containing H₂O₂ and dead flies were counted twice daily (grey: conventional food; black: organic food; statistically significant changes (p<0.005) are indicated by asterisks). Median survival times of flies on conventional and organics food sources, respectively, are: potatoes: 24 and 30 hours (p<0.0001); raisins: 24 and 24 hours (p<0.0001); bananas: 30 and 30 hours (p<0.2172).</p

Starvation tolerance of flies raised on organic diets.

<p>Survivorship curves of female flies raised for 10 days on the indicated food sources. Flies were then transferred to starvation media and dead flies were counted twice daily (grey: conventional food; black: organic food; statistically significant changes (p<0.005) are indicated by asterisks). Median survival times of flies on conventional and organics food sources, respectively, are: potatoes: 6 and 24 hours (p<0.0001); raisins: 24 and 24 hours (p<0.0001); bananas: 24 and 48 hours (p<0.0001).</p

Longevity of D. <i>melanogaster</i> fed organic diets.

<p>Survivorship curves of female fruit flies fed diets made from extracts of potatoes, raisins, bananas or soybeans (grey: conventional food; black: organic food; statistically significant changes (p<0.005) are indicated by asterisks). Median survival times of flies on conventional and organics food sources, respectively, are: potatoes: 16 and 22 days (∼38% longevity increase, p<0.0001); raisins: 2 and 24 days (∼20% longevity increase, p<0.0001); bananas: 24 and 26 days (p = 0.1543); soybeans: 8 and 14 days (∼75% longevity increase, p<0.0001).</p

Effects of organic diets on <i>Drosophila</i> health parameters compared to conventional diets.

<p>Effects of organic diets on <i>Drosophila</i> health parameters compared to conventional diets.</p

Daily egg-laying of flies exposed to organic diets.

<p>Egg production of flies fed the indicated food was determined daily. Shown are the averages of four biological replicates; error bars represent the standard deviation (grey: conventional food; black: organic food; statistically significant changes (p<0.005) are indicated by asterisks; p<0.0001 for all food types).</p

OdoriFy: A conglomerate of Artificial Intelligence-driven prediction engines for olfactory decoding

The molecular mechanisms of olfaction, or the sense of smell, are relatively under-explored compared to other sensory systems, primarily due to its underlying molecular complexity and the limited availability of dedicated predictive computational tools. Odorant receptors allow the detection and discrimination of a myriad of odorant molecules and therefore mediate the first step of the olfactory signaling cascade. To date, odorant (or agonist) information for the majority of these receptors is still unknown, limiting our understanding of their functional relevance in odor-induced behavioral responses. In this study, we introduce OdoriFy, a webserver featuring powerful deep neural network-based prediction engines. OdoriFy enables 1) identification of odorant molecules for wild-type or mutant human odorant receptors (Odor Finder); 2) classification of user-provided chemicals as odorants/non-odorants (Odorant Predictor); 3) identification of responsive odorant receptors for a query odorant (OR Finder); and 4) Interaction validation using Odorant-OR Pair Analysis. Additionally, OdoriFy provides the rationale behind every prediction it makes by leveraging Explainable Artificial Intelligence. This module highlights the basis of the prediction of odorants/non-odorants at atomic resolution and for the odorant receptors at amino acid levels. A key distinguishing feature of OdoriFy is that it is built on a comprehensive repertoire of manually curated information of human odorant receptors with their known agonists and non-agonists, making it a highly interactive and resource-enriched webserver. Moreover, comparative analysis of OdoriFy predictions with an alternative structure-based ligand interaction method revealed comparable results. OdoriFy is available freely as a web service at https://odorify.ahujalab.iiitd.edu.in/olfy/.</p