A preliminary study on the possibilities to indicate the effects of urban stress on maple trees

Urban trees have an important role to create a more livable environment. These plants are exposed to various types of environmental stresses that might cause decline in their condition and decorative value. The aim of our preliminary study is to study the effects of urban stress factors, mainly the air pollution and pest damage on maple trees. Three maple species were studied: field maple (Acer campestre), sycamore maple (A. pseudoplatanus) and Norway maple (A. platanoides) in four areas in Budapest, Hungary with different traffic density. The peroxidase (POD) enzyme activity was measured in the leaves by a spectrophotometric method. Phytophagous insects with piercing-sucking mouthparts (Hemiptera) were also collected from the canopy level by beating method. We found that POD activity was generally the highest in field maples and the lowest in Norway maples with sycamore maples between, but we did not find consistent patterns at each sampling site. The abundance of the collected hemipterans showed similar pattern, but showed no consistent tendency at the various sampling sites and therefore, the abundance of hemipterans did not explain the variation of POD activity. In our study the connection between the POD activity, the air pollution and the abundance of hemipterans remained not fully understood. To clarify this relationship further studies are required

Antioxidant activity of whey proteins

Balázs Lemmer1, Nikolett Szpisják-Gulyás2, Zoltán Jákói2, Gréta Bányai2,József Csanádi2, Cecilia Hodú

Multiple SARS-CoV-2 Introductions Shaped the Early Outbreak in Central Eastern Europe: Comparing Hungarian Data to a Worldwide Sequence Data-Matrix

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus in history. Since the emergence in Hubei province, China, during late 2019, the situation evolved to pandemic level. Following China, Europe was the second epicenter of the pandemic. To better comprehend the detailed founder mechanisms of the epidemic evolution in Central-Eastern Europe, particularly in Hungary, we determined the full-length SARS-CoV-2 genomes from 32 clinical samples collected from laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients over the first month of disease in Hungary. We applied a haplotype network analysis on all available complete genomic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 from GISAID database as of 21 April 2020. We performed additional phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses to achieve the recognition of multiple and parallel introductory events into our region. Here, we present a publicly available network imaging of the worldwide haplotype relations of SARS-CoV-2 sequences and conclude the founder mechanisms of the outbreak in Central-Eastern Europe

Nutritional values of traditional open-pollinated melon (Cucumis melo L.) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thumb]) varieties

The aim of our experiments was to investigate the internal quality parameters of some old melon and watermelon landraces or varieties whether they have any desirable characteristics. Measurements were carried out using 8 different types of melon (Cucumis melo L.) and 8 accessions of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thumb]), which were self pollinated under greenhouse conditions. Besides the determination of dry matter content; soluble solids, titratable acidity of the fruit juices, investigation of carbohydrates, total phenol content was measured by spectrophotometer. Total antioxidant capacities were determined spectrophotometrically using the FRAP method. We found some accesions both among melon and watermelon varieties, which could be characterized by outstanding inner content

Nutritional values of traditional open-pollinated melon (Cucumis melo L.) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thumb]) varieties

The aim of our experiments was to investigate the internal quality parameters of some old melon and watermelon landraces or varieties whether they have any desirable characteristics. Measurements were carried out using 8 different types of melon (Cucumis melo L.) and 8 accessions of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thumb]), which were self pollinated under greenhouse conditions. Besides the determination of dry matter content; soluble solids, titratable acidity of the fruit juices, investigation of carbohydrates, total phenol content was measured by spectrophotometer. Total antioxidant capacities were determined spectrophotometrically using the FRAP method. We found some accesions both among melon and watermelon varieties, which could be characterized by outstanding inner content