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A direct procedure for the determination of total polysaccharides (TPS) in Camellia sinensis was set up based on the modified phenol-sulfuric acid method. The monosaccharide composition of TPS was analyzed by GC. Based on the results of GC, model monosaccharide mixtures were made which provided an adequate standard for this procedure. Through single-factor and orthogonal (L934) experiments, the experimental conditions such as the volume of phenol, the volume of concentrated sulfuric acid, the reaction time, and the incubation temperature, were optimized. The highest sensitivity of absorbance was obtained when the volume of concentrated sulfuric acid, the volume of phenol (6%), and the incubation temperature were 2.5 ml, 0.2 ml, and 50?C, respectively. Under optimum conditions, the prepared samples were determined satisfactorily, with the recovery from 100.2% to 103.7%, and a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.1%. Overall, the modified method is easily operated, rapid, sensitive and accurate. A similar procedure can be applied to the determination of other plant polysaccharides as well. .

Recurrence of tumor cells following local and systemic therapy is a significant hurdle in cancer. Most patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) will relapse, despite resection of the metastatic lesions. A better understanding of the evolutionary history of recurrent lesions is required to identify the spatial and temporal patterns of metastatic progression and expose the genetic and evolutionary determinants of therapeutic resistance. With this goal in mind, here we leveraged a unique single-cell whole-genome sequencing dataset from recurrent hepatic lesions of an mCRC patient. Our phylogenetic analysis confirms that the treatment induced a severe demographic bottleneck in the liver metastasis but also that a previously diverged lineage survived this surgery, possibly after migration to a different site in the liver. This lineage evolved very slowly for two years under adjuvant drug therapy and diversified again in a very short period. We identified several non-silent mutations specific to this lineage and inferred a substantial contribution of chemotherapy to the overall, genome-wide mutational burden. All in all, our study suggests that mCRC subclones can migrate locally and evade resection, keep evolving despite rounds of chemotherapy, and re-expand explosively.

Flavonoids are widely distributed in natural products and foods as a class of polyphenols. They processed diverse bioactivities, including anti-inflammation activity, antiaging activity, and antioxidant activity. The foods rich in flavonoids are usually consumed after thermal processing. However, flavonoids are commonly vulnerable under thermal processing, and it could cause various influences on their stability and bioactivities. Therefore, in this review, the effects of thermal processing on thermal stability and bioactivities of dietary flavonoids from different food sources were first summarized. The strategies to improve thermal stability of dietary flavonoids were then discussed. Noticeably, the effect of some of the promising thermal technologies on dietary flavonoids was also clarified preliminarily in the current review. The promising thermal technologies may be an alternative to conventional thermal processing technologies.

Thiol-modified poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG-SH) has been used to replace standard capping agents from the surfaces of gold nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes. Upon PEG stabilization, the nanoparticles can be transferred into ethanol, where silica can be directly grown on the particle surfaces through the standard Stober process. The obtained silica shells are uniform and homogeneous, and the method allows a high degree of control over shell thickness for any particle size and shape. Additionally, Raman-active molecules can be readily incorporated within the composite nanoparticles during silica growth so that SERS/SERRS-encoded nanoparticles can be fabricated containing a variety of tags, thereby envisaging multiplexing capability.

PP (<italic>M</italic>_w= 20.0 kDa) could effectively regulate glucose and lipid metabolism in diabetic mice, and is composed of Glc, Gal and Ara.

The Camellia genus (Theaceae) comprises more than 200 species, including the most famous Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Camellia oleifera Abel, and Camellia japonica (L.). The commercial interest in these plants linked to their seed fatty acid content increased in the last decades due to their quality and health-enhancing properties, which significantly depend on different aspects such as environmental conditions. Nowadays, the traditional extraction methods of fatty acids from camellias include mechanical press extraction and solvent extraction, which have a high environmental impact. Therefore, it is essential to develop extraction techniques to achieve the maximum lipid yield with the minimum environmental impact and cost. These innovative methods include enzymatic extraction, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). However, they are often limited to the laboratory or pilot scale due to economic or technical bottlenecks. This article aims to explore recent advances and innovations related to the extraction of fatty acids from Camellia.

Soil inputs produced by rainfall waters washed off through a Ribeiro vineyard (Galicia, northwestern Spain) confirmed that levels recovered are <5% of the added fungicides. Laboratory studies showed that some fungicides were degraded in the ODS cartridge used for the collection of fungicides washed off by rainfall. Procymidone wash-off data obtained in the vineyard can be explained by a first-order rate mass transfer model. A procedure for the collection of wash-off waters based on octadecylsilane solid phase extraction, followed by an analytical method of reverse-phase liquid chromatography with diode array detection is presented for the evaluation of fungicide inputs into soils after being washed off vineyards by rainfalls. Quality parameters of the analytical method yielded good precision (RSD < 10%) and low detection limits (ranging between 1 and 21 microg/L).

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 357:175-184 (2008) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07278 Genetic discontinuity associated with an environmentally induced barrier to gene exchange in the marine snail Littorina saxatilis Jaime Piñeira, Humberto Quesada, Emilio Rolán-Alvarez, Armando Caballero* Departamento de Bioquímica, Genética e Inmunología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain *Corresponding author. Email: armando@uvigo.es ABSTRACT: The geographical genetic structure of 7 populations of the intertidal marine snail Littorina saxatilis with limited dispersal was studied in NW Spain using 3 classes of genetic markers: 840 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) loci, 3 microsatellites, and 1 morphological trait (shell size). A sharp genetic division at Cape Finisterre, as evidenced by all 3 markers, delimits 2 regions. This genetic discontinuity coincides with an abrupt change in plankton composition, climate and oceanographic characteristics, suggesting that contemporary influences on gene flow associated with the presence of an ecological barrier maintain the genetic subdivision in NW Spain. However, the genetic structure also accords to some extent with an isolation-by-distance model despite the heterogeneous gene flow due to this ecological barrier. Microsatellites and shell size showed a strong and significant covariation in pairwise differences (FST and QST) among populations, but no correlation was found between these markers and AFLPs. Similarly, both microsatellites and shell size showed a higher differentiation between the 2 regions than within each region, but this pattern was reversed for AFLPs. Differences in genomic sampling error and homoplasy could account for the discrepancy between different kinds of markers. These results point to the possibility that other marine species may show a similar pattern of intra-specific genetic divergence in NW Spain. KEY WORDS: Microsatellites · AFLPs · Quantitative traits · Gene flow · QST · FST · Isolation by distance · Ecological barrier Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Piñeira J, Quesada H, Rolán-Alvarez E, Caballero A (2008) Genetic discontinuity associated with an environmentally induced barrier to gene exchange in the marine snail Littorina saxatilis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 357:175-184. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07278 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 357. Online publication date: April 07, 2008 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.

The Seychelles is a remarkably interesting archipelago for evolutionary studies, but only recently have molecular markers been used to explore its biogeographic patterns. Here we used morphological and molecular data to examine diversity and phylogenetic relationships of two endemic skink sister-species from this archipelago: Trachylepis sechellensis and Trachylepis wrightii. Mitochondrial DNA genealogy rendered a monophyletic T. wrightii nested within a paraphyletic T. sechellensis, whereas nuclear DNA sequences from five unlinked markers reflected the accepted taxonomy. Hybridization and massive mtDNA introgression leading to the complete replacement of the native mtDNA lineage of T. sechellensis in some of the islands were invoked to explain this result, and morphological variation also seemed to reflect this pattern of reticulation. A Mio-Pliocene divergence between both species is suggested. Multilocus molecular data were used to uncover biogeographic patterns within the archipelago, which reflected shared patterns with other co-distributed lizard taxa; specifically a north–south marked structure, a close relationship between populations from Fregate and the southern islands, and a detectable isolation within the southern group, between Mahé, and Silhouette and North Islands. Gene flow from these latter islands towards the northern group was also suggested. These results add to the growing body of evidence of the influence of geographic distance and sea-level oscillations in shaping the genetic structure of Seychellois taxa and of the existence of common biogeographic patterns across the archipelago.