Fluorescence spectroscopy for grape and wine compositional analysis and quality control.

Wine is an important global alcoholic beverage produced in many regions, in a wide array of styles, and from different grape varieties. Quality is an important concept for wine production, but that depends on the viewpoint (e.g.

Brewer's waste isn't spent: Capturing the structural complexity and bioactive properties of hordatines in brewery waste products.

Hordatines are phenolamides expressed in barley that impart astringent flavour to beer and possess antifungal properties. They have previously been characterised in brewer's spent grain (BSG) and barley malt rootlets (BMR), common waste products of beer processing that have potential as value-adding commodities. However, the chemical diversity and bioactivity of hordatines in these waste products are underexplored.

WRKY Transcription Factors in Rice: Key Regulators Orchestrating Development and Stress Resilience.

Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) productivity is critical for global food security, but it is increasingly vulnerable to environmental fluctuation and emerging pathogens and insects. WRKY is one of the largest plant transcription factors families, governing plant growth and stress adaptation as versatile regulators.

Transcription Profiling of Glycosyltransferases in Cultivars Following Smoke Exposure.

Smoke taint is a fault that can occur in wines made from smoke-affected grapes. Smoke taint research has largely focused on chemical and sensory analysis and mitigation strategies, with limited attention to underlying molecular responses. We performed RNA sequencing on berries from cultivars Shiraz and Chardonnay after controlled smoke exposure.

Exosomes from liver progenitor cells carrying JAG1 activate notch signaling to promote liver regeneration in PVL rats.

Studies have shown that extracellular vesicles play a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis in healthy individuals and influencing disease pathology in patients. However, the mechanisms by which exosomes facilitate liver regeneration following portal vein ligation (PVL) remain unclear. Our previous research highlighted the critical role of the Notch signaling pathway in liver regeneration after PVL.

Robust, automated quantitation of proline in wine.

Proline is an abundant wine metabolite shown to impart sweetness, viscosity, and increase flavour intensity. While several techniques are available to quantitate proline in wine, they are either costly, laborious, or prone to severe interferences. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) analysis of wine has provided a method for rapidly measuring several important wine metabolites, including proline.

The metacaspase-Peps-PEPR immune module confers resistance to Fusarium head blight in wheat.

Pathogens constantly attack staple crops, leading to substantial yield losses. Plant-pathogen interactions activate endogenous plant-secreted peptides, which act as immunity inducers and are promising breeding targets for enhancing crop resistance to pathogens. However, the identification and mechanisms of immunogenic peptides in staple crops remain largely unexplored.

Conservation and divergence of OsGSTU9 and OsGSTU19 in cadmium detoxification and accumulation in rice.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the heavy metals highly toxic to organisms and the increase of Cd contamination in crops forms an urgent issue to food safety and human health. Overproduction of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) is the primary response in plant cells subjected to Cd, which could be partially alleviated by Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs). Here, two rice GST genes, OsGSTU9 and OsGSTU19 belonging to the same GST subfamily, were identified due to their preferential expression in root and their significantly Cd-induced upregulation.

Linking key genes to the stay-green phenotype for climate-smart Triticum aestivum L.

Unlabelled: Climate-induced heat and drought stress significantly reduce wheat productivity, posing a major challenge, identifying and developing tolerant wheat varieties is a key priority of modern breeding programs. The stay-green phenotype is characterized by sustained photosynthesis and extended grain-filling period under stress conditions, plays a pivotal role in enhancing tolerance. Here, we evaluated 4 commercial Australian wheat cultivars (Coota, Catapult, Beckom, and Sunmaster) in a greenhouse conditions, assessing their physiological, and agronomic traits under heat and combined heat-drought stress.

Post-translational modification acts as a digital like switch influencing AtPIP2;1 water and cation permeability.

Plant aquaporins (AQPs) were initially described as a family of membrane-localized proteins exclusively facilitating water transport. Subsequently, sub-sets of plant AQPs have exhibited diverse functionalities beyond water transport. The aquaporin AtPIP2;1, an abundant Plasma membrane Intrinsic Protein in Arabidopsis thaliana, can transport water but also CO, HO and monovalent cations under certain conditions.

Developmental pathways in plants: Lessons from Arabidopsis for crop innovation.

The emergence of molecular biology, along with the use of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism, has significantly enhanced our understanding of plant development. Research on Arabidopsis has led to the identification of key regulatory genes involved in various developmental processes. In the past decade, advances in genome sequencing and the decoding of numerous plant genomes have enabled the application of these findings from Arabidopsis to crop species.

Treatment of fruit juices with β-glucosidase for release of aroma precursors.

Β-glucosidase can diversify flavour by releasing aroma precursors from monosaccharide glucosides but is not yet applied in fruit juice processing. Here, we compare β-glucosidase A (BglA) from the extremophile Halothermothrix orenii H168 expressed in Escherichia coli to a commercial product containing β-glucosidase (Rapidase® Revelation Aroma) in enzymatic activity and effect on fruit juice aroma composition (apple, apple-mango, apple-raspberry, grape; identified via SPME GC-MS). While BglA demonstrated a higher tolerance against sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose), Rapidase® demonstrated a higher tolerance against low pH.

LATERAL BRANCHING OXIDOREDUCTASE specificity for strigolactone branching inhibition in barley.

Strigolactone (SL) mutants display a range phenotypes, such as increased branching, reduced stature and a loss of SLs exuded from roots into soil. SL biosynthesis is complex and divergent between plant species. Recently, mutants defective in specific SL biosynthesis genes have shown a loss of exuded SLs, but no obvious change in branching (tillering).

Phylogenomic and super-pangenome analyses unveil the genetic landscape of tomato evolution and domestication.

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), a principal fruit crop, exhibits significant genetic diversity shaped by domestication and breeding. Analysis of the gene-based super-pangenome, a catalogue of all genes across diverse genome-sequenced tomatoes, has not yet been fully explored.

Detection of aphid infestation on faba bean ( L.) by hyperspectral imaging and spectral information divergence methods.

Aphids hide under leaves, reproduce rapidly, and require early detection to prevent crop damage, disease transmission, and ensure effective pest management. This study presents a novel approach for aphid detection by utilizing hyperspectral imaging, multivariate classification methods and spectral information divergence (SID) analyses. The hyperspectral images average spectrum ( = 336) showed significant differences between healthy and infested leaves.

Strigolactones Coordinate Barley Tillering and Grain Size.

The strigolactone (SL) plant hormone pathway inhibits tiller bud outgrowth. SLs also influence plant height, grain number and grain size, but it is unclear how these traits are connected. To separate the effects of SLs on plant architecture, grain size and yield, we tested SL barley mutant plants in a range of conditions and utilised exogenous hormone-related treatments.

Stigma longevity is not a major limiting factor in hybrid wheat seed production.

Hybrids offer a promising approach to improve crop performance because the progeny are often superior to their parent lines and they outyield inbred varieties. A major challenge in producing hybrid progeny in wheat, however, lies in the inefficient fertilization of maternal parent ovaries by airborne pollen from male donor lines. This is often attributed to suboptimal synchronisation of male and female flowering as delayed pollination can result in reproductive failure due to female stigma deterioration.

Learning from nature: photosynthetic traits conferring superior salt tolerance in wild rice .

This work aimed to reveal a mechanistic basis of differential salinity stress tolerance between cultivated () and wild () rice species related to photosynthesis and leaf gas exchange. With an innate larger (twofold) stomata, could achieve a similar net photosynthetic rate with 63% lower stomatal density and show 72% higher intrinsic water use efficiency under control conditions. After salt treatment, cultivated rice developed smaller and denser stomata with decreased aperture, which resulted in lower stomatal conductance and reduced stomatal opening speed.

Loss of HKT1;5D via a spontaneous terminal deletion elevates leaf sodium in bread wheat, but is independent of yield or salinity tolerance.

Soil salinity is a significant constraint to global wheat production, and breeding for salinity tolerance offers a sustainable solution. MW#293 is a recently developed bread wheat line, notable for both its high salinity tolerance and unusually high leaf sodium (Na⁺) accumulation. However, the association between high Na⁺ accumulation and salinity tolerance in this line was unknown.

Effect of terroir on aroma and sensory characteristics of Xinomavro (Vitis vinifera L. cv.) red wines from different Greek protected designations of origin.

This study aimed to characterise Protected Designation of Origin Xinomavro wines from different geographical areas of Amyndeon and Naoussa in Northern Greece for the first time. Chemical and sensory results were elaborated with variables contributing to regional differentiation, such as soil and meso-climate characteristics, for 11 wines produced via a standard winemaking protocol. A total of 85 aroma compounds was quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Inhibitors of lysine biosynthesis enzymes as potential new herbicides.

Lysine is an amino acid that is essential for the growth and development of all organisms owing to its role in a plethora of critical biological functions and reactions. In plants, lysine is synthesised via five sequential enzyme-catalysed reactions collectively known as the diaminopimelate (DAP) pathway, whereas animals are reliant on their plant dietary intake to obtain lysine. Given that lysine is one of the most nutritionally limiting amino acids, several studies have focused on developing strategies to modulate the activity of DAP pathway enzymes to improve the nutritional value of crops.

The structure and dynamics of water molecule networks underlie catalytic efficiency in a glycoside exo-hydrolase.

Glycoside hydrolases break glycosidic bonds by transferring a water molecule onto the glycosidic oxygen of carbohydrates, but on the nanoscale, the dynamics of water molecules remains unclear. We investigate the role of the non-nucleophilic E220 glutamate, essential for maintaining the water molecule network in a family 3 β-D-glucan glucohydrolase, but not involved directly in catalysis. Kinetic data disclose that the E220A mutant retains substrate poly-specificity but has drastically reduced catalytic efficiency compared to the wild-type.

Persistence of wine polysulfides: Investigation of the stability of isolated glutathione and cysteine species.

Recent studies have highlighted that polysulfides formed from biological thiols (e.g., glutathione, GSH) and sulfhydryls like HS may act as reservoirs of undesirable sulfur-like odours (SLOs) in wine, although the conditions leading to appearance of SLOs are not fully understood.

A F-dependent Single Domain Chemogenetic Tool for Protein De-dimerization.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) mediate many fundamental cellular processes. Control of PPIs through optically or chemically responsive protein domains has had a profound impact on basic research and some clinical applications. Most chemogenetic methods induce the association, i.