The members of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family of cell signaling polypeptides have garnered a great deal of interest due to its capacity from nematodes to mammals to regulate cell-based activities which control the growth of embryos and sustain tissue homeostasis. The current study designed a computational analysis of the TGF-β protein family for understanding these proteins at the molecular level. This study determined the genomic structure of TGF-β gene family in Nile tilapia for the first time. We chose 33 TGF-β genes for identification and divided them into two subgroups, TGF-like and BMP-like. Moreover, the subcellular localization of the Nile tilapia TGF-β proteins have showed that majority of the members of TGF-β proteins family are present into extracellular matrix and plasma except BMP6, BMP7, and INHAC. All TGF-β proteins were thermostable excluding BMP1. Each protein exhibited basic nature, excluding of BMP1, BMP2, BMP7, BMP10, GDF2, GDF8, GDF11, AMH, INHA, INHBB, and NODAL M. All proteins gave impression of being unstable depending on the instability index, having values exceeding 40 excluding BMP1 and BMP2. Each TGF-β protein was found to be hydrophobic with lowered values of GRAVY. Moreover, every single one of the discovered TGF-β genes had a consistent evolutionary pattern. The TGF-β gene family had eight segmental duplications, and the Ka/Ks ratio demonstrated that purifying selection had an impact on the duplicated gene pairs which have experienced selection pressure. This study highlights important functionality of TGF-β and depicts the demand for further investigation to better understand the role and mechanism of transforming growth factor β in fishes and other species.

The fungus Malassezia globosa is often responsible for superficial mycoses posing significant treatment challenges because of the unfavourable side effects of available antifungal drugs. To reduce potential hazards to the host and overcome these hurdles, new therapeutic medicines must be developed that selectively target enzymes unique to the pathogen. This study focuses on the enzyme anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase (AnPRT), which is vital to M. globosa\'s tryptophan production pathway. To learn more about the function of the AnPRT enzyme, we modeled, validated, and simulated its structure. Moreover, many bioactive components were found in different extracts from the plant Albizia amara after phytochemical screening. Interestingly, at doses ranging from 500 to 2000 µg/ml, the chloroform extract showed significant antifungal activity, with inhibition zones measured between 11.0 ± 0.0 and 25.6 ± 0.6 mm. According to molecular docking analyses, the compounds from the active extract, particularly 2-tert-Butyl-4-isopropyl-5-methylphenol, interacted with the AnPRT enzyme\'s critical residues, ARG 205 and PHE 214, with an effective binding energy of -4.9 kcal/mol. The extract\'s revealed component satisfies the requirements for drug-likeness and shows promise as a strong antifungal agent against infections caused by M. globosa. These findings imply that using plant-derived chemicals to target the AnPRT enzyme is a viable path for the creation of innovative antifungal treatments.

Traditional doenjang characteristically differs from commercial doenjang, as the former involves a long and natural fermentation process. This study determined the physiochemical characteristics of traditional doenjang produced in Chungnam region. Two commercial and thirteen traditional doenjang products were characterized in terms of color, moisture content, pH, °Brix, salinity, acid value, titratable acidity, NH2-N content, alcohol content, and total and reducing sugar contents. The traditional samples significantly differed from the commercial samples in terms of color, moisture, °Brix, acid value, and in alcohol, NH2-N content, and total sugar contents (p < 0.05), and the traditional samples were characteristically similar to those previously analyzed. Moreover, the samples produced in different cities could be clustered based on their physiochemical characteristics. The observed differences among the traditional samples were attributed to fermentation conditions, namely, duration and temperature, as these differences were not correlated with ingredient ratio.

This study reports on the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of propolis samples from various regions across Western Australia and identifies some phenolic constituents using high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). Total phenolic content (TPC) was determined using a modified Folin-Ciocalteu assay, and antioxidant activity was investigated with the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assay and also visualised and semi-quantified by HPTLC-DPPH analysis. TPC values ranged from 9.26 to 59.3 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of raw propolis and FRAP assay data from 4.34 to 53.8 mmol Fe2+ mmol/kg of raw propolis, although some of these variations might be related to differences in extraction yields obtained with 70% ethanol. The presence of luteolin, taxifolin, naringenin, and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid was confirmed based on a comprehensive, validated matching approach against an HPTLC-derived database. The findings of the study highlight the importance of future research on the chemical composition and bioactivity of Western Australian propolis.

A protein mixture was prepared using a blend of soybean protein isolate, soybean protein concentrate, and wheat protein through high-moisture extrusion. This study investigated the effects of soybean oil/coconut oil additions (2%, 5%, and 8%) on the physiochemical properties of a soy protein-wheat protein mixture subjected to high-moisture extrusion. The protein extrudates underwent assessment for textural properties, fiber degree, sensory evaluation, microstructure, protein solubility, and protein secondary structure. The findings indicated that plant oils significantly reduced the hardness, springiness, and chewiness of the extrudates, and 5% plant oil significantly increased the fiber degree of the extrudates. In addition, the highest fiber degree and sensory evaluation score were achieved with 5% coconut oil. Observation of the macro- and microstructure indicated that the presence of unsaturated fatty acids in soybean oil did not benefit the improvement of the fibrous structure of protein extrudates during high-moisture extrusion processing. SDS-PAGE and FTIR results revealed that coconut oil, rich in saturated fatty acids, caused the clustering of medium- and low-molecular-weight subunits in texturized protein. Additionally, coconut oil elevated the ratio of 11S protein subunits containing sulfur-based amino acids and facilitated a shift from β-turn to β-sheet. The inclusion of plant oils increased the development of hydrogen and disulfide bonds, resulting in a denser, fibrous structure. DSC demonstrated that plant oils reduced the thermal stability of the texturized proteins but enhanced the order of protein structure.

Cold plasma treatment is an innovative technology in the food processing and preservation sectors. It is primarily employed to deactivate microorganisms and enzymes without heat and chemical additives; hence, it is often termed a \"clean and green\" technology. However, food quality and safety challenges may arise during cold plasma processing due to potential chemical interactions between the plasma reactive species and food components. This review aims to consolidate and discuss data on the impact of cold plasma on the chemical constituents and physical and functional properties of major food products, including dairy, meat, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and grains. We emphasize how cold plasma induces chemical modification of key food components, such as water, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, polyphenols, and volatile organic compounds. Additionally, we discuss changes in color, pH, and organoleptic properties induced by cold plasma treatment and their correlation with chemical modification. Current studies demonstrate that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in cold plasma oxidize proteins, lipids, and bioactive compounds upon direct contact with the food matrix. Reductions in nutrients and bioactive compounds, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, sugars, polyphenols, and vitamins, have been observed in dairy products, vegetables, fruits, and beverages following cold plasma treatment. Furthermore, structural alterations and the generation of volatile and non-volatile oxidation products were observed, impacting the color, flavor, and texture of food products. However, the effects on dry foods, such as seeds and nuts, are comparatively less pronounced. Overall, this review highlights the drawbacks, challenges, and opportunities associated with cold plasma treatment in food processing.

Bifidobacteria are widely acclaimed probiotic bacteria, however, the fragile nature of the bacteria has rendered its delivery through food products a challenge. The aim of the present study was to develop probiotic dark chocolate by incorporating Bifidobacterium breve NCIM5671. The probiotic chocolate was prepared by adding B. breve to dark chocolate at the final tempering stage. The chocolate was evaluated for the viability of B. breve upon preparation and during storage period of 90 days. The effect of addition of B. breve on physiological parameters of chocolate such as color, texture, rheology, melting profile, and sensory profile was also determined. The probiotic chocolate developed retained viability of B. breve (9 log CFU/g) for a period of 90 days. No significant differences were observed in physiological parameters of probiotic chocolate compared to control chocolate. Overall the probiotic dark chocolate was found to be a suitable matrix for delivery of B. breve NCIM5671.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-024-05958-6.

Anticancer peptides (ACPs) have recently emerged as promising cancer therapeutics due to their selectivity and lower toxicity. However, the number of experimentally validated ACPs is limited, and identifying ACPs from large-scale sequence data is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, it is critical to develop and improve upon existing computational models for identifying ACPs. In this study, a computational method named ACP_DA was proposed based on peptide residue composition and physiochemical properties information. To curtail overfitting and reduce computational costs, a sequential forward selection method was utilized to construct the optimal feature groups. Subsequently, the feature vectors were fed into light gradient boosting machine classifier for model construction. It was observed by an independent set test that ACP_DA achieved the highest Matthew\'s correlation coefficient of 0.63 and accuracy of 0.8129, displaying at least a 2% enhancement compared to state-of-the-art methods. The satisfactory results demonstrate the effectiveness of ACP_DA as a powerful tool for identifying ACPs, with the potential to significantly contribute to the development and optimization of promising therapies. The data and resource codes are available at https://github.com/Zlclab/ACP_DA.

The aim of this study was to obtain nitrogen-enriched activated carbons from orthocoking coal. The initial material was subjected to a demineralisation process. The demineralised precursor was pyrolysed at 500 °C and then activated with sodium hydroxide at 800 °C. Activated carbon adsorbents were subjected to the process of ammoxidation using a mixture of ammonia and air at two different temperature variants (300 and 350 °C). Nitrogen introduction was carried out on stages of demineralised precursor, pyrolysis product, and oxidising activator. The elemental composition, acid-base properties, and textural parameters of the obtained carbon adsorbents were determined. The activated carbons were investigated for their ability to remove nitrogen dioxide. The results demonstrated that the ammoxidation process incorporates new nitrogen-based functional groups into the activated carbon structure. Simultaneously, the ammoxidation process modified the acid-base characteristics of the surface and negatively affected the textural parameters of the resulting adsorbents. Furthermore, the study showed that all of the obtained carbon adsorbents exhibited a distinct microporous texture. Adsorption tests were carried out against NO2 and showed that the carbon adsorbents obtained were highly effective in removing this gaseous pollutant. The best sorption capacity towards NO2 was 23.5 mg/g under dry conditions and 75.0 mg/g under wet conditions.

The effects of subcritical water microenvironment on the physiochemical properties, antioxidant activity and in vitro digestion of polysaccharides (SWESPs) from squash were investigated. After single-factor experiments, twenty samples were successfully prepared at different extraction temperatures (110, 130, 150, 170 and 190 °C) and extraction times (4, 8, 12 and 16 min). Under a low temperature environment, the whole process was mainly based on the extraction of SWESP. At this time, the color of SWESP was white or light gray and the molecular mass was high. When the temperature was 150 °C, since the extraction and degradation of SWESP reached equilibrium, the maximum extraction rate (18.67%) was reached at 150 °C (12 min). Compared with traditional methods, the yield of squash SWESP extracted by subcritical water was 3-4 times higher and less time consuming. Under high temperature conditions, SWESPs were degraded and their antioxidant capacity and viscosity were reduced. Meanwhile, Maillard and caramelization reactions turned the SWESPs yellow-brown and produced harmful substances. In addition, different SWESPs had different effects on in vitro digestion. In brief, SWESPs prepared under different conditions have different structures and physicochemical properties, allowing the obtainment of the required polysaccharide. Our results show that squash polysaccharides prepared in different subcritical water states had good development potential and application in the food industry.