These days, food safety is getting more attention than in the recent past due to consumer awareness, regulations, and industrial competition to offer best quality products. Meat and meat products are ...very valuable but highly perishable. There is a need for reliable assessment techniques to ensure the safety and quality of these products throughout their shelf life. Classical analytical methods have been replaced with alternative, rapid, simple, and noninvasive methods to enhance productivity and profitability in the meat supply chain. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has become a valuable analytical technique for structural or functional studies related to foods as a rapid, nondestructive, cost-efficient, and sensitive physicochemical fingerprinting method. This technique is readily applicable for routine quality control or industrial applications with a high degree of confidence. FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics has drawn attention to quality control, safety assessment, and authentication purposes in the meat and meat products domain. This review covers fundamental knowledge on FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometric techniques, as well as major applications of this robust method in meat science and technology for adulteration detection, monitoring biochemical and microbiological spoilage and shelf life, determining changes in chemical components such as proteins and lipids.
Snake venom fibrinogenolytic enzymes have diagnostic and therapeutic value and are important for snakebite pathology. In the present study, the fibrinogenolytic activity of Montivipera raddei venom ...was investigated. Crude venom was incubated with human fibrinogen for different time periods at 37?C. An inhibition study was carried out using different protease inhibitors. The fibrinogenolytic activity was assessed by SDS-PAGE and fibrinogen zymography. An HPLCbased method was used to obtain confirmatory data. Montivipera raddei venom predominantly cleaved the A? chain of fibrinogen in a time-dependent manner. A very slight decrease in band intensity of the B? chain was observable after a longer incubation time. Cleavage of fibrinogen was confirmed by HPLC. Zymography revealed that the venom contained 50 and 75 kDa fibrinogenolytic enzymes. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and 1,10-phenanthroline inhibited the overall fibrinogenolytic activity, while phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) only inhibited the degradation of the B? chain. These results indicated that metalloproteinases were major fibrinogenolytic enzymes in the venom. The inhibitor study suggested the presence of serine proteinases that broke down the B? chain. With this study, the fibrinogenolytic activity of M. raddei venom was shown for the first time. The results will be useful for further isolation and characterization studies.
Determining the age of any species allows it to be analyzed from the ontogenetic, demographic, and ecological perspectives. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the age structure of ...congener species (Lacerta media and Lacerta viridis) with the same ecological niche may vary in different areas. In this context, we applied skeletochronology method to reveal various demographic parameters, such as age structure, longevity, age at sexual maturity, growth rate, survival rate, adult life expectancy, and the relationship between age and body size in the green lizard, L. viridis, and the medium lizard, L. media. In L. media and L. viridis, the maximum lifespan was 10 and 8 years, respectively. The mean age and body size of females were significantly greater than those of males in L. media. However, in the examined L. viridis population, no appreciable variation in mean age or body size was found to exist between the sexes. It was estimated that the green lizards reach maturity at the age of 2 or 3 years. However, the L. media reached sexual maturity approximately 1 year later than the congener. The body size markedly increased with age in males for both studied populations. However, in females, body size positively increased with age only in L. media. The approach of skeletochronology that we utilized in this study to assess age structure makes it simple to gather a variety of time‐dependent ecological data for such ectothermic species.
Age structure varies between Lacerta viridis and L. media
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used as a tool to identify adulterated beef in raw meat mixtures, incorporating chicken or turkey meat in different proportions, 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, ...40%, and 100%. Six regions with characteristic bands were determined where significant differences were observed depending on the proportion of the substitution. In hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), dendrograms for wavenumbers between 2,980–2,800 cm−1 and 1,140–1,020 cm−1 provided effective differentiation for chicken meat adulteration, while for 1,290–1,210 cm−1 and 2,880–2,800 cm−1 were distinctive for turkey meat. In principal component analysis (PCA), whole spectrum, fingerprint (1,500–900 cm−1), 1,290–1,210 cm−1, and 1,480–1,425 cm−1 were used in the discrimination of turkey and chicken meats. Furthermore, the 1,760–1,710 cm−1 was significantly robust in chicken meat identification. PCA provided better classification than HCA in both adulterated mixtures. Our results showed that FTIR spectroscopy is a valuable tool to detect chicken or turkey meat adulteration in beef mixtures.
Practical applications
Fraudulent substitution in meat products is a growing concern that affects consumers, international and regional trade, and the meat industry at large. This exploratory study demonstrates that FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometric methods that facilitate the analysis of chemical data could become a robust, reliable technique to help in the detection of food fraud in the meat sector and beyond. This method is sensitive to meat composition variations, accurately reproduces results; and it is easy to use and low cost in comparison to traditional methods. The results demonstrated that FTIR spectroscopy brings specificity at the time of analyzing the kind of substitution that takes place because of the characteristics bands that help identify the added foreign meat material.
In this study, we used human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) as an in vitro model to compare the cytotoxic
activities of the venoms of two Macrovipera lebetina subspecies, M. l. obtusa from ...southern Anatolia and M. l. lebetina from
northern Cyprus. Well-established 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was
preferred to assess the cytotoxicity. Our results showed that venom reduced cell viability both in a time and dose-dependent
manner. The cytotoxic effect of M. l. lebetina venom on HUVEC is reported for the first time in the present study.
Ankaferd blood stopper (ABS) is a novel topical hemostatic agent of plant origin registered for the management of external hemorrhages, in Turkey. The ABS-induced formation of the protein network ...with vital erythroid aggregation covers the whole physiological hemostatic process. The aim of this study is to assess prohemostatic and antithrombin effects of ABS on the basis of functional proteomic analyses performed in ABS-treated plasma and serum samples based on the previous hypotheses about ABS action. For this purpose, serum and plasma proteins were separated by 2-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis, and proteins were identified using reference plasma gel on Swiss-2DPAGE database. Our results indicated that fibrinogen gamma chain and prothrombin levels just initially decreased first and thereafter enhanced following the ABS exposure. Dual effects of ABS on those critical hemostatic molecules seem to be associated with prohemostatic and antithrombin activities of the hemostatic agent.
Objective: Snake venoms are rich sources of bioactive molecules and have been investigated using various bioanalytical
methods. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a sensitive method ...that can be used to analyze biological samples.
The aim of this study is to apply the FTIR spectroscopy method for the characterization of snake venom.
Materials and Methods: The study characterized the lyophilized crude venoms of Macrovipera lebetina lebetina and
M. l. obtusa by FTIR spectroscopy coupled with attenuated total reflectance (ATR) method in the mid-infrared region and
compared the spectra between the two subspecies. The band area and intensity values were calculated for comparison and
wavenumbers were detected by automated peak picking. Additionally, the study analyzed the secondary structure of venom
proteins by using the second derivative spectra.
Results: The study detected fourteen major and minor peaks in absorbance spectra which were assigned to various
biomolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. Four major sub-bands were observed in the second
derivative spectra of Amide I-II region indicating different protein secondary structures. It was observed that there are some
quantitative differences and peak shifts between the spectra of venoms of two subspecies, indicating the alteration of
biomolecules.
Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of the FTIR-ATR spectroscopy method focusing
solely on the characterization of crude snake venoms in literature, accompanied with detailed peak assignment and protein
secondary structure analysis. As a preliminary reference study, the results showed the usefulness of FTIR-ATR spectroscopy for
the physicochemical characterization of lyophilized snake venom.
Turkey harbors a high diversity of viperid snakes, many with a high threat level on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, yet perception about even basic topics, such as ...distributions and conservation statuses, remain poor. We initiated a multi-year project 7 y ago to compensate these shortcomings and present herein dramatically improved information on the status of mountain vipers of central-eastern Anatolia (Asian Turkey): Bolkar Viper (Montivipera b. bulgardaghica), Albizona Viper (M. b. albizona), Wagner's Viper (M. wagneri), and partly Ottoman Viper (M. xanthina). The data originate from our fieldwork and a comprehensive search of all records available, including information from literature, online resources, locals, and herpetological experts. This resulted in 51 new localities, complemented by 36 published records, which were refined with new information, including four corrected/removed records and two records that were combined with new records due to their proximity. We summarized all records with precise information in a supplemented list of 85 localities, which is compared to current literature and the range maps available on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the global standard reference for consultation on range maps and conservation status of species. Consequently, we report on large range extension of > 100 km in all four mountain viper taxa, increase the extent of occurrence for each viper taxon 4-8 times, reduce the distribution gaps between all pairs of parapatric, related, and ecologically similar mountain vipers, and discuss taxa delimitation, putative contact zones and conservation aspects.
Alnıma yazılmış bir şey varsa: “Biyoloji/Zooloji benim için bir meslek değil, bir yaşam tarzıdır. Duygularım, yaklaşımlarım, tepkilerim, bu yaşam tarzının içinden çıkmadır. Öğrenmek istiyorsan ...tecrübe et! Doğa örnek alındığında hata yapma şansınız da yoktur!” Prof. Dr. Bayram Göçmen
Biz (ve dünyanın çeşitli yerlerinde kendisini tanıyan birçok insan) 22 Mart 2019'da vefat eden Prof. Dr. Bayram GÖÇMEN'i kaybetmekten büyük üzüntü duyuyoruz. Kendisi her zaman biyolojiye olan tutkusuyla, geride bıraktığı değerli eserlerle ve öğrencilerle hatırlanacaktır.
Protoiurus kraepelini is a scorpion species found in parts of Turkey and Greece. In this study, the peptide profile of its venom was determined for the first time. The electrophoretic profile of the ...crude venom showed a protein distribution from 2 to 130 kDa. MALDI-TOF MS analysis of the venom peptide fraction yielded 27 peptides between 1059 and 4623 Da in mass. Several ion channelblocking and antimicrobial peptides were identified by peptide mass fingerprinting analysis. Cytotoxic and antimicrobial effects of the venom were also demonstrated on Jurkat cells and Escherichia coli, respectively. As the first peptidomic characterization study on P. kraepelini venom, this report lays the foundation for detailed future studies that may lead to the discovery of novel bioactive peptides.
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