The aim of this study was to evaluate probiotic properties of ten
Streptococcus thermophilus
strains (st1 to st10) isolated from pickles in China. These strains all had β-galactosidase activity, ...which laid foundation for studying their probiotic properties. In this study, the bile salt hydrolase activity, lysozyme resistance, tolerance to simulated gastric juice, bile salt tolerance, and bacterial adhesion capacity to the Caco-2 cells of these selected strains were detected in vitro conditions. The results indicated that the bile salt hydrolase activities of st2, st6, and st9 were higher than that for other strains. St10 showed the greatest lysozyme resistance (> 80% survival), followed by st9, st8, st7, st5, and st6. As for the tolerance to simulated gastric juice, st5 possessed the highest survival rate (35%), followed by st6 (30%). St6 was the best performer in both bile salt tolerance and bacterial adhesion capacity to the Caco-2 cells. The results of fluorescence microscope and electron microscope further confirmed previous studies and more intuitively demonstrated the st6 strain's tolerance to harsh environments. Overall, these strains were expected to possess beneficial properties and have the potentiality to be probiotics.
Oenococcus oeni
can exert its function in hostile wine conditions during the malolactic fermentation process. Therefore, it is an important microbial resource for exploring resistance genes. Hsp20 is ...an important small heat shock protein from
O. oeni
. The conserved consensus motif “A-x-x-x-x-G-x-L” of Hsp20 announced its role as a member of the small heat shock protein family. The
hsp20
gene from
O. oeni
SD-2a was cloned to create the recombinant plasmid pTriEx-Hsp20. The recombinant plasmid was transformed into
Escherichia coli
BL21(DE3) competent cells, and the Hsp20 protein was induced by isopropyl-β-
d
-thiogalactoside (IPTG). The
hsp20
gene from
O. oeni
SD-2a was successfully expressed, and a 20-kDa fusion protein was identified by SDS-PAGE. The purified Hsp20 protein was obtained using Ni-affinity chromatography. Additionally, BL21(DE3)/Hsp20 and BL21(DE3)/Ctrl were treated at high temperatures of 42 and 52 °C, at pH values of 2.0–12.0, under oxidative shock with 0.1% (v/v) and 0.2% (v/v) H
2
O
2
, and under an osmotic shock of 430 and 860 mM NaCl to compare the effects of heterologous expression of the Hsp20 protein from
O. oeni
SD-2a for stress resistance. Notably, Hsp20 overexpression showed enhanced resistance than the control strain did when confronted with different elevated stress conditions. The results demonstrated heterologous expression of the
hsp20
gene from
O. oeni
SD-2a significantly improved the resistance of the host
E. coli
bacteria against stress conditions.
Aroma compounds in fruits and related products are known to occur in free and glycosidically bound forms. In this study, free and bound volatiles in juices and wines of two kiwifruit cultivars,
...Actinidia deliciosa
‘Hayward’ and
A. chinensis
‘Hort16A’, were analyzed by solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results showed that 67 free and 79 bound volatiles were found in juices and wines. Alcohols were the most abundant free volatiles, while the most representative bound volatiles were terpenoids.
β-
Damascenone and 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one released from aroma precursors were found in ‘Hort16A’ juice for the first time. Fruity, floral, and sweet flavors appeared to be the characteristic aroma in kiwifruit juices and wines. Principal component analysis showed that kiwifruit wines had a great aroma potential. Cluster analysis revealed that juices and wines had different profile of free volatiles, while similar bound volatile compositions were found. Moreover, abundant bound volatiles were discovered in these two kiwifruit pomace for the first time, indicating their potential applications in food and cosmetics industry.
Deep learning, or artificial neural networks, is a type of machine learning algorithm that can decipher underlying relationships from large volumes of data and has been successfully applied to solve ...structural biology questions, such as RNA structure. RNA can fold into complex RNA structures by forming hydrogen bonds, thereby playing an essential role in biological processes. While experimental effort has enabled resolving RNA structure at the genome-wide scale, deep learning has been more recently introduced for studying RNA structure and its functionality. Here, we discuss successful applications of deep learning to solve RNA problems, including predictions of RNA structures, non-canonical G-quadruplex, RNA-protein interactions and RNA switches. Following these cases, we give a general guide to deep learning for solving RNA structure problems.
RNA G-quadruplex (rG4) is a vital RNA tertiary structure motif that involves the base pairs on both Hoogsteen and Watson-Crick faces of guanines. rG4 is of great importance in the ...post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Experimental technologies have advanced to identify in vitro and in vivo rG4s across diverse transcriptomes. Building on these recent advances, here we present G4Atlas, the first transcriptome-wide G-quadruplex database, in which we have collated, classified, and visualized transcriptome rG4 experimental data, generated from rG4-seq, chemical profiling and ligand-binding methods. Our comprehensive database includes transcriptome-wide rG4s generated from 82 experimental treatments and 238 samples across ten species. In addition, we have also included RNA secondary structure prediction information across both experimentally identified and unidentified rG4s to enable users to display any potential competitive folding between rG4 and RNA secondary structures. As such, G4Atlas will enable users to explore the general functions of rG4s in diverse biological processes. In addition, G4Atlas lays the foundation for further data-driven deep learning algorithms to examine rG4 structural features.
•Glutathione-enriched inactive dry yeast (g-IDY) improved the amino acid of kiwi wine.•Addition of g-IDY modified the profile of volatile components of kiwi wine.•Amino acids in kiwi wine can reflect ...the volatile compositions of kiwi wine.•E-nose had good ability to predict the concentration of esters.•Application of g-IDY had better effect on kiwi wine fermented without pomace.
Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) regression were applied to investigate the effect of glutathione-enriched inactive dry yeast (g-IDY) on the amino acids and volatile components of kiwi wine. Results indicated that the addition of g-IDY had positive effect on most amino acids of kiwi wine, especially glutamine and glycine. In case of pure juice fermentation, the concentrations of ethyl decanoate, 2-methylbutyric acid, trans-2-nonenal and hexyl butyrate had notably positive correlation with the addition of g-IDY. PLS regression indicated that the amino acids were highly interrelated to the volatile compositions, and glycine had the strongest positive impact on the concentrations of esters and total volatile components. This might explain the similar effect of g-IDY on the amino acids and volatile components of kiwi wine. Besides, PLS regression showed that E-nose was a good method to predict volatile compositions of kiwi wine, especially esters.
•Glutathione (GSH) can protect certain mono-phenols and reduce the color index of apple wine.•GSH changed the profile of mono-phenols.•GSH acted as a modifier of volatile aromas.•Apple wine with ...different GSH additions could be distinguished by e-nose.
To investigate the effect of reduced glutathione (GSH) on the quality characteristics of apple wine, 10, 20 and 30 mg/L of GSH were added to apple juice before alcoholic fermentation. Meanwhile, apple wine fermented by Saccharomyces cerevisiae which had been pre-incubated with GSH (100 mg/L) was another experimental group. Mono-phenols, GSH and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) were determined by HPLC. Aroma compounds were analysed by GC–MS. Further, E-nose was applied to monitor the odor. After fermentation, GSH content was the same in all of the samples. However, for the apple wine with GSH addition, GSSG content increased significantly. Notably, GSH could reduce the color index, protect chlorogenic acid and phloretin, decrease the content of epicatechin and catechin as well as change the profile of aroma compounds (higher levels of 2-methyl-1-propanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, ethyl benzoate, linalool, etc.). GSH may be used for flavor enhancement and quality improvement of apple wine.
Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for human health and animal nutrition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory activities of Se-enriched lactic acid bacteria (LAB), ...Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, against pathogenic Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes in vitro. The results indicated that the accumulation amount of Se by Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus reached 12.05 ± 0.43 µg/mL and 11.56 ± 0.25 µg/mL, respectively, accompanied by the relative maximum living cells when sodium selenite was 80 µg/mL. Oxford cup double plate assay showed that bacterial culture solution and cell-free culture supernatant (CFCS) from Se-enriched LAB exerted stronger antibacterial activity than those from the non-Se strains. The growth of pathogenic bacterial culture with CFCS at any growth stages was worse than that without CFCS; moreover, the inhibiting effect of CFCS of Se-enriched LAB was more significant than that of non-Se strains. Results from a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersion X-ray spectrometry showed that elemental Se nanoparticles, which characteristically energy peak around 1.42 keV, were deposited on the cell surfaces of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus. In addition, CFCS of Se-enriched LAB induced more serious cell structure damage of pathogenic bacteria than did non-Se LAB.
•The 35 β-glucosidases in O. oeni were basically derived from GH1 and GH3 family.•The 35 β-glucosidases in O. oeni can be divided into three categories.•Ethanol had a great promotion effect on the ...enzyme activity of BGL0224.•BGL0224 shown good enzymatic properties and catalytic effect on p-NPG.
β-Glucosidases play an important role in food industry. Oenococcus oeni are typical lactic acid bacteria that initiate malolactic fermentation of wines. 35 β-glucosidases from O. oeni were selected and their conserved domains and evolutionary relationships were further explored in this study. The homology analysis results indicated that 35 β-glucosidases were basically derived from GH1 and GH3 family. A novel β-glucosidase was successfully expressed and characterized. The recombinant protein, referred to as BGL0224, consisted of a total 480 amino acids with an apparent molecular weight of 55.15 kDa and was classified as GH1 family. It achieved the highest activity at pH 5.0 and 50 °C. The activity and stability were significantly increased when 12% ethanol was supplemented to the enzyme. Using p-NPG as substrate, the Km, Vmax and Kcat of BGL0224 were 0.34 mM, 382.81 U/mg and 351.88 s−1, respectively. In all, BGL0224 has good application prospects in food industry.
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