Germination was investigated as a bioprocess for enhancing the digestibility and bioactivity of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). Pigeon seeds were germinated 0, 4, 24 48 h. Electrophoresis revealed that 7S vicilin subunits most abundant proteins in control seeds. FTIR showed loss β sheet gain α-helix contents, microscopy cell wall degradation decreased seed protein yield due to partial hydrolysis pr...

ABSTRACT This study examined protein induction and accumulation during imbibition and germination of corn kernels, as well as antifungal activities of extracts from germinating kernels against Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium moniliforme. Genotypes studied included GT-MAS:gk and Mp420, which are resistant to A. flavus infection and aflatoxin accumulation, and Pioneer 3154 and Deltapine G-4666, w...

Unless periodically grown from germinated spores, Clostridium acetobutylicum tends to degenerate (that is, to spontaneously lose the capacity both to produce solvents and to develop into spores). To obtain mutants that are deficient in degeneration, C. acetobutylicum NCIMB 8052 was mated with Enterococcus faecalis BM4110 harboring transposon Tn1545. We developed a degeneration resistance assay ...

Homologous recombination has been extensively studied in bacteria, yeast, and more recently in animal cells, but little is known about this process in plants. We present here an analysis of meiotic and somatic chromosomal recombination between closely linked inverted duplications located on a single chromosomal region in tobacco. Transgenic tobacco lines were constructed by Agrobacterium transf...

The chloroplast is the most prominent and metabolically active plastid in photosynthetic plants. Chloroplasts differentiate from proplastids in the plant meristem. Plant plastids contain multiple copies of a small circular genome. The numbers of chloroplasts per mesophyll cell and of plastid genome copies are affected by developmental stage and environmental signals. We compared chloroplast str...

Prosopis chilensis, also named Chilean algarrobo, is a leguminous tree, described as highly tolerant to heat shock, water deficit, salinity and injury stress. The objective of this research was to investigate the germination and growth responses of seeds, seedlings and young plants of P. chilensis under increasing concentrations of N a Cl. Six groups of P. chilensis seeds were germinated. One g...

BACKGROUND Phytoestrogens are increasingly becoming popular as alternatives for hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal condition. OBJECTIVE In this study, the antihyperlipidemic effect of chickpea (Cicer arientum) sprouts was evaluated in ovariectomy-induced dyslipidemia in rat model in comparison with standard antihyperlipidemic agent atorvastatin. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 2...

Prestorage heat treatment appears to be a promising method of postharvest control of decay. Heat treatments against pathogens may be applied to fresh harvested commodities by hot water dips, by vapour heat, by hot dry air or by a very short hot water rinse and brushing. Heat treatments have a direct effect slowing germ tube elongation or of inactivating or outright killing germinating spores, t...

The combination of robust physiological models with "omics" studies holds promise for the discovery of genes and pathways linked to how organisms deal with drying. Here we used a transcriptomics approach in combination with an in vivo physiological model of re-establishment of desiccation tolerance (DT) in Arabidopsis thaliana seeds. We show that the incubation of desiccation sensitive (DS) ger...