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Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and anticarcinogenic effects. Breeding rice varieties rich in flavonoids can prevent chronic diseases such as cancer and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. However, most of the genes reported are known to regulate flavonoid content in leaves or seedlings. To further elucidate the genetic basis of flavonoid content in rice grains and identify germplasm rich in flavonoids in grains, a set of rice core collections containing 633 accessions from 32 countries was used to determine total flavonoid content (TFC) in brown rice. We identified ten excellent germplasms with TFC exceeding 300 mg/100 g. Using a compressed mixed linear model, a total of 53 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected through a genome-wide association study (GWAS). By combining linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis, location of significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), gene expression, and haplotype analysis, eight candidate genes were identified from two important QTLs (qTFC1-6 and qTFC9-7), among which LOC_Os01g59440 and LOC_Os09g24260 are the most likely candidate genes. We also analyzed the geographic distribution and breeding utilization of favorable haplotypes of the two genes. Our findings provide insights into the genetic basis of TFC in brown rice and could facilitate the breeding of flavonoid-rich varieties, which may be a prevention and adjuvant treatment for cancer and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal and food homologous adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf) plays an important role in natural products promoting human health. We demonstrated the systematic actional mechanism of functional ingredients in adlay to promote human health, based on the PubMed, CNKI, Google, and ISI Web of Science databases from 1988 to 2022. Adlay and its extracts are rich in 30 ingredients with more than 20 health effects based on human and animal or cell cultures: they are anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-obesity, liver protective, anti-virus, gastroprotective, cardiovascular protective, anti-hypertension, heart disease preventive, melanogenesis inhibiting, anti-allergy, endocrine regulating, anti-diabetes, anti-cachexia, osteoporosis preventive, analgesic, neuroprotecting, suitable for the treatment of gout arthritis, life extending, anti-fungi, and detoxifying effects. Function components with anti-oxidants are rich in adlay. These results support the notion that adlay seeds may be one of the best functional foods and further reveal the action mechanism of six major functional ingredients (oils, polysaccharides, phenols, phytosterols, coixol, and resistant starch) for combating diseases. This review paper not only reveals the action mechanisms of adding adlay to the diet to overcome 17 human diseases, but also provides a scientific basis for the development of functional foods and drugs for the treatment of human diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antitumor activity of triptolide (TP) has received widespread attention, although its toxicity severely limits its clinical application. Therefore, the design of a targeted drug delivery system (TDDS) has important application prospects in tumor treatment. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), with high drug-carrying capacity and good biocompatibility, have aroused widespread interest for drug delivery systems. Herein, folic acid (FA) and 5-carboxylic acid fluorescein (5-FAM) were used to modify Fe-MIL-101 to construct a functionalized nano-platform (5-FAM/FA/TP@Fe-MIL-101) for the targeted delivery of the anti-tumor drug triptolide and realize in vivo fluorescence imaging. Compared with Fe-MIL-101, functionalized nanoparticles not only showed better targeted therapy efficiency, but also reduced the systemic toxicity of triptolide. In addition, the modification of 5-FAM facilitated fluorescence imaging of the tumor site and realized the construction of an integrated nano-platform for fluorescence imaging and treatment. Both in vitro and in vivo studies of functionalized nanoparticles have demonstrated excellent fluorescence imaging and synergistic targeting anticancer activity with negligible systemic toxicity. The development of functional nano-platform provides new ideas for the design of MOF-based multifunctional nano-drug delivery system, which can be used for precise treatment of tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for stomata- and yield-related attributes with high-density Illumina 90 K Infinium SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) array in bread wheat to determine genetic potential of germplasm for scarce water resources with sustainable yield potential. Major yield and stomata attributes were phenotyped on a panel of Pakistani and foreign accessions grown in non-stressed and water shortage environments during two seasons. Highly significant variations were shown among accessions in both conditions for examined characteristics. Water shortage conditions reduced the overall wheat yield and strong positive correlation existed among stomatal frequency, leaf venation and grain yield per plant. Population structure analyses based on 90,000 SNP data classified the accessions into four sub-populations which indicated the presence of genetic variability. Marker-trait association (MTA) analyses revealed that 422 significant SNPs at p ≤ 10−3, after crossing the false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05 threshold, were linked with examined attributes. Pleiotropic loci (wsnp_Ex_c8913_14881924 and Tdurum_contig10598_304) were associated with flag leaf area (FLA), stomata size (SS), stomata frequency (SF), leaf venation (LV), number of grain per spike (NGS) and grain yield per plant (GYP), which were located on chromosome 4B and 6B at the positions 173.63cM and 229.64cM, respectively, under water shortage conditions. Pleotropic loci wsnp_Ex_c24167_33416760, wsnp_Ex_c5412_9564046 and Tdurum_contig81797_369 on chromosomes 7A, 2A and 4B at the positions 148.26cM, 261.05cM and 173.63cM, respectively, were significantly linked with stomata and yield indices such as FLA, SS, SF, LV, NGS and GYP under normal and water shortage conditions. The current experiment not only validated several MTAs for studied indices reported in other studies but also discovered novel MTAs significant under water shortage environments. Associated and significant SNPs will be useful in discovering novel genes underpinning water shortage tolerance in bread wheat for producing high-yielding and drought tolerant wheat varieties to fulfill the wheat demand for growing populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system uses static points of the environment as features for real-time localization and mapping. When there are few available point features, the system is difficult to implement. A feasible solution is to introduce line features. In complex scenarios containing rich line segments, the description of line segments is not strongly differentiated, which can lead to incorrect association of line segment data, thus introducing errors into the system and aggravating the cumulative error of the system. To address this problem, a point-line stereo visual SLAM system incorporating semantic invariants is proposed in this paper. This system improves the accuracy of line feature matching by fusing line features with image semantic invariant information. When defining the error function, the semantic invariant is fused with the reprojection error function, and the semantic constraint is applied to reduce the cumulative error of the poses in the long-term tracking process. Experiments on the Office sequence of the TartanAir dataset and the KITTI dataset show that this system improves the matching accuracy of line features and suppresses the cumulative error of the SLAM system to some extent, and the mean relative pose error (RPE) is 1.38 and 0.0593 m, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decrease in water resources is a serious threat to food security world-wide. In this regard, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify grain yield and quality-related genes/loci under normal and water-deficit conditions. Highly significant differences were exhibited among genotypes under both conditions for all studied traits. Water-deficit stress caused a reduction in grains yield and an increase in grains protein contents (GPC) and gluten contents (GLC). Population structure divided the 96 genotypes into four sub-populations. Out of 72 significant marker-trait associations (MTAs), 28 and 44 were observed under normal and water-deficit stress conditions, respectively. Pleiotropic loci (RAC875_s117925_244, BobWhite_c23828_341 and wsnp_CAP8_c334_304253) for yield and quality traits were identified on chromosomes 5A, 6B and 7B, respectively, under normal conditions. Under a water-deficit condition, the pleiotropic loci (Excalibur_c48047_90, Tdurum_contig100702_265 and BobWhite_c19429_95) for grain yield per plant (GYP), GPC and GLC were identified on chromosomes 3A, 4A and 7B, respectively. The pleiotropic loci (BS00063551_51 and RAC875_c28721_290) for GPC and GLC on chromosome 1B and 3A, respectively, were found under both conditions. Besides the validation of previously reported MTAs, some new MTAs were identified for flag leaf area (FLA), thousand grain weight (TGW), GYP, GPC and GLC under normal and water-deficit conditions. Twenty SNPs associated with the traits were mapped in the coding DNA sequence (CDS) of the respective candidate genes. The protein functions of the identified candidate genes were predicted and discussed. Isolation and characterization of the candidate genes, wherein, SNPs were mapped in CDS will result in discovering novel genes underpinning water-deficit tolerance in bread wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperature stress severely hampers rice productivity, and hence elaborating chilling-mediated physiochemical alterations and unravelling cold tolerance pathways will facilitate cold resilient rice breeding. Various cold tolerant Near-isogenic lines (NILs) selected at the booting stage through backcrossing of a japonica landrace Lijing2 (cold tolerant) with cold sensitive Towada (a japonica cultivar). The cold tolerance attributes of NILs was validated over two years by evaluating the spikelet fertility followed by correlation of nineteen morphological traits with the rate of seed setting (RSS). Results revealed BG, FG, 1-2IL, RSLL, and UIL were significantly correlated with RSS and had nearer marker interval distance with cold tolerance in QTL analysis. Two QTLs, qCTB-7-a and qCTB-7-b, were found for RSS based on a mixed linear model. Alleles of two QTLs were contributed by Lijing2 and genetic distances between the peaks were 0.00 and 0.06cM, which explained 5.70% and 8.36% variation, respectively, One QTL for 1-2IL, RSLL, and ILBS, while two QTLs for FG, BG, and UIL were also identified. These findings can be exploited to engineer low temperature stress tolerant rice in times of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional ingredients in blueberry have the best health benefits. To obtain a better understanding of the health role of blueberry in chronic disease, we conducted systematic preventive strategies for functional ingredients in blueberry, based on comprehensive databases, especially PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and CNKI for the period 2008–2018. Blueberry is rich in flavonoids (mainly anthocyanidins), polyphenols (procyanidin), phenolic acids, pyruvic acid, chlorogenic acid, and others, which have anticancer, anti-obesity, prevent degenerative diseases, anti-inflammation, protective properties for vision and liver, prevent heart diseases, antidiabetes, improve brain function, protective lung properties, strong bones, enhance immunity, prevent cardiovascular diseases, and improve cognitive decline. The anthocyanins and polyphenols in blueberry are major functional ingredients for preventive chronic disease. These results support findings that blueberry may be one of the best functional fruits, and further reveals the mechanisms of anthocyanins and polyphenols in the health role of blueberry for chronic disease. This paper may be used as scientific evidence for developing functional foods, nutraceuticals, and novel drugs of blueberry for preventive chronic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional therapy, for example through beer, is the best solution to human chronic diseases. In this article, we demonstrate the physiological mechanisms of the functional ingredients in beer with health-promoting effects, based on the PubMed, Google, CNKI, and ISI Web of Science databases, published from 1997 to 2024. Beer, a complex of barley malt and hops, is rich in functional ingredients. The health effects of beer against 26 chronic diseases are highly similar to those of barley due to the physiological mechanisms of polyphenols (phenolic acids, flavonoids), melatonin, minerals, bitter acids, vitamins, and peptides. Functional beer with low purine and high active ingredients made from pure barley malt, as well as an additional functional food, represents an important development direction, specifically, ginger beer, ginseng beer, and coix-lily beer, as consumed by our ancestors ca. 9000 years ago. Low-purine beer can be produced via enzymatic and biological degradation and adsorption of purines, as well as dandelion addition. Therefore, this review paper not only reveals the physiological mechanisms of beer in overcoming chronic human diseases, but also provides a scientific basis for the development of functional beer with health-promoting effects.