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Yeast owes its brewing capacity to chromosome duplication

May 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 15 (ANI): Yeast cells’ ability to convert sugar to alcohol, the key process in the production of beer and wine, can be attributed to a remarkable evolutionary process— called chromosome duplication.

The genes that allow yeast to digest sugars in fruits and grains have been duplicated several times over the course of time – allowing for optimal conversion of different types of sugars (such as sucrose and maltose) into alcohol.

The duplications arose because the genes for sugar processing are situated close to the unstable margin of the chromosome.

The phenomenon appears not to be limited to alcohol production in yeast, but it forms an important principle in the evolution of living organisms.

The results are presented in a study by Kevin Verstrepen from K.U.Leuven and VIB, a life sciences institute in Flanders, Belgium, Andrew Murray from Harvard University, and Chris Brown, a joint student of Verstrepen and Murray.

Recent research, amongst others by VIB-scientists, showed that the duplication of existing genes can play a crucial role.

One copy can retain the original function of the gene while the new copy may develop a new function. This can sometimes be very different from the original gene.

In the new study, Chris Brown, a PhD student in Verstrepen´s lab, shows that some genes that are closely located in the ends of the chromosomes, are duplicated more often.

The ends of chromosomes, called subtelomeres, seem to function as evolutionary laboratories of our cells.

New genes are continuously developed and tested in these “gene nurseries”.

It appears that duplication at the subtelomeres already occurred in the ancestor of our industrial beer and wine yeasts- Modern strains of beer yeast contain five to ten copies of a prehistoric gene that allows for some sugars to be digested.

Each of these modern copies ensures that yeast can digest a particular sugar, and this is much faster than the prehistoric yeast.

The massive duplications occurred probably around the Cretaceous era (66 to 145 million years ago).

It was no coincidence that this involved the same period in which sweet fruits and grains developed.

The duplication of the genes and the further evolution thereof, allowed yeast cells to digest the different sugars in the fruits.

Thus, the subtelomeric “gene copying laboratory” ensured that yeasts were able to conquer a new niche.

Interestingly, it seems likely that similar subtelomeric gene duplication also stimulates evolution and adaptation in higher organisms, including humans.

The study has been published in the prominent journal Current Biology. (ANI)

Spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down

May 13, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 13 (ANI): Mary Poppins was right all along – a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down.

According to research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, infants who receive sweet solutions before being immunised experience less pain and are more comfortable.

Healthcare professionals should consider giving infants aged 1-12 months a sweet solution of sucrose or glucose before immunising a child, the international team of researchers recommended, because of the child”s improved reaction to injections.

Existing research shows the effectiveness of giving newborn infants and those beyond the newborn period, a small amount (e.g. a few drops to about half a teaspoon) of sucrose and glucose as analgesics during minor painful procedures.

Little is known, however, about the effect of such solutions on pain, so a team of researchers from Toronto in Canada, Melbourne in Australia and Sao Paulo in Brazil, funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Knowledge Synthesis grant, collected the findings from 14 relevant trials involving 1,674 injections given to children aged 1-12 months.

They found that giving a child a small amount of sweet solution, compared to water or no treatment moderately decreased crying in the child during or following immunisation in 13 of the 14 studies.

The authors conclude that infants aged 1-12 months given sucrose or glucose before immunisation had cried less often and for less time.

The amount of glucose or sucrose given made a difference and the researchers found that infants receiving 30 percent glucose in some trials were almost half as likely to cry following immunisation.

The researchers could not identify the ideal dose of sucrose or glucose because of the variety of volumes and concentrations used in the various trials.

Analgesic effects of sweet solutions given to older infants were more moderate than those in newborn infants.

They conclude: “Healthcare professionals responsible for administering immunisations should consider using sucrose or glucose during painful procedures.

“This information is important for healthcare professionals working with infants in both inpatient and out-patient settings, as sweet solutions are readily available, have a very short onset of time to analgesia, are inexpensive and are easy to administer.” (ANI)

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Cooperative factories must help in ensuring sugar availability: Pawar

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 10(ANI): Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday urged cooperative sugar factories to play a more pro-active role and shoulder the responsibility of importing more raw sugar, not only for better utilization of their processing capacity, but also to fulfill their obligation of providing adequate and affordable sugar to the nation.

Addressing the 50th Annual Meeting of the General Body of National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd. here, Pawar said the government has already taken steps to assist sugar factories to further help sugarcane farmers to improve productivity as well as sucrose content in sugarcane by way of soft loans at four per cent per annum from SDF.

Pawar said that in view of the significant drop in sugarcane production, there isn’t for increasing sugarcane producing area immediately. The Central Government has also decided to give a one time short term loan assistance from SDF at four per cent per annum for the purchase of inputs like seed, fertilizers and pesticides.

“The loan given to the sugar factories has to be passed on to the farmers at not more than four per cent interest in cash or kind, before March 31, 2010,” Pawar added.

Pawar also requested the delegates to assess their individual capability and capacity to pay during 2009-10 sugar season and give remunerative price to the farmers, keeping in view the long term requirement of sugarcane.

This will encourage them to increase acreage under sugarcane as well as invest more in the sugarcane crop by way of inputs like fertilizers and pesticides, he added.

Pawar further requested the sugar factories to utilize modernization and expansion loans before investing in projects for utilizing the by-products.

The minister also talked about two important aspects -increased availability of sugarcane by way of improvement in productivity as well as recovery of sugar and controlling the cyclical nature of the sugarcane and sugar economy- which need to be addressed not only by the Government, but also by the sugar factories as well as the sugarcane farmers.

Stating that the country is reeling under pressure of high sugar prices along with lack of availability of sugar, not only in the domestic market, but also in the international market, Pawar discussed some unprecedented steps taken by the Government to supplement the domestic production of sugar and also ensure availability of sugar to the more vulnerable sections of the society.

He expressed hope that these steps would not only increase availability of sugar in the market within September, 2009, especially during the festival season, but also have a positive impact in controlling the sugar prices. (ANI)

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Here’s why sugar in green tea is a healthy idea

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 10 (ANI): A new study has shown that adding ascorbic acid and sugar to green tea can help the body easily absorb helpful compounds that help fight health problems.

Mario Ferruzzi, lead researcher and associate professor of food science and nutrition at Purdue University, insists that adding ascorbic acid to green tea would increase the absorbability of catechins found in the tea.

Catechins, a class of polyphenols common in tea, cocoa and grape, are antioxidants thought to fight heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other health problems.

Ascorbic acid, sucrose or both together increase by as much as three times the amount of catechins that can be absorbed into the bloodstream.

According to Ferruzzi, Elsa Janle, a Purdue associate research professor of foods and nutrition, and Catrina Peters, the new study also demonstrates the effectiveness of a model that could reduce the number of animals needed for these types of studies.

The model charts how the digestive stability, solubility and absorption of polyphenols changes based on modifications to a beverage’s formula.

Ferruzzi said testing with the model could allow researchers to predict how a new product formula might change the product’s properties, reducing the number of animals needed for testing to only products that showed desired characteristics in the model.

The study backed up the model study that showed adding sugar and vitamin C to green tea enhanced the body’s ability to absorb polyphenols.

Ferruzzi said that adding lemon juice or other citrus juice to tea would do the trick, or consumers could look for ready-to-drink products that contain 100 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin C or ascorbic acid on the ingredient list.

“Having that vitamin C seems to do it,” Ferruzzi said. “And if you don’t want to squeeze a lemon into your cup, just have a glass of juice with your green tea.”

The study appears in journal Food Research International. (ANI)

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Sensory ‘sweet-tooth’ to make ‘E-tongue’ more human-like

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 18 (ANI): Scientists in Illinois have given sweet-tooth a “sensory” makeover by developing a small, inexpensive, lab-on-a-chip sensor that quickly and accurately identifies sweetness – an advancement that provides a new approach to an effective “electronic tongue”.

The scientific breakthrough can identify with 100 percent accuracy the full sweep of natural and artificial sweet substances, including 14 common sweeteners, using easy-to-read color markers.

The sensory “sweet-tooth” shows special promise as a simple quality control test that food processors can use to ensure that soda pop, beer, and other beverages taste great, – with a consistent, predictable flavor.

The study has been described at the American Chemical Society’s 238th National Meeting.

The new sensor, which is about the size of a business card, can also identify sweeteners used in solid foods such as cakes, cookies, and chewing gum.

In the future, doctors and scientists could use modified versions of the sensor for a wide variety of other chemical-sensing applications ranging from monitoring blood glucose levels in people with diabetes to identifying toxic substances in the environment, the researchers say.

“We take things that smell or taste and convert their chemical properties into a visual image,” says study leader Kenneth Suslick, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“This is the first practical “electronic tongue” sensor that you can simply dip into a sample and identify the source of sweetness based on its color,” the researchers added.

The research team has spent a decade developing “colorimetric sensor arrays” that may fit the bill. The “lab-on-a-chip” consists of a tough, glass-like container with 16 to 36 tiny printed dye spots, each the diameter of a pencil lead. The chemicals in each spot react with sweet substances in a way that produces a color change. The colors vary with the type of sweetener present, and their intensity varies with the amount of sweetener.

The sensor identified 14 different natural and artificial sweeteners, including sucrose (table sugar), xylitol (used in sugarless chewing gum), sorbitol, aspartame, and saccharin with 100 percent accuracy in 80 different trials. (ANI)

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Europeans are world’s most sugar-sensitive people

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 27 (ANI): Sweet-toothed Europeans now have another reason to gorge on a few more pieces of chocolate cake, for they are among the most sugar-sensitive people in the world, concludes a new genetic analysis.

People in the UK, France, Italy and Russia have a tandem of genetic variations in a sugar-sensing gene, which makes them detect trace levels of sweetness.

Dennis Drayna, a geneticist at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in Bethesda, Maryland, said that all over the world, people living at northern latitudes carry these genetic variations at far higher frequencies than tropical-living peoples

For the study, the researchers presented 144 Europeans, Asians and Africans with nine solutions containing varying amounts of table sugar – sucrose – in amounts varying from 0 to 4 per cent.

“Four-per-cent sucrose is very sweet to everyone, and to me it’s intensely sweet. Imagine some cloyingly sweet desert,” New Scientist quoted Drayna as saying.

Volunteers arranged the solutions in order of their perceived sweetness numerous times.

Using this arrangement, the researchers calculated a sucrose sensitivity score for each person.

The researchers correlated the scores with variations in two sugar-sensing genes, TAS1R3 and TAS1R2, and found two variants just outside of the TAS1R3 gene that seemed to predict their volunteer’s scores.

However, this was puzzling because TAS1R2 is chock-full of single DNA letter differences between people.

In addition, research on bitter taste genes suggested that such mutations – which change the shape of the receptor – underlie these differences.

Drayna said that instead, the two variations near TAS1R3 probably determine how much of a receptor protein is produced by the taste buds.

Tests showed that the variations most common in Europeans crank up the expression of TAS1R3.

Although the gene variants were commonest in Europeans, they were also widespread in Japanese, Palestinian, Han Chinese and other Middle Eastern and Asian populations.

Low-sensitivity variations were most prevalent among the several different African populations examined by the team.

The study is published in Current Biology. (ANI)

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Now, easy-to-use meat seasoning to do away with mess of traditional marinade

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 2 (ANI): Students from Virginia Tech University have developed an easy-to-use seasoning which adds flavour to meat without the mess of traditional marinade.

Made from all natural ingredients, ‘Spice N Easy’ seasoning does not need to be refrigerated and has a long shelf life. It has been created in Cajun and Italian flavours.

Nuggets of flavour, which are easily inserted into the meat, dissolve during cooking, releasing their flavour. Spice n Easy can be used to roast, grill, and slow-cook chicken, beef, fish, and pork.

The research team had to go through a number of challenges with their idea of a meat seasoning that would dissolve during cooking.

“The first problem was how to make a marinade inflexible enough to be inserted into meat,” said team leader Denise Gardner of Reading, Pa., an FST master’s degree candidate.

During the study, sucrose and water were heated, spices were added, and the product was cooled and shaped.

In addition to binding the spices, the sucrose adds sweetness and preserves spice quality.

The researchers also experimented with raw materials, different shapes and sizes, cooling times, mould components, and packaging to create the gourmet seasoning.

“We’ve tested the product in chicken, beef, and pork and found that it worked well in numerous applications,” said Kevin Holland of Bradford., Pa., a co-leader and FST doctoral candidate.

The students also conducted a product safety study and prepared a plan for commercial scale production and a marketing plan. (ANI)

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Infertility drug may help drinkers stay sober

February 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, February 24 (ANI): A group of scientists say that alcoholism may be treated with the help of a drug that is prescribed for male and female infertility as well as menstrual disorders.

Researchers at the UCSF-affiliated Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center came to this conclusion after analysing the findings of a study, which showed that ‘alcoholic’ rodents, when injected with the drug cabergoline, decreased their alcohol consumption and alcohol-seeking behaviour and were less likely to relapse.

Cabergoline, which is marketed under the trade name Dostinex, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration in pill form to treat conditions caused by excess of the hormone prolactin.

Lead researcher Dr. Dorit Ron, an associate professor of neurology at UCSF, said that cabergoline did not impact the rats’ consumption of sucrose and, in a subgroup of binge-drinking mice, the drug did not appear to significantly affect intake of water or saccharin.

“This is encouraging because it demonstrates that cabergoline is specific for alcohol, but does not affect general reward or pleasure. One of the problems with some existing drugs to treat alcoholism is a side effect that decreases pleasure, making compliance an obstacle to sobriety,” she says.

She has revealed that her study builds on an earlier, provocative finding regarding the protein GDNF (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor), which her team had injected into rats’ VTA (ventral tegmental area) brain region, associated with drug-seeking behaviour.

She says that her team’s previous study showed that both heavy- and light-drinker rats lost at least some of their craving for alcohol upon being administered GDNF into their brains, and that the protein prevented the animals from relapsing after a period of abstinence.

She, however, adds that GDNF could not be used to treat alcoholic humans because its molecule is too large to cross the blood-brain barrier. n the present study, according to Ron, her team looked at cabergoline because it is one compound that has been shown in cells to increase the expression of GDNF.

For their study, she and her colleagues first trained some rats to press a lever to obtain alcohol.

The researchers observed that the rats injected with cabergoline were less likely to press the lever.

The higher the dose of cabergoline, the lower the number of lever presses reported.

Ron’s team also observed that cabergoline injections led to a reduction in alcohol consumption among binge-drinking mice.

She said that further study revealed that cabergoline was effective in reducing both craving for alcohol and relapse to drinking.

Although the results of the study offer fresh hope to problem drinkers, Ron cautions that human clinical trials are needed before cabergoline can be safely prescribed, considering the fact that its higher doses have been linked to heart valve problems.

Ron, however, is hopeful that cabergoline may eventually be prescribed for other addictions, for a pilot study on cocaine addicts has shown a substantial reduction in the drug’s use.

A research article on these findings has been published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. (ANI)

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