Black soybean (Glycine max L.) has been used as a traditional medicine because its seed coat contains various natural phenolic compounds such as anthocyanins. The objective of this study was to reveal the genetic variation in the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of 172 Korean black soybean landraces (KBSLs) and establish a relationship among them. The evaluation of three agricultural traits (days to 50% flowering, maturity, and 100-seed weight), six phytochemicals (delphinidin-3-glucoside, cyaniding-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, daidzin, glycitin, and genestin), and four antioxidant activities (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)(ABTS), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and the total polyphenol content (TPC) of 172 KBSLs were analyzed in 2012 and 2015. The agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activities of the 172 KBSLs showed wide variation among the accessions and years. In correlation analysis, the agricultural traits and phytochemicals showed positive and negative correlations with phytochemicals and antioxidant activity, respectively. The principal component analyses result indicated that phytochemicals accounted for most of the variability in the KBSLs. In clustering analysis, the 172 KBSLs were classified into four clusters. These results could lead to expanding the knowledge of the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of the KBSLs, which are valuable materials for the development of new soybean varieties.

Amaranthus species are widely used as grain and leaf vegetables around the world and are potential dietary sources of antioxidants and phenolic compounds. In this study, we examined the variation in total flavonoid contents, total polyphenol contents, and antioxidant activities among 120 accessions of nine Amaranthus species. The antioxidant activity of DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) of the 120 amaranth accessions ranged from 1.1 (A. tricolor) to 75.2 (A. tricolor mg ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE)/g in 2018, and 8.5 (A. tricolor) to 68.8 (A. dubius) mg AAE/g in 2019. ABTS (2,2′-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline 6-sulfonate)) antioxidant activity ranged from 16.7 (A. tricolor) to 78.3 (A. hypochondriacus) mg AAE/g in 2018, and 36.6 (A. tricolor) to 79.2 (A. dubius) mg AAE/g in 2019. Total flavonoid content (TFC) of 2018 and 2019 ranged from 21.7 (A. caudatus) to 52.7 (A. hybridus) and from 22.3 (A. viridis) to 54.7 (A. tricolor), respectively Antioxidant activities were compared using two methods and all components were measured in plants grown both in 2018 and 2019. We identified wide variation among the accessions and between plants grown in the two years. Antioxidant activities and phytochemical contents were consistently negatively correlated. The nine species and 120 accessions clustered into three groups according to their antioxidant activities, total flavonoid contents, and total polyphenol contents in each year. These results provide information about the nutritional profiles of different Amaranthus species.

An optimal use of organic composts derived from animal and food wastes could provide an opportunity to achieve both sustainable crop production and soil quality, and a lot of research has provided the evidence. The nitrogen use efficiencies (NUEs) is a definition to evaluate the interaction between crop and nitrogen (N), and, due to this reason, widely used in agriculture. The current work tried to evaluate NUEs as an indicator of N acquisition capacity and physiological responses of rice grown under varying N levels. To do this, we employed different types and rates of nitrogen source, chemical fertilizer, livestock manure-based compost and food waste and livestock manure-containing compost. Despite of the enhanced rice growth and yield by fertilization, a difference by types and rates of fertilization was not observed. Net photosynthetic rate was significantly higher in the treatments of 90–317 N kg ha^-1. The NUE (N uptake efficiency × N utilization efficiency) was the highest in lower N application groups, and sharply reduced with an increase in fertilization rates. In contrast, the nitrogen harvest index (NHI, grain N/total biomass N, kg kg^-1) showed higher (0.71– 0.76 kg kg^-1) in greater N application treatments (≤ 317 N kg ha^-1). Accordingly, in terms of NUE, our result suggest that rice may be affordable of the application of less than 300 kg N ha^-1 (combination with chemical fertilizer and organic compost). Nevertheless, it should be investigated how excess N application affects soil quality, and how long rice plant and soil can accept excess N without an environmental load.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract on free fatty acid (FFA)-induced hepatic insulin resistance. FFA treatment decreased glucose uptake by 16.2% compared with that in the control, whereas taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract increased the glucose uptake. Additionally, taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract increased the expression of p-PI3K, p-IRS1, p-AKT, p-AMPK, and p-ACC in FFA-induced hepatocytes. Furthermore, FFA treatment increased the expression of miR-195. However, compared with the FFA treatment, treatment with taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract decreased miR-195 expression in a dose-dependent manner. Taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract enhanced p-IRS1, p-PI3K, p-AMPK, p-AKT, and p-ACC expression by suppressing miR-195 levels in miR-195 mimic- or inhibitor-transfected cells. These results indicate that taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract attenuate insulin resistance by regulating miR-195 expression, which suggests that taxifolin and sorghum ethanol extract may be useful antidiabetic agents.

The white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is one of the most widely cultivated species of edible mushroom. Despite its economic importance, relatively little is known about the genetic diversity of this species. Illumina paired-end sequencing produced 43,871,558 clean reads and 69,174 contigs were generated from five offspring. These contigs were subsequently assembled into 57,594 unigenes. The unigenes were annotated with reference genome in which 6,559 unigenes were associated with clusters, indicating orthologous genes. Gene ontology classification assigned many unigenes. Based on genome data of the five offspring, 44 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed. The major allele frequency ranged from 0.42 to 0.92. The number of genotypes and the number of alleles ranged from 1 to 4, and from 2 to 4, respectively. The observed heterozygosity and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 1.00, and from 0.15 to 0.64, respectively. The polymorphic information content value ranged from 0.14 to 0.57. The genetic distances and UPGMA clustering discriminated offspring strains. The SSR markers developed in this study can be applied in polymorphism analyses of button mushroom and for cultivar discrimination.

Amaranth is a nutritionally valuable crop, as it contains phenolic acids and flavonoids, yielding diverse plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) like phytosterol, tocopherols, and carotenoids. This study explored the variations in the contents of seventeen polyphenolic compounds within the leaves of one hundred twenty Amaranthus accessions representing nine Amaranthus species. The investigation entailed the analysis of phenolic content across nine Amaranthus species, specifically A. hypochondriacus, A. cruentus, A. caudatus, A. tricolor, A. dubius, A. blitum, A. crispus, A. hybridus, and A. viridis, utilizing ultra performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (UPLC-PDA). The results revealed significant differences in polyphenolic compounds among accessions in which rutin content was predominant in all Amaranthus species in both 2018 and 2019. Among the nine Amaranthus species, the rutin content ranged from 95.72 ± 199.17 μg g⁻¹ (A. dubius) to 1485.09 ± 679.51 μg g⁻¹ (A. viridis) in 2018 and from 821.59 ± 709.95 μg g⁻¹ (A. tricolor) to 3166.52 ± 1317.38 μg g⁻¹ (A. hypochondriacus) in 2019. Correlation analysis revealed, significant positive correlations between rutin and kaempferol-3-O-β-rutinoside (r = 0.93), benzoic acid and ferulic acid (r = 0.76), and benzoic acid and kaempferol-3-O-β-rutinoside (r = 0.76), whereas gallic acid showed consistently negative correlations with each of the 16 phenolic compounds. Wide variations were identified among accessions and between plants grown in the two years. The nine species and one hundred twenty Amaranthus accessions were clustered into six groups based on their seventeen phenolic compounds in each year. These findings contribute to expanding our understanding of the phytochemical traits of accessions within nine Amaranthus species, which serve as valuable resources for Amaranthus component breeding and functional material development.