Background: In order to obtain biomaterials with controllable physicochemical properties, hybrid biomaterials composed of biocompatible biopolymers and ceramic nanoparticles have attracted interests. In this study, we prepared biopolymer/ceramic hybrids consisting of various natural biopolymers and layered double hydroxide (LDH) ceramic nanoparticles via an electrophoretic method. We studied the structures and controlled-release properties of these materials. Results and discussion: X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) showed that LDH nanoparticles were formed in a biopolymer hydrogel through electrophoretic reaction. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images showed that the ceramic nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed throughout the hydrogel matrix. An antioxidant agent (i.e., ferulic acid) was loaded onto agarose/LDH and gelatin/LDH hybrids, and the time-dependent release of ferulic acid was investigated via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for kinetic model fitting. Conclusions: Biopolymer/LDH hybrid materials that were prepared by electrophoretic method created a homogeneous composite of two components and possessed controllable drug release properties according to the type of biopolymer.

Onion (2n = 2x = 16) has been a nutritional, medicinal and economically valuable vegetable crop all over the world since ancient times. To accelerate the molecular breeding in onion, genetic linkage maps are prerequisite. However, construction of genetic linkage maps of onion remains relatively rudimentary due to a large genome (about 16.3 Gbp) as well as biennial life cycle, cross-pollinated nature, and high inbreeding depression. In this study, we constructed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genetic linkage map of onion in an F₂ segregating population derived from a cross between the doubled haploid line ‘16P118’ and inbred line ‘Sweet Green’ through genotyping by sequencing (GBS). A total of 207.3 Gbp of raw sequences were generated using an Illumina HiSeq X system, and 24,341 SNPs were identified with the criteria based on three minimum depths, lower than 30% missing rate, and more than 5% minor allele frequency. As a result, an onion genetic linkage map consisting of 216 GBS-based SNPs were constructed comprising eight linkage groups spanning a genetic length of 827.0 cM. Furthermore, we identified the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the sucrose, glucose, fructose, and total sugar content across the onion genome. We identified a total of four QTLs associated with sucrose (qSC4.1), glucose (qGC5.1), fructose (qFC5.1), and total sugar content (qTSC5.1) explaining the phenotypic variation (R²%) ranging from 6.07–11.47%. This map and QTL information will contribute to develop the molecular markers to breed the cultivars with high sugar content in onion.

‘Bagdadagi’ cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruits with half light green skin and tiny white spines grown at greenhouse of the Cheonan-city in the middle part of Korea were harvested in October in 2013, and then stored at 0, 5, 10, 13 ℃, and room temperature for 25 days. Quality and sensory parameters such as CO2 production, weight loss, soluble solids contents, firmness, skin color, yellowing index, overall quality were evaluated during storage. The fruits stored under low temperatures showed the reduced weight loss as well as CO2 production compared with fruits stored in room temperature. But, The fruits stored at 0, 5 ℃ showed high increase of CO2 production after 2 days transfer to room temperature. Soluble solids contents, firmness showed the smallest changes in fruits at all treatments during storage. Chilling injury symptom of watery surface pitting was found in fruits stored at 0 and 5 ℃ and decay after transfer to room temperature. Yellowing was severe in fruits stored at 13 ℃ and room temperature. From the results, storage of at 10℃ was selected as an optimal temperature of ‘Bagdadagi’ cucumber for maintaining storage life up to 20 days.