The present study was to prepare chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) from chitosan (CS) to evaluate their in vitro antimicrobial activities against phytopathogens of tomato. We prepared and characterized CNPs for their particle size, polydispersity index, and structures. The antifungal properties of CS and CNPs against phytopathogenic fungi namely Colletotrichum gelosporidies, Phytophthora capsici, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Fusarium oxysporum, Gibberella fujikuori were investigated. CNPs showed the maximum growth inhibitory effects on mycelial growth of F. oxysporum followed by P. capsici. We also studied antibacterial activities against phytopathogenic bacteria, such as three strains of Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora and one strain of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria. Our results showed that both CS and CNPs markedly inhibited the growth of the both Xanthomonas and Erwinia strains. From our study, it is evident that both CS and CNPs have tremendous potential against phytopathogens of tomato for further field screening towards crop protection.

Carotenoids are well known for their potent antioxidant function in the cellular system. However, in cancer cells with an innately high level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), carotenoids may act as potent pro-oxidant molecules and trigger ROS-mediated apoptosis. In recent years, the pro-oxidant function of several common dietary carotenoids, including astaxanthin, β-carotene, fucoxanthin, and lycopene, has been investigated for their effective killing effects on various cancer cell lines. Besides, when carotenoids are delivered with ROS-inducing cytotoxic drugs (e.g., anthracyclines), they can minimize the adverse effects of these drugs on normal cells by acting as antioxidants without interfering with their cytotoxic effects on cancer cells as pro-oxidants. These dynamic actions of carotenoids can optimize oxidative stress in normal cells while enhancing oxidative stress in cancer cells. This review discusses possible mechanisms of carotenoid-triggered ROS production in cancer cells, the activation of pro-apoptotic signaling by ROS, and apoptotic cell death. Moreover, synergistic actions of carotenoids with ROS-inducing anti-cancer drugs are discussed, and research gaps are suggested.

Insects and animals can recognize surrounding environments by detecting thousands of chemical odorants. Olfaction is a complicated process that begins in the olfactory epithelium with the specific binding of volatile odorant molecules to dedicated olfactory receptors (ORs). OR proteins are encoded by the largest gene superfamily in the mammalian genome. We report here the whole genome analysis of the olfactory receptor genes of S. scrofa using conserved OR gene specific motifs and known OR protein sequences from diverse species. We identified 1,301 OR related sequences from the S. scrofa genome assembly, Sscrofa10.2, including 1,113 functional OR genes and 188 pseudogenes. OR genes were located in 46 different regions on 16 pig chromosomes. We classified the ORs into 17 families, three Class I and 14 Class II families, and further grouped them into 349 subfamilies. We also identified inter- and intra-chromosomal duplications of OR genes residing on 11 chromosomes. A significant number of pig OR genes (n = 212) showed less than 60% amino acid sequence similarity to known OR genes of other species. As the genome assembly Sscrofa10.2 covers 99.9% of the pig genome, our analysis represents an almost complete OR gene repertoire from an individual pig genome. We show that S. scrofa has one of the largest OR repertoires, suggesting an expansion of OR genes in the swine genome. A significant number of unique OR genes in the pig genome may suggest the presence of swine specific olfactory stimulation.

Extensive growth of microscopic algae and cyanobacteria results in harmful algal blooms (HABs) in marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. HABs can harm humans and animals through their toxicity or by producing ecological conditions such as oxygen depletion, which can kill fish and other economically or ecologically important organisms. This review summarizes the reports on various HABs that are able to bring about marine fish kills. The predominant HABs, their toxins, and their effects on fishes spread across various parts of the globe are discussed. The mechanism of HAB-driven fish kills is discussed based on the available reports, and existing mitigation methods are presented. Lapses in the large-scale implementation of mitigation methods demonstrated under laboratory conditions are projected. Clay-related technologies and nano-sorption-based nanotechnologies, although proven to make significant contributions, have not been put to use in real-world conditions. The gaps in the technology transfer of the accomplished mitigation prototypes are highlighted. Further uses of remote sensing and machine learning state-of-the-art techniques for the detection and identification of HABs are recommended.

Chitosan has become a highlighted polymer, gaining paramount importance and research attention. The fact that this valuable polymer can be extracted from food industry-generated shell waste gives it immense value. Chitosan, owing to its biological and physicochemical properties, has become an attractive option for biomedical applications. This review briefly runs through the various methods involved in the preparation of chitosan and chitosan nanoforms. For the first time, we consolidate the available scattered reports on the various attempts towards greens synthesis of chitosan, chitosan nanomaterials, and chitosan nanocomposites. The drug delivery applications of chitosan and its nanoforms have been reviewed. This review points to the lack of systematic research in the area of green synthesis of chitosan. Researchers have been concentrating more on recovering chitosan from marine shell waste through chemical and synthetic processes that generate toxic wastes, rather than working on eco-friendly green processes—this is projected in this review. This review draws the attention of researchers to turn to novel and innovative green processes. More so, there are scarce reports on the application of green synthesized chitosan nanoforms and nanocomposites towards drug delivery applications. This is another area that deserves research focus. These have been speculated and highlighted as future perspectives in this review.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of brown seaweed (Undaria pinnatifida) by-product and seaweed fusiforme (Hizikia fusiformis) by-product supplementation on growth performance and blood profiles including serum immunoglobulin (Ig) in broilers. Fermentation of seaweeds was conducted by Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus oryzae. In a 5-wk feeding trial, 750 one-d-old broiler chicks were divided into 5 groups, and were assigned to the control diet or experimental diets including control+0.5% brown seaweed (BS) by-product, control+0.5% seaweed fusiforme (SF) by-product, control+0.5% fermented brown seaweed (FBS) by-product, and control+0.5% fermented seaweed fusiforme (FSF) by-product. As a consequence, body weight gain (BWG) and gain:feed of seaweed by-product groups were clearly higher, when compared to those of control diet group from d 18 to 35 and the entire experimental period (p<0.05). In mortality rate, seaweed by-product groups were significantly lower when compared to control diet group during entire experimental period (p<0.05). However, Feed Intake of experimental diets group was not different from that of the control group during the entire experimental period. Whereas, Feed Intake of fermented seaweed by-product groups was lower than that of non-fermented seaweed groups (p<0.05). Total organ weights, lipids, and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) of all treatment groups were not different from those of control group. However, glutamic pyruvate transaminase (GPT) of all treatment groups was higher than that of control group at d 17 (p<0.05). In case of serum Igs concentration, the concentration of IgA antibody in BS, SF, FSF treatment groups was significantly higher than in control group at d 35 (p<0.01). IgA concentration in FBS supplementation groups was negligibly decreased when compared to the control group. IgM concentration in the serums of all treatment groups was significantly higher than in control group (p<0.05) and in fermented seaweed by-product groups were much higher than in non-fermented seaweed groups (p<0.05). On the other hand, IgG concentrations in all treatment groups were lower than in control group (p<0.05). Taken together, our results suggest that by-product dietary supplementation of BS, SF, FBS, and FSF in poultry may provide positive effects of growth performance and immune response.