Maize is the most important crop around the world and it is highly sensitive to abiotic stress caused by drought, excessive salinity, and extreme temperature. In plants, trehalose has been widely studied for its role in plant adaptation to different abiotic stresses such as drought, high and low temperature, and osmotic stress. Thus, the aim of this work was to clone and characterize at molecular level the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) genes from maize and to evaluate its differential expression in maize seedlings under drought stress. To carry out this, resistant and susceptible maize lines were subjected to drought stress during 72 h. Two full-length cDNAs of TPS and one of TPP were cloned and sequenced. Then, TPS and TPP amino acid sequences were aligned with their homologs from different species, showing highly conserved domains and the same catalytic sites. Relative expression of both genes was evaluated by RT-qPCR at different time points. The expression pattern showed significant induction after 0.5 h in resistant lines and after two to four hours in susceptible plants, showing their participation in drought stress response.

The current study was conducted to evaluate the dietary supplementation of Mexican oregano essential oil (MOO; Lippiaberlandieri Schauer) on broiler performance, carcass variables, meat quality, and sensory evaluation. One-day-old mixed-sex broilers were distributed in the following treatment groups, according to MOO supplementation levels: 0 = control diet; 200 = diet + 2200 mg of MOO/kg; 400 = diet + 4200 mg of MOO/kg; 600 = diet + 6200 mg of MOO/kg; 800 = diet + 8200 mg of MOO/kg; 1000 = diet + 1000 mg of MOO/kg. MOO affected (p<0.05) body weight, feed and water intake, and feed conversion ratio. The 200 and 400 mg/kg formulations gave better results at 7, 14 and 28 d than the other diets. MOO at 1000 mg/kg increased (p<0.05) slaughter weight and hot carcass yield, and decreased meat pH and cooking loss. The 200 and 400 treatments increased breast meat redness (a*), but reduced yellowness (b*). Meat hardness, cohesiveness and resilience were affected (p<0.05) by MOO, but not (p>0.05) the sensory parameters evaluated. Mexican oregano oil presents positive qualities as a plant-derived performance enhancer in broiler diets and improves of the meat quality of broilers at the levels of 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg of diet.

The effect of laccase from Trametes maxima CU1 on physicochemical quality of bread was evaluated. Laccase treatment was 0.05% lower than the control in height, 0.33% higher in weight loss and reduced 17.71% the hardness of bread. In color, treatment with laccase was 18.72, 8.51 and 0.61% higher in L^*, h, and C^*, respectively. Chemical parameters of laccase treatment 12.00, 14.10 and 41.62% were higher than control in soluble arabinoxylans, protein and total phenols content, respectively. Based on the results obtained in the present study, laccase from T. maxima CU1 can be considered a good option for extraction and application as improver of the physicochemical quality of bread at industrial level.