The role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cancer cells is not limited to angiogenesis; there are also multiple factors, such as neuropilins (non-tyrosine kinases receptors), tyrosine kinases receptors, immunodeficiencies, and integrins, that interact with VEGF signaling and cause cancer initiation. By combating these factors, tumor progression can be inhibited or limited. Natural products are sources of several bioactive phytochemicals that can interact with VEGF-promoting factors and inhibit them through various signaling pathways, thereby inhibiting cancer growth. This review provides a deeper understanding of the relation and interaction of VEGF with cancer-promoting factors and phytochemicals in order to develop multi-targeted cancer prevention and treatment.

Truffles, the symbiotic hypogeous edible fungi, have been worldwide regarded as a great delicacy because of their unique flavor and high nutritional value. By identifying their bioactive components such as phenolics, terpenoids, polysaccharides, anandamide, fatty acids, and ergosterols, researchers have paid attention to their biological activities including antitumor, antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective activities. In addition, numerous factors have been investigating that can affect the quality and productivity of truffles to overcome their difficulty in culturing and preserving. To provide the information for their potential applications in medicine as well as in functional food, this review summarizes the relevant literature about the biochemical composition, aromatic and nutritional benefits, and biological properties of truffles. Besides, various factors affecting their productivity and quality as well as the preservation methods are also highlighted.

High-throughput sequencing technologies (HSTs) have revolutionized crop breeding. The advent of these technologies has enabled the identification of beneficial quantitative trait loci (QTL), genes, and alleles for crop improvement. Climate change have made a significant effect on the global maize yield. To date, the well-known omic approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are being incorporated in maize breeding studies. These approaches have identified novel biological markers that are being utilized for maize improvement against various abiotic stresses. This review discusses the current information on the morpho-physiological and molecular mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance in maize. The utilization of omics approaches to improve abiotic stress tolerance in maize is highlighted. As compared to single approach, the integration of multi-omics offers a great potential in addressing the challenges of abiotic stresses of maize productivity.

In this study, eight inbred maize lines with high or low tolerance to cold temperature were investigated using bulk segregant analysis (BSA). Genetic diversity and genetic relationships were investigated using 100 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers linked to cold tolerance in maize. A total of 319 alleles were identified. Among these, 128 were high coldtolerant-specific alleles and 61 were poorly coldtolerant-specific alleles, while the remaining 130 were shared between the two types. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 5, with an average of 3.19. The major allele frequency varied from 0.39 to 0.53 with an average of 0.47. The average gene diversity and polymorphic information content among all lines were 0.63 and 0.58, respectively. A dendrogram analysis identified three main clusters and most of the high tolerant inbred lines were clearly distinguished from the poorly tolerant inbred lines. In addition to the BSA, a total of 84 SSR markers were identified as high cold tolerance-specific alleles and 52 SSRs were detected as poorly cold tolerance-specific alleles. Of these, bnlg1273, umc1124, dupssr21, mmc0251, mmc0181, and phi041 have great potential for being molecular markers for cold tolerance in maize. Our results were in agreement with results previously reported for SSR markers linked with cold tolerance in maize. The identification and characterization of high and poorly cold tolerant maize lines based on SSR markers will be useful for future maize breeding studies.