Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a primary food that is widely consumed throughout the world, especially in Asian countries. The two main subspecies of rice are japonica and indica which are different in physical characteristics. In general, both indica and japonica rice consist of three types of grain colors, namely white, red, and black. Furthermore, rice and rice by-products contain secondary metabolites such as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and tocopherols that have bioactivities such as antioxidants, antimicrobial, cancer chemopreventive, antidiabetic, and hypolipidemic agents. The existence of health benefits in rice bran, especially as antioxidants, gives rice bran the opportunity to be used as a functional food. Most of the bioactive compounds in plants are found in bound form with cell wall components such as cellulose and lignin. The process of releasing bonds between bioactive components and cell wall components in rice bran can increase the antioxidant capacity. Fermentation and treatment with enzymes were able to increase the total phenolic content, total flavonoids, tocotrienols, tocopherols, and γ-oryzanol in rice bran.

Starch is a polymeric carbohydrate composed of glucose. As a source of energy, starch can be degraded by various amylolytic enzymes, including α-amylase. In a large-scale industry, starch processing cost is still expensive due to the requirement of high temperature during the gelatinization step. Therefore, α-amylase with raw starch digesting ability could decrease the energy cost by avoiding the high gelatinization temperature. It is known that the carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) and the surface-binding site (SBS) of α-amylase could facilitate the substrate binding to the enzyme’s active site to enhance the starch digestion. These sites are a noncatalytic module, which could interact with a lengthy substrate such as insoluble starch. The major interaction between these sites and the substrate is the CH/pi-stacking interaction with the glucose ring. Several mutation studies on the Halothermothrix orenii, SusG Bacteroides thetaiotamicron, Barley, Aspergillus niger, and Saccharomycopsis fibuligera α-amylases have revealed that the stacking interaction through the aromatic residues at the SBS is essential to the starch adsorption. In this review, the SBS in various α-amylases is also presented. Therefore, based on the structural point of view, SBS is suggested as an essential site in α-amylase to increase its catalytic activity, especially towards the insoluble starch.

Background and aims – The present study aims to describe a new species of pennate blue diatom from the genus Haslea, H. nusantara sp. nov., collected from Semak Daun Island, the Seribu Archipelago, in Indonesian marine waters. Methods – Assessment for species identification was conducted using light microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and molecular techniques. The morphological characteristics of H. nusantara have been described, illustrated and compared to other morphologically similar blue Haslea taxa, distributed worldwide. Additionally, molecular characterization was achieved by sequencing plastidial and mitochondrial genomes. Key results – This new species, named Haslea nusantara, cannot be discriminated by its morphology (stria density) but it is characterized by its gene sequences (rbcL chloroplast gene and cox1 mitochondrial gene). Moreover, it differentiates from other blue Haslea species by the presence of a thin central bar, which has been previously reported in non-blue species like H. pseudostrearia. The complete mitochondrion (36,288 basepairs, bp) and plastid (120,448 bp) genomes of H. nusantara were sequenced and the gene arrangements were compared with other diatom genomes. Phylogeny analyses established using rbcL indicated that H. nusantara is included in the blue Haslea cluster and close to a blue Haslea sp. found in Canary Islands (H. silbo sp. ined.). Conclusions – All investigations carried out in this study show that H. nusantara is a new blue-pigmented species, which belongs to the blue Haslea clade, with an exceptional geographic distribution in the Southern Hemisphere.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as a promising delivery system, particularly for genetic therapies and vaccines. LNP formation requires a specific mixture of nucleic acid in a buffered solution and lipid components in ethanol. Ethanol acts as a lipid solvent, aiding the formation of the nanoparticle’s core, but its presence can also affect LNP stability. In this study, we used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the physicochemical effect of ethanol on LNPs and gain a dynamic understanding of its impact on the overall structure and stability of LNPs. Our results demonstrate that ethanol destabilizes LNP structure over time, indicated by increased root mean square deviation (RMSD) values. Changes in the solvent-accessible surface area (SASA), electron density, and radial distribution function (RDF) also suggest that ethanol affects LNP stability. Furthermore, our H-bond profile analysis shows that ethanol penetrates the LNP earlier than water. These findings emphasize the importance of immediate ethanol removal in lipid-based systems during LNP production to ensure stability.