Effects of galactooligosaccharide glycation on the functional properties of soy protein isolate and its application in noodles

Soybean protein has high nutritional value, but its functional properties are easily affected by external factors,which limits its application in food industry. In the study, soybean protein isolate(SPI) was modified by dry heat glycation of galactooligosaccharides(GOS). The gel properties, antioxidant properties and structural changes of SPI-GOS conjugates were investigated. The application of SPI-GOS conjugates in noodles was also explored. The results observed that the glycation degree of SPI increased with the increasing reaction time. SDS-PAGE and spectral analysis showed the changes of spatial conformation of SPI after glycation. The antioxidant activity of SPI increased after glycation and DPPH radical scavenging activity of SPI-GOS peaked at 48 h of reaction. The hardness, elasticity and resilience of soybean protein gel reached their relative maximum at 48 h, 48 h and 12 h of glycation reaction, respectively. Moreover, the appropriate addition of glycated SPI improved the quality of noodles. The noodles with 4% addition of SPI-GOS had higher hardness, elasticity and tensile properties. This study will provide an effective method to modify soybean protein and expand the use of soybean protein in food industry.

3D bioprinting for cell culture and tissue fabrication

Three-dimensional （3D） bioprinting is a computer-assisted technology which precisely controls spatial position of biomaterials, growth factors and living cells, offering unprecedented possibility to bridge the gap between structurally mimic tissue constructs and functional tissues or organoids. We briefly focus on diverse bioinks used in the recent progresses of biofabrication and 3D bioprinting of various tissue architectures including blood vessel, bone, cartilage, skin, heart, liver and nerve systems. This paper provides readers a guideline with the conjunction between bioinks and the targeted tissue or organ types in structuration and final functionalization of these tissue analogues. The challenges and perspectives in 3D bioprinting field are also illustrated.

Wheat-RegNet:An encyclopedia of common wheat hierarchical regulatory networks

Dear Editor,Common wheat(Triticum aestivum,2n=6×=42,AABBDD)is the staple crop worldwide.Elucidating the gene regulatory network provides essential information for mechanism studies and targeted manipulation of gene activity for breeding.However,it is a challenging task given the extremely large(16 Gb)and complicated allohexaploid genome of common wheat.Integrating multi-omics data is a compelling approach to construct the hierarchical regulatory network.

Biomimetic,biodegradable and osteoinductive treated dentin matrix/α-calcium sulphate hemihydrate composite material for bone tissue engineering

It is still a huge challenge for bone regenerative biomaterial to balance its mechanical,biological and biodegradable properties.In the present study,a new composite material including treated dentin matrix(TDM)andα-calcium sulphate hemihydrate(α-CSH)was prepared.The optimal composition ratio between TDM andα-CSH was explored.The results indicate that both components were physically mixed and structurally stable.Its compressive strength reaches up to 5.027±0.035 MPa for 50%TDM/α-CSH group,similar to human cancellous bone tissues.Biological experiments results show that TDM/α-CSH composite exhibits excellent biocompatibility and the expression of osteogenic related genes and proteins(ALP,RUNX2,OPN)is significantly increased.In vivo experiments suggest that the addition of TDM for each group(10%,30%,50%)effectively promotes cell proliferation and osteomalacia.In addition,50%of the TDM/α-CSH combination displays optimal osteoconductivity.The novel TDM/α-CSH composite is a good candidate for certain applications in bone tissue engineering.

Treated dentin matrix induces odontogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells via regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling

Treated dentin matrix(TDM)is an ideal scaffold material containing multiple extracellular matrix factors.The canonical Wnt signaling pathway is necessary for tooth regeneration.Thus,this study investigated whether the TDM can promote the odontogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells(hDPSCs)and determined the potential role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in this process.Different concentrations of TDM promoted the dental differentiation of the hDPSCs and meanwhile,the expression of GSK3βwas decreased.Of note,the expression of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway-related genes changed significantly in the context of TDM induction,as per RNA sequencing(RNA seq)data.In addition,the experiment showed that new dentin was visible in rat mandible cultured with TDM,and the thickness was significantly thicker than that of the control group.In addition,immunohistochemical staining showed lower GSK3βexpression in new dentin.Consistently,the GSK3βknockdown hDPSCs performed enhanced odotogenesis compared with the control groups.However,GSK3βoverexpressing could decrease odotogenesis of TDM-induced hDPSCs.These results were confirmed in immunodeficient mice and Wistar rats.These suggest that TDM promotes odontogenic differentiation of hDPSCs by directly targeting GSK3βand activating the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and provide a theoretical basis for tooth regeneration engineering.

Utility of Triti-Map for bulk-segregated mapping of causal genes and regulatory elements in Triticeae

Triticeae species,including wheat,barley,and rye,are critical for global food security.Mapping agronomically important genes is crucial for elucidating molecular mechanisms and improving crops.However,Triticeae includes many wild relatives with desirable agronomic traits,and frequent introgressions occurred during Triticeae evolution and domestication.Thus,Triticeae genomes are generally large and complex,making the localization of genes or functional elements that control agronomic traits challenging.Here,we developed Triti-Map,which contains a suite of user-friendly computational packages specifically designed and optimized to overcome the obstacles of gene mapping in Triticeae,as well as a web interface integrating multi-omics data from Triticeae for the efficient mining of genes or functional elements that control particular traits.The Triti-Map pipeline accepts bothDNA and RNAbulk-segregated sequencing data as well as traditional QTL data as inputs for locating genes and elucidating their functions.We illustrate the usage of Triti-Map with a combination of bulk-segregated ChIP-seq data to detect a wheat disease-resistance gene with its promoter sequence that is absent from the reference genome and clarify its evolutionary process.We hope that Triti-Map will facilitate gene isolation and accelerate Triticeae breeding.

Role of Thermolysin in Catalytic-Controlled Self-Assembly of Fmoc-Dipeptides

In recent years,short peptide self-assembled materials,prepared under the control of the thermolysin catalyst,have been investigated extensively and shown to acquire various morphologies and functions as building blocks for a wide range of biomaterials and device applications.However,the role played by thermolysin in this enzymatically triggered peptide self-assembly is still ambiguous.Herein,we designed a series of Fmoc-dipeptide amphiphiles to explore the catalytic role of thermolysin.

CSCS:a chromatin state interface for Chinese Spring bread wheat

A chromosome-level genome assembly of the bread wheat variety Chinese Spring(CS)has recently been published.Genome-wide identification of regulatory elements(REs)responsible for regulating gene activity is key to further mechanistic studies.Because epigenetic activity can reflect RE activity,defining chromatin states based on epigenomic features is an effective way to detect REs.Here,we present the web-based platform Chinese Spring chromatin state(CSCS),which provides CS chromatin signature information.CSCS indudes 15 recently published epigenomic data sets including open chromatin and major chromatin marks,which are further partitioned into 15 distinct chromatin states.CSCS curates detailed information about these chromatin states,with trained self-organization mapping(SOM)for segments in all chromatin states and JBrowse visualization for genomic regions or genes.Motif analysis for genomic regions or genes,GO analysis for genes and SOM analysis for new epige-nomic data sets are also integrated into CSCS.In summary,the CSCS database contains the combina-torial patterns of chromatin signatures in wheat and facilitates the detection of functi onal elements and further clarification of regulatory activities.We illustrate how CSCS enables biological insights using one example,demonstrating that CSCS is a highly useful resource for intensive data mining.CSCS is available at http://bioinfo.cemps.ac.cn/CSCS/.