Food nutrition and toxicology targeting on specific organs in the era of single-cell sequencing

Due to the complex natures of dietary food components,it is difficult to elucidate how the compounds affect host health.Dietary food often selectively presents its mechanism of action on different cell types,and participates in the modulation of targeted cells and their microenvironments within organs.However,the limitations of traditional in vitro assays or in vivo animal experiments cannot comprehensively examine cellular heterogeneity and the tissue-biased influences.Single-cell RNA sequencing(sc RNA-seq)has emerged as an indispensable methodology to decompose tissues into different cell types for the demonstration of transcriptional profiles of individual cells.Sc RNA-seq applications has been summarized on three typical organs(brain,liver,kidney),and two representative immune-and tumor related health problems.The everincreasing role of sc RNA-seq in dietary food research with further improvement can provide sub-cellular information and the coupling between other cellular modalities.In this review,we propose utilizing sc RNAseq to more effectively capture the subtle and complex effects of food chemicals,and how they may lead to health problems at single-cell resolution.This novel technique will be valuable to elucidate the underlying mechanism of both the health benefits of food nutrients and the detrimental consequences food toxicants at the cellular level.

Analysis of Nutrient Profile of Finger Millet(Eleusine coracana(L.)Gaertn.)for Baby Food Formulation Using Pigeon Pea(Cajanus cajan(L.)Millsp.)as Protein Source

Finger millet(Eleusine coracana(L.)Gaertn.)is a drought resistant crop with potentially tremendous but under-explored source of nutraceutical properties as compared to other regularly consumed cereals in the era of drawback of nutritional security,these characteristics must be harnessed to develop finger millet as a novel functional food.Under-nutrition caused by inadequate diets,and other factors that influence nutritional status,is the underlying factor in 45%child deaths.In Kenya only 25%of young children are fed adequately diverse diets.The main objective of this study was to prepare baby food formulas using finger millets with pigeon peas as protein source and to analyze their nutritional profiles.Two finger millets varieties(i)Snapping Green Early,low altitude and medium altitude varieties and(ii)U-15)were studied to determine effects of environment on nutrient profiles.This study showed that Snapping Green Early had better nutrient profiles(12.13%protein and is high in Ca,Mg,Fe,Zn and P)than U-15(11.69%protein and lower nutrients(Ca,Mg,Fe,Zn and P)),and hence was selected for use in the malting process as best variety.As expected,the pigeon peas had the highest protein value(21%).The samples malted for 72 h resulted in reduction of tannin concentration from 0.091%to 0.03%and the amount of nutrients(Ca,Mg,Fe and Zn)doubled and in fact the protein profile increased by 8.31%.The appropriate ratio for the formulation of the baby food was 70:30.The composting resulted in 18.5%increase in protein.

A comparative study on the alternating mesophilic and thermophilic two-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste

An alternating mesophilic and thermophilic two stage anaerobic digestion （AD） process was conducted. The temperature of the acidogenic （A） and methanogenic （M） reactors was controlled as follows： System 1 （S1） mesophilic A-mesophilic M; （S2） mesophilic A-thermophilic M; and （S3） thermophilic A-mesophilic M. Initially, the AD reactor was acclimatized and inoculated with digester sludge. Food waste was added with the soluble chemical oxygen demand （SCOD） concentrations of 41.4-47.0 g/L and volatile fatty acids of 2.0-3.2 g/L. Based on the results, the highest total chemical oxygen demand removal （86.6%） was recorded in S2 while S3 exhibited the highest SCOD removal （96.6%）. Comparing S1 with S2, total solids removal increased by 0.5%;S3 on the other hand decreased by 0.1% as compared to S1. However, volatile solids （VS） removal in S1, S2, and S3 was 78.5%, 81.7%, and 79.2%, respectively. S2 also exhibited the highest CH4 content, yield, and production rate of 70.7%, 0.44 L CH4/g VSadded, and 1.23 L CH4/（L.day）, respectively. Bacterial community structure revealed that the richness, diversity, evenness, and dominance of S2 were high except for the archaeal community. The terminal restriction fragments dendrogram also revealed that the microbial community of the acidogenic and methanogenic reactors in S2 was distinct. Therefore, S2 was the best among the systems for the operation of two-stage AD of food waste in terms of CH4 production, nutrient removal, and microbial community structure.

Assessment of potential soybean cadmium excluder cultivars at different concentrations of Cd in soils

The selection of cadmium-excluding cultivars has been used to minimize the transfer of cadmium into the human food chain. In this experiment, five Chinese soybean plants were grown in three soils with different concentrations of Cd（0.15, 0.75 and 1.12 mg/kg）.Variations in uptake, enrichment, and translocation of Cd among these soybean cultivars were studied. The results indicated that the concentration of Cd in seeds that grew at1.12 mg/kg Cd in soils exceeded the permitted maximum levels in soybeans. Therefore, our results indicated that even some soybean cultivars grown on soils with permitted levels of Cd might accumulate higher concentrations of Cd in seeds that are hazardous to human health. The seeds of these five cultivars were further assessed for interactions between Cd and other mineral nutrient elements such as Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn and Zn. High Cd concentration in soil was found to inhibit the uptake of Mn. Furthermore, Fe and Zn accumulations were found to be enhanced in the seeds of all of the five soybean cultivars in response to high Cd concentration. Cultivar Tiefeng 31 was found to fit the criteria for a Cd-excluding cultivar under different concentrations of Cd in soils.