Northeast Agricultural University

About: Northeast Agricultural University is a education organization based out in Harbin, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Population. The organization has 14428 authors who have published 9850 publications receiving 126705 citations. The organization is also known as: Dōngběi Nóngyè Dàxué.

Rice Responses and Tolerance to High Temperature

Abstract: Climate change may increase storms, flooding and other harsh weather events and, thus, change geographical crop distribution, growing season and may also shorten the growth period. An approximately, 3–4°C increase in global mean temperature would decrease food productivity by altering various vital functions of plants. A rise in the optimum temperature (28/22°C) by about 1°C may led to a 10% decrease in rice yield. High temperatures (above 30°C) at lower altitudes in tropical regions and low temperatures (below 15°C) in the temperate regions adversely affect rice yield. Rice yield is estimated to shrink by 41% by the end of the 21st century because of heat stress (HS) through spikelet degradation, floral sterility, protein denaturation, loss of membrane integrity, enzyme inactivation, production of toxic compounds and reactive oxygen species. HS may disturb photosynthesis and respiration by altering the movement of water, ions and organic solutes across the cell. It also adversely affects physiological parameters (chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate, and RuBP carboxylase activity). High night temperature is comparatively more deleterious than high day temperature for rice. In rice heat tolerance (HT) is majorly comprises of escape or avoidance. Heat shock proteins and other stabilizing features play a vital role in rice HT by improving photosynthesis, partitioning of assimilate, nutrient and water use efficiency and membrane thermal stability. Similarly, the cyclic electron transport may also perform a vital role in rice thermo-tolerance. Based on available literature there is a need for more accurate knowledge and new heat-tolerant cultivars to minimize the adverse effects of climate change on rice quality and productivity.

Relationship between Molecular Flexibility and Emulsifying Properties of Soy Protein Isolate-Glucose Conjugates

Abstract: At present, the structure-activity relationships of soy protein isolate are still not well understood. In this paper, the relationship between molecular flexibility and emulsifying properties of soy protein isolate and soy protein isolate-glucose conjugates were investigated. The Maillard reaction was carried out at different temperature conditions (50 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, 80 °C, and 90 °C) under a specific wet condition. Meanwhile, structural properties including surface hydrophobicity ( H0), molecular flexibility and secondary, tertiary, quaternary structures, and the free sulfhydryl group ( -SH) content were measured. The results showed that there was a good correlation between molecular flexibility and emulsifying properties, and the correlation coefficients was 0.920 ( P < 0.01) for emulsifying activity and 0.952 ( P < 0.01) for emulsion stability. Compared with soy protein isolate, the H0 of samples at different temperatures first increased and then decreased reaching a maximum at 70 °C, a red shift occurred during the whole given reaction conditions shown by the intrinsic fluorescence spectrum, and the free sulfhydryl content also displayed a marked increase ( P < 0.05). At the same time, the particle size gradually became smaller as the degree of grafting increased. The contents of β-turn and random coil increased at the cost of α-helix and β-sheet contents, as evidenced by Fourier transform infrared results. The findings could provide a deep insight into the structure-function relationship of soy protein isolate-glucose conjugates, thus providing theoretical guidance for further research of soy proteins.