Oregon State University

About: Oregon State University is a education organization based out in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 28192 authors who have published 64044 publications receiving 2634108 citations. The organization is also known as: Oregon Agricultural College & OSU.

Innovations in the Development and Application of Edible Coatings for Fresh and Minimally Processed Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract: One of the major growth segments in the food retail industry is fresh and minimally processed fruits and vegetables. This new market trend has thus increased the demands to the food industry for seeking new strategies to increase storability and shelf life and to enhance microbial safety of fresh produce. The technology of edible coatings has been considered as one of the potential approaches for meeting this demand. Edible coatings from renewable sources, including lipids, polysaccharides, and proteins, can function as barriers to water vapor, gases, and other solutes and also as carriers of many functional ingredients, such as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents, thus enhancing quality and extending shelf life of fresh and minimally processed fruits and vegetables. This review discusses the rationale of using edible coatings on fresh and minimally processed produce, the challenges in developing effective coatings that meet the specific criteria of fruits and vegetables, the recent advances in the development of coating technology, the analytical techniques for measuring some important coating functionalities, and future research needs for supporting a broad range of commercial applications.

Stress and stability: applying the Anna Karenina principle to animal microbiomes.

Abstract: All animals studied to date are associated with symbiotic communities of microorganisms. These animal microbiotas often play important roles in normal physiological function and susceptibility to disease; predicting their responses to perturbation represents an essential challenge for microbiology. Most studies of microbiome dynamics test for patterns in which perturbation shifts animal microbiomes from a healthy to a dysbiotic stable state. Here, we consider a complementary alternative: that the microbiological changes induced by many perturbations are stochastic, and therefore lead to transitions from stable to unstable community states. The result is an ‘Anna Karenina principle’ for animal microbiomes, in which dysbiotic individuals vary more in microbial community composition than healthy individuals—paralleling Leo Tolstoy's dictum that “all happy families look alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. We argue that Anna Karenina effects are a common and important response of animal microbiomes to stressors that reduce the ability of the host or its microbiome to regulate community composition. Patterns consistent with Anna Karenina effects have been found in systems ranging from the surface of threatened corals exposed to above-average temperatures, to the lungs of patients suffering from HIV/AIDs. However, despite their apparent ubiquity, these patterns are easily missed or discarded by some common workflows, and therefore probably underreported. Now that a substantial body of research has established the existence of these patterns in diverse systems, rigorous testing, intensive time-series datasets and improved stochastic modelling will help to explore their importance for topics ranging from personalized medicine to theories of the evolution of host–microorganism symbioses. This Perspective argues that Anna Karenina effects (that is, changes resulting in increased variation in community composition under stress) are a common and important response of animal microbiomes that have been under-reported.

Upwelling-driven nearshore hypoxia signals ecosystem and oceanographic changes in the northeast Pacific.

Abstract: Seasonal development of dissolved-oxygen deficits (hypoxia) represents an acute system-level perturbation to ecological dynamics and fishery sustainability in coastal ecosystems around the globe1,2,3. Whereas anthropogenic nutrient loading has increased the frequency and severity of hypoxia in estuaries and semi-enclosed seas3,4, the occurrence of hypoxia in open-coast upwelling systems reflects ocean conditions that control the delivery of oxygen-poor and nutrient-rich deep water onto continental shelves1. Upwelling systems support a large proportion of the world's fisheries5, therefore understanding the links between changes in ocean climate, upwelling-driven hypoxia and ecological perturbations is critical. Here we report on the unprecedented development of severe inner-shelf (<70 m) hypoxia and resultant mass die-offs of fish and invertebrates within the California Current System. In 2002, cross-shelf transects revealed the development of abnormally low dissolved-oxygen levels as a response to anomalously strong flow of subarctic water into the California Current System. Our findings highlight the sensitivity of inner-shelf ecosystems to variation in ocean conditions, and the potential impacts of climate change on marine communities.