Identification of Indian jujube varieties cultivated in Saudi Arabia using an artificial neural network

This study aimed to develop a method for identifying different cultivars of Indian jujube fruits (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) based on a single Indian jujube fruit color and morphological attributes using an artificial neural network (ANN) classifier. Eleven Indian jujube fruit cultivars were collected during winter of season 2020 from a local orchard located at Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia to measure their lengths, major diameters, and minor diameters. Different morphological descriptors were calculated, including the arithmetic mean diameter, the sphericity percent, and the surface area. Moreover, the color values of L*, a*, and b* of the skin of fruits were recorded. The ANN classifier was used to identify the appropriate class of Indian jujube fruit by using a combination of morphological and color descriptors. The proposed method achieved an overall identification rate of 98.39% and 97.56% in training and testing phases, respectively. In addition to color and morphological features, ANN classifier is a useful tool for identifying Indian jujube fruit cultivars and circumventing the difficulties met during fruit grading.

Fruit properties during the harvest period of eleven Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) cultivars

The geometric attributes and physical, mechanical, and chemical properties were determined for 11 Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) cultivars grown in Saudi Arabia including Zaytoni, Kashmiri, Komethry, Um-Sulaem with spines, Toffahy, Um-Sulaem without spines, Abdel-Sattar, Pu-Yun, Pu-Pineau, seedy ber, and buddling ber. The geometric mean diameter, surface area, sphericity, and shape index of the fruits ranged from 20.61 to 42.48 mm, 1339.58-5666.92 mm², 71.39-96.80%, and 110.25-275.18%, respectively. The fruit physical properties, i e fruit weight, fruit volume, stone weight, flesh weight, true fruit density, and pulp-stone ratio varied from 4.71 to 39.02 g, 4.78 to 42.75 cm3, 0.11 to 2.35 g, 4.61 to 36.67 g,0.913 to 1.055 g/cm3, and 7.90 to 43.11, respectively. In addition, the mean color value of L*, a* and b* for the fruits ranged from 64.48 to 96.33, 2.65-4.05, and 6.32-84.36, respectively. The mechanical properties, including elastic range, bioyield force, modulus of elasticity, plastic range, and rupture force ranged from 2.31 to 8.86 mm, 21.64-325.77 N, 14.15-124.09 N/s, 0.83-3.45 mm, 56.42-364.21 N, and 107.77-480.91 N/s, respectively. The greatest rupture force belonged to the Pu-Pineau cultivar and the smallest belonged to the Um-Sulaem without spines cultivar at the horizontal orientation of both cultivars. The fruit chemical analysis values for total soluble solids, titratable acidity, total soluble solids/titratable acidity ratio, and vitamin C ranged from 13.43 to 23.55%, 0.48-1.27%, 14.24-39.85%, and 55.27-164.47 mg/100 g, respectively. The relevant data obtained for the 11 varieties of Indian jujube are valuable for developing and designing machines for processing operations, transportation, separating, packing, sorting, and harvesting. Additionally, the findings revealed considerable variation in chemical content, physical and mechanical characteristics among the tested cultivars.

DNA polymerase β outperforms DNA polymerase γ in key mitochondrial base excision repair activities

DNA polymerase beta (POLβ), well known for its role in nuclear DNA base excision repair (BER), has been shown to be present in the mitochondria of several different cell types. Here we present a side-by-side comparison of BER activities of POLβ and POLγ, the mitochondrial replicative polymerase, previously thought to be the only mitochondrial polymerase. We find that POLβ is significantly more proficient at single-nucleotide gap filling, both in substrates with ends that require polymerase processing, and those that do not. We also show that POLβ has a helicase-independent functional interaction with the mitochondrial helicase, TWINKLE. This interaction stimulates strand-displacement synthesis, but not single-nucleotide gap filling. Importantly, we find that purified mitochondrial extracts from cells lacking POLβ are severely deficient in processing BER intermediates, suggesting that mitochondrially localized DNA POLβ may be critical for cells with high energetic demands that produce greater levels of oxidative stress and therefore depend upon efficient BER for mitochondrial health.

Berberine attenuates Aβ-induced neuronal damage through regulating miR-188/NOS1 in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a public health issue worldwide. Berberine (Ber) acts as the neuroprotective role in an animal experiment of AD. MicroRNA-188 (miRNA-188) was reported to be decreased in primary hippocampal neurons of mice. However, the roles and molecular basis of Ber and miRNA-188 in the treatment of AD need to be further explored. In this study, 5 μM Ber treatment has little effect on cell viability. Ber treatment or miR-188 overexpression expedited proliferation and inhibited caspase-3 activity and apoptotic rate in amyloid-beta (Aβ)-treated BV2 and N2a cells. MiR-188 was downregulated, and nitric oxide synthase 1 (NOS1) was upregulated in Aβ-induced BV2 and N2a cells. NOS1 worked as the target of miR-188. NOS1 overturned miR-188-induced effects on cell viability, caspase-3 activity, and apoptotic rate in Aβ-induced BV2 and N2a cells. Ber mitigated neuronal damage in Aβ-induced BV2 and N2a cells by miR-188/NOS1 axis. These results suggested that Ber accelerated cell viability and suppressed caspase-3 activity and apoptotic rate possible by miR-188/NOS1 pathway, implying the treatment of Ber as an underlying effective drug for AD patients.

Post-harvest calcium chloride treatments influence fruit firmness, cell wall components and cell wall hydrolyzing enzymes of Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) fruits during storage

Ber fruits of two varieties having variable shelf lives viz. Umran (8-9 days) and Kaithali (4-5 days) given post-harvest treatments of calcium chloride (1% and 2%) were analyzed for various cell wall components, cell wall hydrolyzing enzymes and fruit firmness at 2 days interval until complete decay. There was a continuous decrease in cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin contents during storage in both the varieties with more reduction in Kaithali, a variety having short shelf-life. The decline in cell wall components was accompanied by parallel increase in activities of cellulase, polygalacturonase (PG) and pectin methylesterase (PME). Post-harvest treatment of Ber fruits with calcium chloride resulted in significantly lowering of activities of cellulase (20-22%), PG (23-29%) and PME (25-28%) thereby retaining higher cell wall components viz. cellulose (9-11%), hemicellulose (7-8%) and pectin (12-13%) as compared to their respective control in both the varieties. The delay in cell wall hydrolysis, as mediated by calcium chloride corresponded to the higher retention of fruit firmness.

Ber fruits

Effect of zero energy cool chamber (ZECC) along with post-harvest treatments (including CaCl2, mustard oil and K2SO4 separately) on shelf-life and fruit quality attributes of ber (Zizyphus mauritiana Lamk.) cv 'Gola' during storage under semi-arid ecosystem of Gujarat was studied. Increase in physiological loss in weight (PLW), spoilage loss, total soluble solids, total sugars, reducing sugar and reduction in titratable acidity, and ascorbic acid during storage were observed in all treatments. Fruits treated with CaCl2 1.5% and stored in ZECC recorded least PLW (17.1%), spoilage loss (20%), respiratory activity (0.25 mg CO2/kg/h) and exhibited 7 days of shelf-life, followed by CaCl2 1% + ZECC, while untreated fruits had 3 days of economic shelf-life. Fruits stored in ZECC recorded 6 days shelf-life. Highest respiration rate was in control (0.45 mg CO2 /kg/h) on 9(th) day of storage. Data on fruit quality attributes indicated that ZECC + CaCl2 1.5% or ZECC alone might be an ideal on-farm storage facility for maintaining the quality of ber fruits under semi-arid environment of Western India.