The standard sugary sweet corn (Zea mays saccharata Sturt.) is a maize variety grown for the fresh, frozen and canned markets, traditionally appreciated. Its kernels are characterized by the presence of some antioxidant substances suggested to be beneficial for cancer prevention. For this reason an interesting challenge for breeders is the development of sweet corn genotypes with naturally high antioxidant levels, starting from flavonoids. In fact important sources of antioxidants in maize are anthocyanins, considered as nutraceuticals because they have been proven to lower the risk of many chronic diseases. In this paper we report the development of a new coloured sugary line and the results of some analyses concerning flavonoid content before and after two different cooking treatments are discussed. Attention was mainly focused on the anthocyanins, the molecules suggested as being responsible for the nutraceutical properties of the new coloured sugary line. The results show that the presence of the anthocyanins also pushes up the flavonol and the phenolic acid amounts and gives the new coloured sugary line a higher scavenging power compared to the uncoloured control. The mild cooking seems not to significantly change the metabolites analyzed in the coloured kernels, while the stronger treatment seems to drastically decrease the amounts of pigments, without changing the structure of the leftover molecules. All these findings suggest that the new colored sugary line can be considered a new functional food, able to introduce healthy compounds into the diet of many people.

/pdf/development-and-characterization-of-a-coloured-sweet-corn-59xck6ktz0.pdf

Development and characterization of a coloured sweet corn line as a new functional food.

The application of DNA microarray assay (DMA) has entered a new era owing to recent innovations in omics technologies. This review summarizes recent applications of DMA-based gene expression profiling by focusing on the screening and characterizationof traditional Chinese medicine. First, herbs, mushrooms, and dietary plants analyzed by DMA along with their effective components and their biological/physiological effects are summarized and discussed by examining their comprehensive list and a list of representative effective chemicals. Second, the mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicine are summarized by examining the genes and pathways responsible for the action, the cell functions involved in the action, and the activities found by DMA (silent estrogens). Third, applications of DMA for traditional Chinese medicine are discussed by examining reported examples and new protocols for its use in quality control. Further innovations in the signaling pathway based evaluation of beneficial effects and the assessment of potential risks of traditional Chinese medicine are expected, just as are observed in other closely related fields, such as the therapeutic, environmental, nutritional, and pharmacological fields.

DNA Microarray-Based Screening and Characterization of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

To investigate the effects of dietary Grifola frondosa on cholesterol, normal mice were fed a diet containing 1% cholesterol (HC group) or 1% cholesterol and 10% freeze-dried G. frondosa powder (HC+G group) for 4 weeks and hepatic and plasma lipid levels were compared with those of a cholesterol-free diet-fed mice (N group). Hepatic total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol contents were considerably increased and plasma TC / phospholipid (PL) was also increased significantly in the HC group compared with the N group. However, plasma TC content decreased in the HC+G group compared with the HC group. To characterize the mechanisms responsible for lowered plasma cholesterol in G. frondosa-supplemented mice, hepatic gene expression was profiled using DNA microarray and gene ontology. Genome analyses revealed that de novo cholesterol synthesis genes were suppressed following cholesterol intake. However, expression of bile acid biosynthesis and low-density lipoprotein receptor genes showed little change. Scarb1, Abcg5, and Abcg8, involved in cholesterol transport and excretion, were slightly upregulated in the HC+G group compared with the HC group. These data indicate the plasma cholesterol-lowering effect of G. frondosa. Moreover, fatty acid (FA) β-oxidation was promoted via adipocytokine signaling pathways, and Saa, encodes serum amyloid A related to arteriosclerosis, was suppressed in the HC+G group.

Effect of dietary Maitake (Grifola frondosa) mushrooms on plasma cholesterol and hepatic gene expression in cholesterol-fed mice.

To compare and estimate the effects of dietary intake of three kinds of mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus, Grifola frondosa, and Hypsizigus marmoreus), mice were fed a diet containing 10–14% of each mushroom for 4 weeks. Triacylglycerol in the liver and plasma decreased and plasma cholesterol increased in the P. ostreatus-fed group compared with those in the control group. Cholesterol in the liver was lower in the G. frondosa-fed group than in the control group, but no changes were found in the H. marmoreus-fed group. DNA microarray analysis of the liver revealed differences of gene expression patterns among mushrooms. Ctp1a and Fabp families were upregulated in the P. ostreatus-fed group, which were considered to promote lipid transport and β-oxidation. In the G. frondosa-fed group, not only the gene involved in signal transduction of innate immunity via TLR3 and interferon but also virus resistance genes, such as Mx1, Rsad2, and Oas1, were upregulated.

Profiling of hepatic gene expression of mice fed with edible japanese mushrooms by DNA microarray analysis: comparison among Pleurotus ostreatus, Grifola frondosa, and Hypsizigus marmoreus.

Liver is the organ primarily responding to diet, and it is crucial in determining plasma carbohydrate, protein, and lipid levels. In addition, it is mainly responsible for transformation of xenobiotics. For these reasons, it has been a target of transcriptomic analyses. In this review, we have covered the works dealing with the response of mammalian liver to different nutritional stimuli such as fasting/feeding, caloric restriction, dietary carbohydrate, cholesterol, fat, protein, bile acid, salt, vitamin, and oligoelement contents. Quality of fats or proteins has been equally addressed, and has the influence of minor dietary components. Other compounds, not purely nutritional as those represented by alcohol and food additives, have been included due to their relevance in processed food. The influence has been studied not only on mRNA but also on miRNA. The wide scope of the technology clearly reflects that any simple intervention has profound changes in many metabolic parameters and that there is a synergy in response when more compounds are included in the intervention. Standardized arrays to systematically test the same genes in all studies and analyzing data to establish patterns of response are required, particularly for RNA sequencing. Moreover, RNA is a valuable, easy-screening ally but always requires further confirmation.

/pdf/the-use-of-transcriptomics-to-unveil-the-role-of-nutrients-25b57fpwr7.pdf

The use of transcriptomics to unveil the role of nutrients in Mammalian liver.

To identify novel functions of the oral intake of sweet corn, we performed DNA microarray analysis of the livers of sweet corn-fed mice. Functional annotation clustering 1600 genes with expression levels that were affected (more than 1.5-fold change) by dietary sweet corn indicated that both cell proliferation and programmed celldeathweremodulatedbysweetcornintake.IntheWntsignalingpathway,whichisinvolvedincellproliferation, thelevelsofJunand β-cateninexpressionweredownregulatedbydietarysweetcorn.ThemRNAlevelsofRbandp53, negativeregulatorsofthecellcycle,wereincreasedinmicefedwithsweetcorn.Dietarycornupregulatedexpression levels of genes that regulate apoptosis positively (for example, BOK, BID, CASP4). These results suggested that sweet corn is a valuable food for suppressing cancer. Oral administration of sweet corn inhibited tumor growth (36.6% reduce in tumor weight, P < 0.05) in mice inoculated with Ehrlich tumor cells. fects for health on cells in vivo or in vitro, the effects of whole ker- nels have not been evaluated in sufficient detail. Many assay systems must be used to validate the physiological effects of foods both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, comprehen- sive evaluation of the effects of a given food item is both costly and time consuming. DNA microarray analysis is a high-throughput technique to assess changes in the profile of transcripts. This transcriptome technology and bioinformatics databases enable comprehensive analysis of food functionalities because the phys- iological effects are often accompanied by changes in expression of related genes (Afman and Muller 2006). Some groups have evalu- ated functionalities of the components in foods using microarray (Kato and Kimura 2003; Tsuruoka and others 2005). In this study, we employed DNA microarray analysis to evaluate the functions of dietary whole kernels of sweet corn and to identify novel beneficial effects on living organisms. The gene expression profiles of animals fed sweet corn and their functional annotations suggested that di- etary sweet corn has the potential to inhibit cancer. To confirm this hypothesis, we examined the effects of sweet corn intake on tumor growth in mice in vivo.

Screening for beneficial effects of oral intake of sweet corn by DNA microarray analysis.

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Screening for beneficial effects of oral intake of sweet corn by DNA microarray analysis.