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opencc-zeroJul 2020View details →

Data from: Nitrogen fertilizer decreases survival and reproduction of female locusts by increasing plant protein to carbohydrate ratio

1. Nitrogen limitation theory predicts that terrestrial plants should benefit from nitrogen inputs and that herbivores should benefit from subsequent higher plant protein contents. While this pattern has generally been supported, some herbivorous insects have shown preference and higher performance on low protein (p), high carbohydrate (c) diets as juveniles. 2. However, little is known about the effects on reproduction in adults. Using nitrogen fertilizer, we demonstrate that high plant p:c has negative effects on Senegalese locust (Orthoptera: Oedaeleus senegalensis) reproduction and survival in an agroecological setting. 3. For this, we measured p:c in millet plants (Pennisetum glaucum) that received two levels of fertilizer (high and moderate) and a control, then we caged locusts on these plants for two weeks. In the laboratory, we gave locusts the choice between untreated millet leaves and leaves that received one of the two fertilization treatment. 4. We found that fertilization increased p:c ratio in a concentration dependent fashion. We counted the number of locusts alive over the course of two weeks and showed that fewer females survived on fertilized plants than on control plants. Females that ate plants from the high fertilization treatment laid lighter eggs. Finally, we showed that female locusts prefer unfertilized plants to plants with a high p:c. 5. We hypothesize that this pattern will apply broadly to species that have extensive carbohydrate needs, such as long-distance migrators. Because many ecological studies focus primarily on nitrogen or protein, and fail to consider carbohydrates, this study has important implications for how ecologists consider nutrient limitation of primary consumers in ecosystems globally.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Dynamics of non-structural carbohydrates in terrestrial plants: a global synthesis

Plants store large amounts of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). While multiple functions of NSC have long been recognized, the interpretation of NSC seasonal dynamics is often based on the idea that stored NSC is a reservoir of carbon that fluctuates depending on the balance between supply via photosynthesis and demand for growth and respiration (the source-sink dynamics concept). Consequently, relatively high NSC concentrations in some plants have been interpreted to reflect excess supply relative to demand. An alternative view, however, is that NSC accumulation reflects the relatively high NSC levels required for plant survival; an important issue that remains highly controversial. Here, we assembled a new global database to examine broad patterns of seasonal NSC variation across organs (leaves, stems and belowground), plant functional types (coniferous, drought deciduous angiosperms, winter deciduous angiosperms, evergreen angiosperms, and herbaceous) and biomes (boreal, temperate, Mediterranean and tropical). We compiled data from 123 studies, including seasonal measurements for 179 species under natural conditions. Our results showed that, on average, NSC account for ~10% of dry plant biomass and are highest in leaves and lowest in stems, whereas belowground organs show intermediate concentrations. Total NSC, starch and soluble sugars (SS) varied seasonally, with a strong depletion of starch during the growing season and a general increase during winter months, particularly in boreal and temperate biomes. Across functional types, NSC concentrations were highest and most variable in herbaceous species and in conifer needles. Conifers showed the lowest stem and belowground NSC concentrations. Minimum NSC values were relatively high (46% of seasonal maximums on average for total NSC) and, in contrast to average values, were similar among biomes and functional types. Overall, although starch depletion was relatively common, seasonal depletion of total NSC or SS was rare. These results are consistent with a dual view of NSC function: whereas starch acts mostly as a reservoir for future use, soluble sugars perform immediate functions (e.g., osmoregulation) and are kept above some critical threshold. If confirmed, this dual function of NSC will have important implications for the way we understand and model plant carbon allocation and survival under stress.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2023View details →

Low-quality carbohydrate intake is associated with a higher prevalence of the metabolic syndrome: The AWHS Study. (Supplemental Figure-Participant selection flow-chart)

Supplemental figure: Participant selection flow-chart.

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Misaligned plastic and evolutionary responses of lifespan to novel carbohydrate diets

Diet elicits varied effects on longevity across a wide range of animal species. For example, diets low in protein and high in carbohydrate typically extend lifespan while diets high in protein tend to reduce it. Although studies have also shown that diet-induced lifespan changes can persist through transgenerational plasticity, whether such changes lead to evolutionary shifts in lifespan remains unclear. In this study we combine experimental evolution and phenotypic plasticity assays to address this gap. Using Drosophila serrata, we investigated the evolutionary potential of lifespan in response to four novel diets spanning a carbohydrate-protein gradient. We also examined developmental plasticity effects using a set of control populations that were raised on the four novel environments. Our results show that although lifespan evolved in response to changes in dietary carbohydrate concentration, the plastic responses for lifespan differed from the evolved responses. The direction of the evolved response (increased lifespan) observed on low carbohydrate diets was in the opposite direction to the plastic response (decreased lifespan). Our results imply that plastic responses to low carbohydrates can be maladaptive for lifespan and misaligned with the evolved responses, laying the groundwork for future investigations of carbohydrate contributions to evolved and plastic effects on lifespan.

opencc-zeroApr 2022View details →

Intermediate results for: Large differences in carbohydrate degradation and transport potential among lichen fungal symbionts

Lichen symbioses are thought to be stabilized by the transfer of fixed carbon from a photosynthesizing symbiont to a fungus. In other fungal symbioses, carbohydrate subsidies correlate with reductions in plant cell wall-degrading enzymes, but whether this is true of lichen fungal symbionts (LFSs) is unknown. We predicted genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) and sugar transporters in 46 genomes from the Lecanoromycetes, the largest extant clade of LFSs. All LFSs possess a robust CAZyme arsenal including enzymes acting on cellulose and hemicellulose, confirmed by experimental assays. However, the number of genes and predicted functions of CAZymes vary widely, with some fungal symbionts possessing arsenals on par with well-known saprotrophic fungi. These results suggest that stable fungal association with a phototroph does not in itself result in fungal CAZyme loss, and lends support to long-standing hypotheses that some lichens may augment fixed CO2 with carbon from external sources.

opencc-zeroJul 2022View details →

Carbohydrates complement high protein diets to maximize the growth of an actively hunting predator

In nature, food is often variable in composition and availability. As a consequence, predators may need to seek non-prey food sources. Some predators are known to feed on nectar when food is limited. Nectar and other carbohydrate resources could also be beneficial when prey are more abundant if it helps predators balance protein-biased diets. We tested if an actively hunting predator, the jumping spider, Phidippus audax, benefited from liquid carbohydrates when prey were not limited. We also tested if the benefit of carbohydrates varied with the nutrient content of prey (i.e., from protein to lipid-biased). Spiders were reared on one of six live prey, Drosophila melanogaster, treatments that ranged from high protein to high lipid. Half of the spiders were given access to a 20% sucrose solution. After two months, we measured spider mass, cephalothorax width, instar duration, percent body fat, survival, and estimated number of prey eaten. Spiders reared on high protein diets with carbohydrates were larger and heavier than spiders on other treatments. Access to carbohydrates also increased percent body fat and survival across prey treatments. Our results suggest that carbohydrates may be a valuable component of spider diets, especially when prey have high protein and low lipid content as is commonly observed in prey in the field. Our results highlight the importance of diet balancing for predators, and that liquid carbohydrates can be an important nutrient to supplement a diet of prey rather than just being an energy supplement during periods of starvation.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

The effect of dietary supplementation with blueberry, cyanidin-3-O-β-glucoside, yoghurt and its peptides on gene expression associated with glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle obtained from a high-fat-high-carbohydrate diet induced obesity model

Obesity is a leading global health problem contributing to various chronic diseases, including type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of this study was to investigate whether blueberries, yoghurt, and their respective bioactive components, Cyanidin-3-O-β-glucoside (C3G) and peptides alone or in combinations, alter the expression of genes related to glucose metabolism in skeletal muscles from diet-induced obese mice. In extensor digitorum longus (EDL), yoghurt up-regulated the expression of activation of 5'adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), and down-regulated the expression of angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AGTR-1). The combination of blueberries and yoghurt down-regulated the mRNA expression of AGTR-1 and Forkhead box protein O1 (FoxO1) in the EDL. Whereas the combination of C3G and peptides down-regulated AGTR-1 and up-regulated GLUT4 mRNA expression in the EDL. In the soleus, blueberries and yoghurt alone, and their combination down-regulated AGTR-1 and up-regulated GLUT4 mRNA expression. In summary blueberries and yoghurt, regulated multiple genes associated with glucose metabolism in skeletal muscles, and therefore may play a role in the management and prevention of T2DM.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2022View details →

Data and script for: "Chronic refined carbohydrate consumption and variation in cognitive performance in healthy people"

Data and script for statistical analyses. Data: data.txt Script: script.Rmd

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2021View details →

Dataset for chemorheological and rheokinetic analysis of carbohydrate-HMF-amine adhesives

The work consists of primary and analysed data from rheological measurements of carbohydrate-hydroxymethylfurfural-amine adhesives. The studied adhesives are a bio-based alternative to conventional wood adhesives. The rheological properties were studied at different temperatures in isothermal (80, 90, 95 °C) and non-isothermal (20–120 °C) oscillatory measurements. Non-isothermal rheological measurements were used for the determination of the activation energy based on Vyazovskin's isoconversional method. The viscosity profile of the adhesives, determined from isothermal measurements, was fitted by an empirical model. The viscosity kinetic constant can be obtained from this empirical model and used in further rheokinetic analysis. Data from density and swelling experiments was measured for the characterization of the adhesive network. The determined polymer-solvent interaction parameter is included in the collected data. The provided datasets were used in the investigation of the reactivity and curing reaction of the studied adhesives. A discussion and interpretation of the data can be found in the previous publication  Catherine Thoma, Pia Solt-Rindler, Wilfried Sailer-Kronlachner, Thomas Rosenau, Antje Potthast, Johannes Konnerth, Alessandro Pellis, Hendrikus W.G. van Herwijnen, Carbohydrate-hydroxymethylfurfural-amine adhesives: Chemorheological analysis and rheokinetic study, Polymer, Volume 231, 2021, 124128, ISSN 0032-3861, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2021.124128. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032386121007515).  Abstract: Carbohydrates as a component in adhesive formulations have been reported for many years. A rapid cure at moderate temperatures is a remaining challenge in the development of renewable adhesives. Rheology provides insight into all stages of structure formation of a cured polymer. This work analyses the curing of carbohydrate-amine adhesives with and without the addition of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as a biomass-derived key reactant in adhesives. Isothermal and non-isothermal rheological measurements were performed to characterize i) the rheology of the prepolymer, ii) the initial stages of curing, iii) the sol-gel transition, and iv) general rheokinetics. The viscosity profile was described by empirical models and showed a deviation from homogeneous curing. Rheokinetic analysis using isoconversional methods and Arrhenius plots showed that HMF reduces the activation energy of the curing reaction. The addition of 5 mol.-% HMF (based on starting fructose content) increases the reactivity by lowering the activation energy of the curing. Keywords: Hydroxymethylfurfural; Curing; Rheology; Rheokinetics carbohydrates; Adhesives

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2022View details →

Automated Model Building of Pyranose Carbohydrates

Preliminary results from testing a new method of automated carbohydrate model building into electron density/potential maps.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2022View details →

Effect of dietary Chlorella vulgaris and carbohydrate-active enzymes on the general health, immune status, antioxidant capacity, and liver lipids and metabolites of weaned piglets

It was evaluated the impact of dietary inclusion of Chlorella vulgaris (CH) and carbohydrases on the general health, immune and oxidative status, and hepatic lipids and metabolites of piglets. Forty-four male weaned piglets were allocated into four diets: control (n=11), CH (control diet with 5% CH, n=10), CH+R (control diet with 5% CH plus 0.005% Rovabio®Excel AP, n=10), and CH+M (control diet with 5% CH plus 0.01% of a pre-selected four-CAZyme mixture, n=11) for 15 days. Total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and VLDL-cholesterol were increased by CH. In piglets fed CH-based diets, the interplay observed between IgG increase and IgM decrease contributed for piglets’ survival during weaning. n-6 PUFA were lower in piglets fed CH with or without feed enzymes and the inverse occurred for n-3 PUFA, thus benefiting n-6/n-3 ratio in the liver. The discriminant analysis applied to hepatic variables revealed a good separation between control and CH-based diets but failed to discriminate feed enzymes addition. Minor variations were promoted by Rovabio or the pre-selected enzymatic mixture, thus suggesting some improvement on microalga nutrients digestibility. Taken together, our findings indicate a health promoting effect of CH as feed ingredient in piglets’ nutrition during the weaning period, without negatively impacting on animals’ performance.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2021View details →

Carbohydrate tolerance in Amazon tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) revealed by NMR-metabolomics - Are glucose and fructose different sugars for fruit-eating fish?

In the present study, two approaches were followed to evaluate the metabolic responses of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), a frugivorous species, to intraperitoneal (IP) administration of glucose (GLU) and fructose (FRU) in fed (FED) and 10-day fasted (FAST) esh. Glucose and fructose tolerance tests were performed to assess the car- bohydrate utilization and complementary NMR-metabolomics analyses were done to elucidate the impacts of sugar mobilization on the metabolic proele of plasma, liver and muscle. Blood was sampled from FED groups at 0, 3, 6 and 24 h; and at 0 and 24 h from FAST groups. Significant differences were observed in the hypergly- caemic peak between sugars at 3 h (GLU - 13.7 ± 2.0 mM vs. FRU - 8.7 ± 1.1 mM; saline 6.3 ± 0.6 mM) and on the return to normoglycaemia (GLU - 8.5 ± 2.2 mM vs. FRU - 5.2 ± 0.9 mM; saline 4.9 ± 0.6 mM) 6 h after IP on the FRU esh. The NMR-metabolomics approach allowed to conclude that tambaqui seems to be more re- sponsive to the feeding regime (FED vs. FAST) than to the injected sugar (FRU vs. GLU). From the studied tissues, plasma showed no significant variations between feeding regimes at 24 h after IP, while muscle and liver re- vealed some variations on the enal metabolome proele between FED and FAST groups. The metabolome varia- tions between feeding regimes are indicative of changes on the amino acid utilization. Fish from FAST group seem to utilize amino acids as energy source rather than for protein synthesis and muscle growth. Variations on glucose concentration in muscle can also indicate different utilization of the sugars depending on the feeding regime.

Fig. 1 in Cucurbitaceae phloem exudate lectins: Purification, molecular characterization and carbohydrate binding characteristics

Fig. 1. Multiple sequence alignment of the amino acid sequence of PP2 proteins from Cucurbitaceae species as well as from A. thaliana and A. graveolens. Sequences of A. graveolens (CBC70481.1), A. thaliana (CAB78986.1), Coccinia indica agglutinin CIA17 (P0DSP5.1), Cucumis sativus (KAE8649724.1), Cucumis melo (AAM74924.1), Luffa acutangula (C0HJV2.1), Cucurbita argyrosperma (CBC70491.1), Cucurbita arg. sororia (AAM82558.1), Cucurbita moschata (AAF74345.1), Cucurbita pepo (023518987.1), Cucurbita maxima (AAA33117.1), Cucurbita digitata (AAM82559.1) were taken from NCBI gene bank. Multiple sequence alignment was performed using Clustal Omega (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/). The highly conserved amino acids 100-Leu-Ile-Glu-Val-Ser-Trp-105 and 199-Trp- Lys-200, which are important for chitooligosaccharide binding are shown in boxes. The residue numbers correspond to the primary structure of PPL.

Fig. 6 in Cucurbitaceae phloem exudate lectins: Purification, molecular characterization and carbohydrate binding characteristics

Fig. 6. Interaction of chitohexaose with the carbohydrate binding cleft of PPL, showing the amino acid residues involved in carbohydrate binding. The binding site was divided into three subsites as indicated by arrows: subsite 1 (Leu-100, Glu-102), subsite 2 (Ile-101, Ser-104, Trp-105) and subsite 3 (Trp-199, Lys- 200). Only three GlcNAc residues from the non-reducing end of chitohexaose are seen to interact with the binding cleft. GlcNAc residues at the reducing end interact with another PPL monomer (shown in the circle at the top left corner). Reproduced from Bobbili et al. (2014). Copyright (2014) Elsevier.

Fig. 3. A LigPlot depicting the interactions between CIA17 in Cucurbitaceae phloem exudate lectins: Purification, molecular characterization and carbohydrate binding characteristics

Fig. 3. A LigPlot depicting the interactions between CIA17 and bound chitotetraose. Adapted from the Supporting Information of Bobbili et al. (2019). Copyright (2019) Elsevier.

Fig. 5. A in Cucurbitaceae phloem exudate lectins: Purification, molecular characterization and carbohydrate binding characteristics

Fig. 5. A Complex of chitohexaose with PPL dimer obtained from molecular docking studies and optimized by molecular dynamics simulations. Reproduced from (Narahari et al., 2011b). Copyright (2011) American Chemical Society.

opennotspecifiedMar 2021View details →

Fig. 3 in Comparison of carbohydrate partitioning and expression patterns of some genes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis pathways in annual and biennial species of Cichorium spp.

Fig. 3. Relative gene expression of SUT1-3 in different tissues of chicory and endive at S1 and S2 stages. Transcript levels were determined by qPCR and normalized against the expression of the reference gene (RPL19). Transcript levels in different organs were expressed relative to the levels of leaves of chicory at S1. Values represent the mean of three biological replicates ± SE. Different letters indicate statistical significance P <0.05 (Duncan's multiple range test).

opennotspecifiedMar 2021View details →

Fig. 2 in Comparison of carbohydrate partitioning and expression patterns of some genes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis pathways in annual and biennial species of Cichorium spp.

Fig. 2. Transcript levels of FAZY genes, 1-SST (a), 1-FFT (b), 1-FEHI (c), 1-FEHII (d) in different tissues of chicory and endive at S1 and S2 stages. Transcript levels were determined by qPCR and normalized against the expression of the reference gene (RPL19). Transcript levels in different organs were expressed relative to the levels of leaves of chicory at S1. Values represent the mean of three biological replicates ± SE. Different letters indicate statistical significance at P <0.05 (Duncan's multiple range test).