Branched chain a-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKDH) deficiency results in maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). We examined the molecular basis of familial cases ofMSUD by analyzing the activity, subunit structure, mRNA sequence, and genome structure of the affected enzyme. The BCKDH activity in the proband with MSUD was 6% ofthe normal control level. Immunoblot analysis revealed that the ElB subunit o...

Estimating the current stage of grape ripeness is a crucial step in wine making and becomes especially important during harvesting. Visual inspection of grape seeds is one method to achieve this goal without performing chemical analysis, however this method is prone to failure. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised visual inspection system for grape ripeness estimation using the Dirichlet M...

The Phenolic Maturity of the grape is one of the most important parameters to determine the optimal time for harvest. In this paper an innovative methodology to estimate grape maturity is proposed. In particular, the method is based on pattern recognition techniques to analyze seed images and to classify them into immature, mature, and overmature states by means of a supervised learning neural ...

The gamma-ray attenuation porosity evaluator (GRAPE) component of the multisensor track (MST) unit on board the JOIDES Resolution measures the saturated bulk density of sediments by relating the attenuation of gamma rays in a core sample to that of a standard with known density (aluminum). After reaching thermal equilibrium, unsplit core sections are routinely run through the MST system. The sa...

Grape composition plays important role for wine grapes in terms of wine grape quality. Besides, monoterpenes are a chemical class of compounds present in many highly aromatic Vitis vinifera L. cultivars belonging to Muscat family and some other special cultivars. One of these special grape cultivars is Sauvignon Blanc, and in this study, cluster thinning and its treatment times were used for a ...

Grape juices are an important source of food antioxidants. Unfortunately, there is little data about the mineral composition and the antioxidant, mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of grape juice in eukaryote cells. We evaluated the mineral contents (Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Si, S, Cl) of grape juices, the antioxidant, mutagenic and/or antimutagenic activities of the juices in the yeas...

We evaluated the effects of grape consumption on inflammation and oxidation in the presence or absence of dyslipidemias in metabolic syndrome (MetS). Men with MetS (n = 24), 11 with high triglycerides and low HDL and 13 with no dyslipidemia were recruited and randomly allocated to consume daily either 46 g of lyophilized grape powder (GRAPE), equivalent to 252 g fresh grapes, or placebo with an...

Plant protection based on novel alternative strategies is a major concern in agriculture to sustain pest management. The marc extract of red grape cultivars reveals plant defence inducer properties. Treatment with grape marc extract efficiently induced hypersensitive reaction-like lesions with cell death evidenced by Evans Blue staining of tobacco leaves. Examination of the infiltration zone an...

Volatile components of coconut fresh sap, sap syrup and coconut sugar were analyzed using GC-MS and identified by matching the mass spectra obtained with those present in the “NIST62 LIB” Library. The most abundant volatile components in the fresh sap, sap syrup and coconut sugar were 2-butanol and acetic acid. Twelve volatile components were identified and there were different amounts of volat...

The grape is one of the earliest domesticated fruit crops and, since antiquity, it has been widely cultivated and prized for its fruit and wine. Here, we characterize genome-wide patterns of genetic variation in over 1,000 samples of the domesticated grape, Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera, and its wild relative, V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris from the US Department of Agriculture grape germplasm ...