Green tea from Camellia sinensis L. has different tastes and physiological functions according to the temperature of water used when brewing the tea leaves. Green tea brewed with boiled water (especially “Sencha”) has a strong astringent taste as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine are extracted with hot or boiled water. These compounds elicit strong astringency and bitterness, and were previously considered the principal functional ingredients in green tea. In contrast, cold-water brewed “Sencha” has much less bitterness and astringency than hot-water brewed “Sencha” because EGCG and caffeine are difficult to extract in cold water. Therefore, the tastes of amino acids predominate in cold-water brewed “Sencha” because they are easily extracted in cold water. The main functional components of cold-water brewed “Sencha” are epigallocatechin (EGC) and theanine, which are easily extracted in cold water. The functions of EGC have not attracted much attention thus far. However, it was recently found that EGC has an immune-enhancing effect and theanine has a psychosocial stress-reducing effect. These effects of EGC and theanine were inhibited by EGCG and caffeine; therefore, to obtain these effects, green tea needs to be brewed with cold water.

The sweetness and texture of heat-cooked storage roots are major factors regarding the eating quality of sweet potatoes. The sweetness (Brix%) of steamed storage roots stored for not longer than three months after harvesting correlated with the concentration of maltose (wt.%) in the roots. The concentration increased to a peak of approximately 10 wt.%, with beta-amylase activity in the fresh roots increasing up to about 0.2 mmol maltose min^-1 mg^-1 protein of the enzyme solution. However, the concentration did not increase along with increased activity even if it exceeded these levels. The maltose concentration also exhibited a negative correlation with the pasting temperature of starch isolated from the fresh roots. Such new varieties with high sweetness as ‘Quick Sweet’ and ‘Beniharuka’ produced a larger amount of maltose due to their higher beta-amylase activity and/or lower starch pasting temperature than older varieties. Beta-amylase activity also remarkably affected the texture of steamed storage roots of sweet potato relative to the remaining content of starch in the steamed roots after digestion by the enzyme during steaming. The difference in starch content between fresh and steamed roots was closely correlated to the amount of starch digested into maltose by beta-amylase, whose activity was significantly correlated to the digestion rate of starch in the six varieties investigated with different levels of beta-amylase. From these results, maltose generation by beta-amylase was significantly associated with the eating quality of steamed sweet potato.

Raman spectroscopy is one of the vibrational spectroscopies. Raman spectra of fats inform us of the vibrational states of acylglycerol molecules that reflect chemical structure, physical states, and the microenvironment at the molecular level. One of the great advantages of Raman spectroscopy is that it is less invasive; a sample can be studied in situ using laser light without pretreatment. Taking advantage of this spectroscopy, we investigated the crystalline states of meat fats and developed an in situ method of evaluating the degree of crystallinity and the crystalline polymorphs of fats. This method serves as a basis for such applications as the on-site quality measurement of meat fats and the species-specific detection of pork fat. This review describes the basics of Raman spectral analysis of the crystalline state of fat and its applications to meat products.

The influence of light on the development of asexual spores is an example to elucidate the effect of environmental factors on fungi. Well-studied fungus Aspergillus nidulans produces more conidia under the light condition than under the dark condition, whereas RIB 40, a standard strain of A. oryzae, produces more conidia under the dark condition. In this study, we found that an A. oryzae strain (RIB 1187) responded positively to incubation under light and resulted in better conidia count as compared to that in the dark. We studied the gene expression of RIB 1187 and found that four homologous genes of A. nidulans (up-regulated genes by light) were also up-regulated in RIB 1187 under the light condition.

New Rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties have been developed by inter-specific crossings to produce rice suitable for the harsh environments in Africa. The basic idea of NERICA was to combine the most useful characteristics of an African species (Oryza glaberrima) and an Asian species (Oryza sativa). However, the genetic basis of the agronomic characteristics of NERICA varieties remains unknown. In a previous study, we detected QTLs for days to heading (DTH) by using a segregating population derived from a cross between NERICA10 and its parent variety of O. sativa (WAB56-104). In the present study, we evaluated the agronomic traits of the same population and found positive correlations between DTH and culm length, culm and leaf weight, and flag leaf length. Negative correlations were found between DTH and panicle weight (PW), and between the ratio of panicle weight per culm and leaf weight. In the QTL analysis, a total of 33 SSR markers showed significant association with more than one trait and some markers were associated with more than two traits, suggesting the presence of a QTL with pleiotropic effects on multiple traits or a cluster of QTLs controlling different traits. QTLs on chromosome 8 conferred shorter DTH and larger PW in NERICA10 than WAB56-104. This QTL might explain the negative correlation between DTH and PW in the population. This information on the QTLs of agronomic traits will be useful for improving NERICA varieties adapted to low-yielding environments in Africa.

In the grains of cereal crops, 65% to 85% of phosphorus is stored as phytic acid, regardless of the crop species. Non-ruminant animals that include humans, cannot digest phytic acid, and they are unable to use most of the phosphorus in grains. And given the chelating ability of phytic acid, some of the nutritionally important minerals that are stored in phytic acid are not assimilated in these animals. Intending to improve the nutritional value of rice grain in three major cultivars in Japan, we obtained six nonlethal low phytic acid mutants in which the phytic acid content ranged from 42.1% to 94.1% relative to that of their original cultivars. Most of the agronomic traits of the six mutants were comparable to those of the original cultivars, except for a slightly weak germination ability in two mutants whose phytic acid contents were the lowest among the six mutants. In the grains of our mutants, the iron content correlated positively and the calcium contents correlated negatively with the phytic acid contents.

An abattoir survey for bovine enzootic leukosis revealed that severe splenomegaly and hepatomegaly were observed in a heifer (case 1) and a steer (case 2), respectively, in addition to great enlargement of certain lymph nodes. Both cases tested positive for bovine leukemia virus (BLV) by polymerase chain reaction. Histologically, the neoplastic tissues in case 1 were characterized by a mantle zone growth pattern of medium-sized cells showing a transition to highly pleomorphic and atypical cells. Similar histological characteristics were also observed in case 2, but neoplastic mantle cells forming focal lesions were more pleomorphic than in case 1. B cell markers CD20 and CD79a were expressed in cases 1 and 2, as well as CD5 and cyclin D1, which are important markers for human mantle cell lymphoma. Cases of pleomorphic B cell lymphoma with large abdominal tumor masses are thought to be derived from body cavity B-1 cells, whereas this study suggests that nodal pleomorphic B cell lymphoma is of mantle cell origin.

Cystoisospora suis causes neonatal diarrhea in piglets worldwide. Although histopathological identification of this parasite is difficult owing to its similarity with other enteric coccidian parasites, including Eimeria spp., information regarding its molecular epidemiology in Japan is lacking. In this study, a 66-day-old post-weaned piglet reared in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, showed diarrhea and was examined using parasitological, histopathological, ultrastructural, and molecular methods to characterize the pathogens of the disease. Gross lesions were characterized by emaciation, thinning of the small intestinal wall, and lack of pulmonary collapse. Histopathologically, severe villous atrophy was detected in the jejunum, and Cystoisospora-like parasites were found in the cytoplasm of the epithelium. Interstitial pneumonia, purulent meningitis, pericarditis, and lymphatic abscesses were also noted. A microbiological and immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the piglet was also infected with porcine circovirus type 2, Escherichia coli serogroup O8, and group A rotavirus. Coccidial oocysts were recovered from diarrheic feces. PCR analysis targeting the rRNA internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) genes of C. suis and sequencing revealed 100% similarity to those of C. suis in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. This study is the first report on the molecular identification of C. suis COX1 genes in Japan.

Knowledge of throughfall at abandoned skid trails in tropical forests is extremely scarce. Thus, throughfall was measured using 120 storage rain gauges set on a skid trail left abandoned 41 years after forest harvesting in the Bukit Tarek Experimental Watershed (BTEW) in Peninsular Malaysia. All trees of ≥ 1 m height in the plot were identified to the species level, and their diameter at breast height (DBH) and height were measured. Vegetation along the skid trail comprises trees with smaller DBH (0.2-31.0 cm, with a mean of 2.0 cm) and shorter height (1.0-20.0 m, with a mean of 2.8 m) than those in the regenerated secondary forests of BTEW. The diversity (i.e. 43 families, 131 species) at the skid trail was similar to that in an old tropical forest at BTEW. The ratio of throughfall to gross rainfall (T_h/R_g) for 84 rain events ranged from 27.4% to 204.7% with a mean and standard deviation of 98.1% and 33.2%, respectively. We found that a considerable amount of rainwater dropped under bertam (i.e. Eugeissona tristis) and rattan (i.e. Daemonorops callicarpa, Calamus insignis) vegetation. The T_h/R_g ratio weakly correlated with canopy openness. The mean T_h/R_g ratio is the largest mean ratio ever reported for forests in Malaysia.

The goal of this study was to characterize palynomorph assemblages in tropical marine coastal shallow-water sediments collected from the southern coast of Myanmar, and possibly find them as useful tools for reconstructing changes in the tropical coastal environment. These sediment samples were dominated by heterotrophic marine palynomorphs, particularly in microforaminiferal linings and heterotrophic dinoflagellate cysts. In addition, these tropical marine palynomorph assemblages were characterized by low cell/grain concentrations, especially in photo/mixotrophic dinoflagellate cysts. These marine palynomorph characteristics are common to other tropical coastal surface sediments collected from Southeast Asia. These assemblages may reflect a diagnostic food web that characterizes tropical coastal shallow waters. For example, benthic foraminifers (microforaminiferal linings) that are always dominated usually consume prey organisms composed of bacteria, diatoms, dinoflagellates and amorphous organic substances. And bacteria can utilize dissolved organic matter delivered from terrestrial and marine environments via various organisms that inhabit water and sediment surfaces. The dominance of microforaminiferal linings appears to result from both microbial and grazing food webs in tropical coastal shallow-water sediments.