Analyzing lateral root development: how to move forward

Roots are important to plants for a wide variety of processes, including nutrient and water uptake, anchoring and mechanical support, storage functions, and as the major interface between the plant and various biotic and abiotic factors in the soil environment. Therefore, understanding the development and architecture of roots holds potential for the manipulation of root traits to improve the productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems and to better understand and manage natural ecosystems. While lateral root development is a traceable process along the primary root and different stages can be found along this longitudinal axis of time and development, root system architecture is complex and difficult to quantify. Here, we comment on assays to describe lateral root phenotypes and propose ways to move forward regarding the description of root system architecture, also considering crops and the environment.

O6-carboxymethylguanine DNA adduct formation and lipid peroxidation upon in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of haem-rich meat

Scope Epidemiological and clinical studies have demonstrated that the consumption of red haem-rich meat may contribute to the risk of colorectal cancer. Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain this causal relationship, i.e. N-nitroso compound (NOC) formation and lipid peroxidation (LPO). Methods and Results In this study, the NOC-derived DNA adduct O6-carboxymethylguanine (O6-CMG) and the LPO product malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured in individual in vitro gastrointestinal digestions of meat types varying in haem content (beef, pork, chicken). While MDA formation peaked during the in vitro small intestinal digestion, alkylation and concomitant DNA adduct formation was observed in seven (out of 15) individual colonic digestions using separate faecal inocula. From those, two haem-rich meat digestions demonstrated a significantly higher O6-CMG formation (p < 0.05). MDA concentrations proved to be positively correlated (p < 0.0004) with haem content of digested meat. The addition of myoglobin, a haem-containing protein, to the digestive simulation showed a dose–response association with O6-CMG (p = 0.004) and MDA (p = 0.008) formation. Conclusion The results suggest the haem-iron involvement for both the LPO and NOC pathway during meat digestion. Moreover, results unambiguously demonstrate that DNA adduct formation is very prone to inter-individual variation, suggesting a person-dependent susceptibility to colorectal cancer development following haem-rich meat consumption.