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Forty-two Chinese sugar-beet breeding lines were evaluated for the presence of normal and male-sterile (Owen) cytoplasms using polymorphisms in the chloroplast petG-psbE region as well as in the mitochondrial minisatellite loci. The polymorphisms detected allowed the distinction of three cytoplasm types over the whole sample, one being associated with Owen cytoplasm, a second with the maintainer inbred 'TK-81mm-O'-type cytoplasm (termed normal-1 cytoplasm) and a third with another maintainer inbred 'NK-310mm-O'-type cytoplasm (normal-2 cytoplasm). Western blot analysis was carried out to conWrm that expression of the male-sterility-associated protein (preSATP6) occurred in plants with Owen cytoplasm but not in plants with either normal-1 or normal-2 cytoplasm. Of the 42 breeding lines examined, 14 had exclusively normal (normal-1 and/or normal-2) cytoplasm and 11 had only Owen cytoplasm. The remaining 17 lines possessed both normal and Owen cytoplasms, and noticeably, some of these 17 lines have been expected to become the source of superior maintainer lines. The results thus show that molecular identiWcation of the cytoplasm is required to avoid wasting resources on account of attempting to develop the maintainer genotype from plants with Owen cytoplasm.

In this study, Qula casein derived from yak milk casein was hydrolyzed using a two-enzyme combination approach, and high angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity peptides were screened by quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling integrated with molecular docking analysis. Hydrolysates (<3 kDa) derived from combinations of thermolysin + alcalase and thermolysin + proteinase K demonstrated high ACE inhibitory activities. Peptide sequences in hydrolysates derived from these two combinations were identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). On the basis of the QSAR modeling prediction, a total of 16 peptides were selected for molecular docking analysis. The docking study revealed that four of the peptides (KFPQY, MPFPKYP, MFPPQ, and QWQVL) bound the active site of ACE. These four novel peptides were chemically synthesized, and their IC was determined. Among these peptides, KFPQY showed the highest ACE inhibitory activity (IC = 12.37 ± 0.43 μM). Our study indicated that Qula casein presents an excellent source to produce ACE inhibitory peptides.

Sugar beet is an important sugar-yielding crop with some tolerance to salt, but the mechanistic basis of this tolerance is not known. In the present study, we have used whole-transcriptome RNA-seq and degradome sequencing in response to salt stress to uncover differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) in both leaves and roots. A competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network was constructed with the predicted DE pairs, which revealed regulatory roles under salt stress. A functional analysis suggests that ceRNAs are implicated in copper redistribution, plasma membrane permeability, glycometabolism and energy metabolism, NAC transcription factor and the phosphoinositol signaling system. Overall, we conducted for the first time a full transcriptomic analysis of sugar beet under salt stress that involves a potential ceRNA network, thus providing a basis to study the potential functions of lncRNAs/circRNAs.

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Four mitochondrial minisatellites were used to study cytoplasmic diversity in leaf and garden beet germplasm resources. Eleven multi-locus haplotypes were identified, of which one (named mitochondrial minisatellite haplotype 4, hereafter min04) was associated with male-sterile Owen cytoplasm and two others (min09 and min18), with a normal fertile cytoplasm. European leaf beet germplasm exhibited the greatest haplotype diversity, with min09 and min18 predominating. In North African leaf beet accessions, only these two haplotypes were observed, making it likely that North African accessions were descended from European genotypes. The prevalence of min18 was also noted in leaf beet from the Middle East and western Asia. Such a pattern contrasts with that found in east Asian leaf beet where the two haplotypes were extremely rare. The geographical structure of the mitochondrial haplotypes allowed us to infer possible dissemination pathways of leaf beet. Additionally, we showed that mitochondrial genome diversity was low in garden beet germplasm, with min18 being highly predominant. An explanation of this limited diversity may lie in the geographically restricted origin of as well as relatively short cultivation histories of garden beet

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