Naturally occurring food-derived active ingredients have received huge attention for their chemopreventive and chemotherapy capabilities in several diseases. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a caffeic acid ester and a naturally-occurring phenolic compound in a number of plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family, such as Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) from which it was formerly isolated. RA intervenes in carcinogenesis through different ways, including in tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and inflammation. On the other hand, it also exerts powerful antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and even antidepressant, anti-aging effects. The present review aims to provide an overview on anticancer activities of RA and to deliberate its therapeutic potential against a wide variety of diseases. Given the current evidence, RA may be considered as part of the daily diet in the treatment of several diseases, with pre-determined doses avoiding cytotoxicity.

Olive fruit is a significant and promising source of potential bioactive compounds such as oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol. Oleuropein is the ester of elenolic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl ethanol (HT). It is the main glycoside in olives, the degradation of which results in the formation of hydroxytyrosol in olive oil. Both plays a significant role in the reduction of coronary heart diseases and a certain type of cancers. Both olive oil phenols have an effective role counter to cell proliferation, cell growth, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. They down regulate the expression of BCL-2 and COX-2 proteins, and reduced DNA damage. Hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein inhibited the multiple stages in colon carcinogenesis; initiation, promotion, and metastasis. They also provide protection against various human cancers including colorectal, skin, breast, thyroid, digestive, lung, brain, blood, and cervical. This review article discusses the anticancer perspectives and mechanisms of oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol in cell cultures and animal and human studies.

SummarySeveral varieties of small RNAs including microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are generated in plants to regulate development, genome stability and response to adverse environments. Phased siRNA (phasiRNA) is a type of secondary siRNA that is processed from a miRNA‐mediated cleavage of RNA transcripts, increasing silencing efficiency or simultaneously suppressing multiple target genes. Trans‐acting siRNAs (ta‐siRNAs) are a particular class of phasiRNA produced from noncoding transcripts that silence targets in trans. It was originally thought that ‘one‐hit’ and ‘two‐hit’ models were essential for processing distinct TAS precursors; however, a single hit event was recently shown to be sufficient at triggering all types of ta‐siRNAs. This review discusses the findings about biogenesis, targeting modes and regulatory networks of plant ta‐siRNAs. We also summarize recent advances in the generation of other phasiRNAs and their possible biological benefits to plants.

Timing of reproductive transition is precisely modulated by environmental cues in flowering plants. Facultative long-day plants, including Arabidopsis and temperate grasses, trigger rapid flowering in long-day conditions (LDs) and delay flowering under short-day conditions (SDs). Here, we characterize a SD-induced FLOWERING LOCUS T ortholog, FT-like 9 (FTL9), that promotes flowering in SDs but inhibits flowering in LDs in Brachypodium distachyon. Mechanistically, like photoperiod-inductive FT1, FTL9 can interact with FD1 to form a flowering activation complex (FAC), but the floral initiation efficiency of FTL9-FAC is much lower than that of FT1-FAC, thereby resulting in a positive role for FTL9 in promoting floral transition when FT1 is not expressed, but a dominant-negative role when FT1 accumulates significantly. We also find that CONSTANS 1 (CO1) can suppress FTL9 in addition to stimulate FT1 to enhance accelerated flowering under LDs. Our findings on the antagonistic functions of FTL9 under different day-length environments will contribute to understanding the multifaceted roles of FT in fine-tune modulation of photoperiodic flowering in plants.

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BackgroundNewcastle disease (ND) is one of the most deadly diseases of poultry around the globe. The disease is endemic in Pakistan and recurrent outbreaks are being reported regularly in wild captive, rural and commercial poultry flocks. Though, efforts have been made to characterize the causative agent in some of parts of the country, the genetic nature of strains circulating throughout Pakistan is currently lacking.Material and methodsTo ascertain the genetics of NDV, 452 blood samples were collected from 113 flocks, originating from all the provinces of Pakistan, showing high mortality (30–80%). The samples represented domesticated poultry (broiler, layer and rural) as well as wild captive birds (pigeons, turkeys, pheasants and peacock). Samples were screened with real-time PCR for both matrix and fusion genes (1792 bp), positive samples were subjected to amplification of full fusion gene and subsequent sequencing and phylogenetic analysis.ResultsThe deduced amino acid sequence of the fusion protein cleavage site indicated the presence of motif (112RK/RQRR↓F117) typical for velogenic strains of NDV. Phylogenetic analysis of hypervariable region of the fusion gene indicated that all the isolates belong to lineage 5 of NDV except isolates collected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. A higher resolution of the phylogenetic analysis of lineage 5 showed the distribution of Pakistani NDV strains to 5b. However, the isolates from KPK belonged to lineage 4c; the first report of such lineage from this province.ConclusionsTaken together, data indicated the prevalence of multiple lineages of NDV in different poultry population including wild captive birds. Such understanding is crucial to underpin the nature of circulating strains of NDV, their potential for interspecies transmission and disease diagnosis and control strategies.

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Cry proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been successfully used as biopesticides and in transgenic crops throughout the world. However, resources against the most serious agricultural pathogens, plant root-knot nematodes, are limited. The genomes of several highly nematicidal virulent Bt strains from our laboratory have been sequenced, facilitating the identification of novel Cry proteins and other virulence factors. We identified two novel Cry proteins, Cry5Ca1 and Cry5Da1, that exhibit high toxicity against Meloidogyne incognita. Using the Caenorhabditis elegans model, the two Cry5 toxins were shown to negatively affect nematode life span, fertility, and survival. The 50% lethal concentrations (LC 50 s) of Cry5Ca1 and Cry5Da1 were 57.22 g/ml and 36.69 g/ml, respectively. Moreover, a synergistic effect (synergism factor, 1.61 to 2.04) was observed for nematicidal toxicity of Cry5Ca1 and Cry5Da1, which is accordant with the phylogenetic results suggesting that domain II of the two novel Cry5 toxins evolved into two independent clades. Through comparison of the depressed degree of toxicity in the ␤-methylgalactoside detoxification test, we found that the novel toxin Cry5D possesses a different galactosebinding epitope; meanwhile, the finding that Cry5D does not share a motif (GXXXE) in the corresponding loop of domain II with Cry5B could explain the different galactose binding performance. Additionally, low-level cross-resistance of C. elegans bre mutant strains was evident between Cry5B and Cry5D. These results suggest that Cry5D can be used as an alternative to delay the potential resistance of nematodes to Cry5B. IMPORTANCE Although proper gene resources for Bt crops against the most serious agricultural pathogens, plant root-knot nematodes, are limited, we have identified two novel nematicidal toxins, Cry5Ca1 and Cry5Da1, against M. incognita, which have supplied more gene candidates for Bt crops designed against nematodes. Moreover, the association of the dissimilarity between Cry5Da1 and Cry5Ba1 and their low crossresistance can be attributed not only to a low sequence similarity of domain II but also to the structural difference of the key motif and receptor-binding epitope in the loops. This association facilitates the selection of a proper candidate for the prospective design of pyramided Bt crops that can delay potential resistance.KEYWORDS Bacillus thuringiensis, Caenorhabditis elegans, Cry proteins, bre resistance, nematicidal T he agricultural economic damage caused by more than 4,100 species of plantparasitic nematodes (PPNs) has been estimated to cost US$80 billion per year (1, 2), and a large proportion of this cost is due to the serious damage caused by the plant-parasitic nematode Meloidogyne incognita (3). Although many nematophagous