Nutritional properties of raw and cooked <i>Azolla caroliniana</i> Willd., an aquatic wild edible plant

Winstead, Daniel; Di Gioia, Francesco; Jauregui, Marjorie; Jacobson, Michael

doi:10.1002/fsn3.3904

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Azolla can provide local biofertiliser, livestock feed, biofuel and food [12] globally when grown indoors [11], helping alleviate shortages of the 'three Fs' that threaten food supplies: fertiliser, feed and fuel. It absorbs and removes phosphates and nitrates from water contaminated by chemical fertilisers, industrial pollutants, and animal and human waste that trigger toxic cyanobacterial (aka blue-green algal) blooms in rivers and lakes.…”

Section: Nitrogenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Bujak,

Bujak

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Azolla is the only plant with a co-evolving nitrogen-fixing (diazotrophic) cyanobacterial symbiont (cyanobiont), Nostoc azollae, resulting from Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) 80 million years ago in Azolla’s ancestor. Additional genes from the WGD resulted in genetic, biochemical and morphological changes in the plant that enabled transmission of the cyanobiont to successive generations via its megaspores. The resulting permanent symbiosis and co-evolution led to loss, downregulation or conversion of non-essential genes to pseudogenes in the cyanobiont, changing it from a free-living organism to an obligate symbiont. Upregulation of other genes in the cyanobiont increased its atmospheric dinitrogen fixation and provision of nitrogen-based products to the plant. As a result, Azolla can double its biomass in less than two days free-floating on fresh water and sequester large amounts of atmospheric CO2, giving it the potential to mitigate anthropogenic climate change through Carbon Capture and Storage. Azolla’s biomass can also provide local, low-cost food, biofertiliser, feed and biofuel that are urgently needed as our population increases by a billion every twelve years. This paper integrates data from biology, genetics, geology and paleontology to identify the location, timing and mechanism for the acquisition of a co-evolving diazotrophic cyanobiont by Azolla’s ancestor in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America.

show abstract

Section: Nitrogenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Bujak,

Bujak

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Nutritional Composition of Post‐Catastrophic Foods

Mather,

Siva,

Jauregui

et al. 2024

Current Protocols

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In addition to current challenges in food production arising from climate change, soil salinization, drought, flooding, and human‐caused disruption, abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios (ASRS), e.g., a nuclear winter, supervolcano eruption, or large asteroid or comet strike, are catastrophes that would severely disrupt the global food supply and decimate normal agricultural practices. In such global catastrophes, teragrams of particulate matter, such as aerosols of soot, dust, and sulfates, would be injected into the stratosphere and block sunlight for multiple years. The reduction of incident sunlight would cause a decrease in temperature and precipitation and major shifts to climate patterns leading to devastating reductions in agricultural production of traditional food crops. To survive a catastrophic ASRS or endure current and future disasters and famines, humans might need to rely on post‐catastrophic foods, or those that could be foraged, grown, or produced under the new climate conditions to supplement reduced availability of traditional foods. These foods have sometimes been referred to as emergency, alternate, or resilient foods in the literature. While there is a growing body of work that summarizes potential post‐catastrophic foods and their nutritional profiles based on existing data in the literature, this article documents a list of protocols to experimentally determine fundamental nutritional properties of post‐catastrophic foods that can be used to assess the relative contributions of those foods to a balanced human diet that meets established nutritional requirements while avoiding toxic levels of nutrients. © 2024 The Author(s). Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.Basic Protocol 1: Total digestible glucansBasic Protocol 2: Apparent protein digestibilityBasic Protocol 3: Vitamins B1, B3, B9, C, and D2 by HPLCBasic Protocol 4: Total antioxidant activity (DPPH‐scavenging activity)Basic Protocol 5: Total phenolic compounds (Folin–Ciocalteu reagent method)Basic Protocol 6: Mineral content by ICP‐OES

show abstract

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Bujak,

Bujak

2024

Plants

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Azolla is the only plant with a co-evolving nitrogen-fixing (diazotrophic) cyanobacterial symbiont (cyanobiont), Nostoc azollae, resulting from whole-genome duplication (WGD) 80 million years ago in Azolla’s ancestor. Additional genes from the WGD resulted in genetic, biochemical, and morphological changes in the plant that enabled the transmission of the cyanobiont to successive generations via its megaspores. The resulting permanent symbiosis and co-evolution led to the loss, downregulation, or conversion of non-essential genes to pseudogenes in the cyanobiont, changing it from a free-living organism to an obligate symbiont. The upregulation of other genes in the cyanobiont increased its atmospheric dinitrogen fixation and the provision of nitrogen-based products to the plant. As a result, Azolla can double its biomass in less than two days free-floating on fresh water and sequester large amounts of atmospheric CO2, giving it the potential to mitigate anthropogenic climate change through carbon capture and storage. Azolla’s biomass can also provide local, low-cost food, biofertiliser, feed, and biofuel that are urgently needed as our population increases by a billion every twelve years. This paper integrates data from biology, genetics, geology, and palaeontology to identify the location, timing and mechanism for the acquisition of a co-evolving diazotrophic cyanobiont by Azolla’s ancestor in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America.

show abstract

Nutritional properties of raw and cooked Azolla caroliniana Willd., an aquatic wild edible plant

Cited by 3 publications

References 61 publications

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Nutritional Composition of Post‐Catastrophic Foods

Origin and Evolution of the Azolla Superorganism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About