Dry matter content of apical and basal portions of Russet Burbank potatoes
Studies were made over a 4-year period of some factors affecting the dry matter content of the apical and basal portions of growing Russet Burbank potatoes. The greatest difference between portions was obtained from tubers of the normally irrigated plots of 1969. The amounts in the two portions in 1970 were nearly equal throughout the growing season. The major differences between the 2 years was a slightly cooler June and warmer maximum temperatures in July of the 1970 growing season. Moisture stress, particularly, early in the stage of tuber development (1972 season) caused a switch in amount of dry matter in the apical and; basal portions. Stress later in the development stage (1969 season) did not cause a switch. Fertility level was not as influential as moisture stress in affecting the ratio of dry matter in the two ends, whether under stress or normal moisture conditions.
Vacuolar Invertase Gene Silencing in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Improves Processing Quality by Decreasing the Frequency of Sugar-End Defects
Sugar-end defect is a tuber quality disorder and persistent problem for the French fry processing industry that causes unacceptable darkening of one end of French fries. This defect appears when environmental stress during tuber growth increases post-harvest vacuolar acid invertase activity at one end of the tuber. Reducing sugars produced by invertase form dark-colored Maillard reaction products during frying. Acrylamide is another Maillard reaction product formed from reducing sugars and acrylamide consumption has raised health concerns worldwide. Vacuolar invertase gene (VInv) expression was suppressed in cultivars Russet Burbank and Ranger Russet using RNA interference to determine if this approach could control sugar-end defect formation. Acid invertase activity and reducing sugar content decreased at both ends of tubers. Sugar-end defects and acrylamide in fried potato strips were strongly reduced in multiple transgenic potato lines. Thus vacuolar invertase silencing can minimize a long-standing French fry quality problem while providing consumers with attractive products that reduce health concerns related to dietary acrylamide.
Studies on the composition, quality and processing of triticale. Part II. Mineral composition of grain and flour.
Mineral composition of grain and flour in 14 promising triticale strains from India are reported. The mean values for whole grain, i.e. Ca (0.47 mg/g), P (2.70 mg/g), K 4.60 mg/g, Na (352 micrograms/g), Zn (41.6 micrograms/g), Cu (7.0 micrograms/g), Fe (73.4 micrograms/g) and Mn (33.6 micrograms/g) were obtained as compared to those of flour, i.e. Ca (0.27 mg/g), P (0.97 mg/g), K (1.64 mg/g), Na (231 micrograms/g), Zn (26 micrograms/g), Cu (4.0 micrograms/g) and Mn (10.5 micrograms/g), respectively. These values were found to be considerably higher than those of wheat. Highly significant positive correlations of ash with sodium and zinc in whole grain were observed. In the case of triticale flour, highly significant positive correlations of ash with manganese, phosphorus and potassium were obtained.