{"title":"Genetic and genomic resources of Vigna species for their utility in advanced breeding.","authors":"Kuldeep Kumar, Sudhir Kumar Jha, B Manu, Adarsh Kumar, Vaibhav Kumar, Khela Ram Soren, Meenal Rathore, Sandhya Sharma, Kishor Gaikwad","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00299-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00299-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the beginning of agriculture, humans have bestowed their skill on developing plant breeding capabilities and exploiting the potential of wild relatives. With the passage of time, few crops have received more attention than others, while many remain unexplored, like the genus Vigna. Vigna family members, being of short duration and adaptable to multiple cropping systems, offer some unique benefits. Possibilities of inter-specific cross further enhance the creation of novel genetic combinations and their transfer. In the present review, light has been shed on the origin, geographical distribution, inter-specific crosses studies conducted among the Vigna species, and potential donors for different abiotic stresses like salt, drought, cold, and heat. Further, the nutritional profile, pharmaceutical component and medicinal importance have also been reviewed. This review will provide the readers with an insight into the work conducted to date on several aspects of Vigna species.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"39-58"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146103689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The future of food: seaweed farming, biotechnology, and global sustainability.","authors":"Poulomi Sen, Sahely Kanthal, Jayita Hore, Soham Hazra, Ria Mukhopadhyay, Ranjit Singh Gujjar, Rajeev Kumar, Avishek Chatterjee","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00301-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00301-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Seaweeds, diverse marine macroalgae, are vital for ecosystems, offering significant environmental, nutritional, and economic advantages. Categorized as green, red, or brown based on pigments, they are widely used in food, medicine, and cosmetics. China leads in cultivating approximately 18 species, and innovative farming methods, like integrated multi-trophic aquaculture and advanced offshore systems, are rapidly expanding global seaweed production. This expansion considerably boosts sustainable agriculture, bioenergy, and food security. While seaweeds deliver high-value proteins, vitamins, dietary fibers, and bioactive compounds, and enhance crucial ecosystem services, their sustainable cultivation faces challenges from environmental stressors like ocean warming and pollution. Addressing these requires adaptive strategies, such as selecting resilient species and implementing effective monitoring and management. Biotechnological advancements, including tissue culture, mutation and selective breeding, and genetic engineering techniques like promoter engineering and CRISPR-based gene editing, offer promising avenues to improve yield, stress tolerance, and biochemical profiles. This comprehensive review uniquely integrates seaweed farming practices, nutritional benefits, environmental impacts, and biotechnological innovations with technological applications such as remote sensing, computational fluid dynamics, and numerical modeling for environmental monitoring and agricultural management. By synthesizing these elements, this review promotes sustainable seaweed utilization to address global challenges in food, health, and climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"59-83"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145848673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biologia futuraPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-10-19DOI: 10.1007/s42977-025-00290-2
Nóra Szabó, Erika Fodor, Kata Szabó, Virág Tarcsa, Zsolt Gyulai, Soma Jakab, Erika Gelei, Dávid Czimer, Ádám Miklósi, Máté Varga
{"title":"An optimized in situ hybridization protocol to study early developmental patterns and signaling pathways in paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis).","authors":"Nóra Szabó, Erika Fodor, Kata Szabó, Virág Tarcsa, Zsolt Gyulai, Soma Jakab, Erika Gelei, Dávid Czimer, Ádám Miklósi, Máté Varga","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00290-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00290-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Chinese paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) is an obligate air-breathing species native to the hypoxic freshwater environments of Southeast Asia. While its ethological aspects have been extensively investigated since the 1970 s, the molecular biology of this species remains largely unexplored. Nevertheless, it offers significant potential for research in fields such as behavioral genetics, molecular evolution, and developmental biology. This study aims to optimize the in situ hybridization protocol, a widely used technique in developmental biology proven effective in zebrafish, and adapt it to paradise fish. We applied our optimized protocol to compare the expression of several conserved developmental genes, including chordin (chd), goosecoid (gsc), myogenic differentiation 1 (myod1), T box transcription factor Ta (tbxta), paired box 2a (pax2a), and retinal homebox gene 3 (rx3), in zebrafish and paradise fish embryos. Furthermore, we examined the role of key conserved signaling pathways during early development in both species using small molecular agonists and antagonists. Through these molecular analyses, we can gain deeper insights into the evolutionary conservation of early developmental programs.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"85-99"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sex hormones and gender differences in immune responses and anticancer immunity: a comprehensive review.","authors":"Souvik Roy, Diyasa Banerjee, Abhinaba Banerjee, Lopamudra Choudhury","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00291-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00291-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The immune system is a complex network of cells and small molecules that play a crucial role in defending the body against pathogens and maintaining overall health. It has long been recognized that gonadal steroid hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, exert significant influences on immune responses, leading to gender-specific variations in immune function and disease susceptibility. This comprehensive review aims to provide a thorough analysis of the current knowledge regarding the interplay between sex hormones and immune responses, with a specific focus on gender differences. The article explores the fundamental mechanisms underlying the impact of sex hormones on the immune system, highlighting the intricate interactions between hormones and immune cells, including B- and T-lymphocytes and natural killer cells. Moreover, the review sheds light on the dynamic changes in sex hormone levels throughout one's lifespan and their potential implications on immune functions at different developmental stages, including puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. Notably, the role of sex steroid hormones in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses, cytokine production, immune cell trafficking, and immune-mediated tissue damages are also reviewed here. Importantly, the potential of these findings in the development of personalized medicine is huge, as understanding the intricate relationship between sex hormones and immune responses could lead to the design of targeted therapeutic interventions that consider gender-specific factors. In conclusion, this review details the crucial role of sex hormones in shaping immune responses and highlights the profound impact of gender on immune-related diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"1-27"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145487468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biologia futuraPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-11-13DOI: 10.1007/s42977-025-00292-0
Eszter Csepregi-Heilmann, Ágnes Áldott-Sipos, Tamás Spitkó, Csaba Szőke, János Pintér, Adrienn Széles, Tamás Berzy, Csaba L Marton
{"title":"Cold tolerance of maize inbred lines at the seed germination stage.","authors":"Eszter Csepregi-Heilmann, Ágnes Áldott-Sipos, Tamás Spitkó, Csaba Szőke, János Pintér, Adrienn Széles, Tamás Berzy, Csaba L Marton","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00292-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00292-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maize cultivation in northern regions is limited by the crop's sensitivity to low temperatures. The optimal temperature for its germination and early growth is around 30 °C, making cold stress a key barrier to early sowing. In the context of climate change, improving cold tolerance during germination is essential, particularly at higher latitudes, to support earlier sowing and avoid yield losses caused by summer drought and heat stress. Earlier flowering and reduced grain moisture at harvest are major agronomic advantages of early sowing. This study, conducted at the Agricultural Institute of the HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research (Hungary), aimed to evaluate cold tolerance among 56 genetically diverse maize inbred lines, including reference lines W401 (cold-tolerant) and W64A (cold-sensitive). Phenological traits were measured under controlled cold stress conditions. Several lines demonstrated strong cold tolerance, with a percentage of emergence (PE) > 85%, days from sowing to emergence (DSE) < 22 days, and cold tolerance index (CTI) values between 3 and 3.9. These inbred lines can represent promising candidates for future breeding programs targeting cold resilience.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"101-111"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145501552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biologia futuraPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1007/s42977-025-00294-y
Csilla Zsuzsanna Dávid, Annamária Kincses, Tivadar Kiss, Gábor Girst, László Papp, Judit Hohmann, Andrea Vasas
{"title":"Antibacterial, antioxidant, and xanthine-oxidase inhibitory screening studies of selected cyperaceae species occurring in Europe.","authors":"Csilla Zsuzsanna Dávid, Annamária Kincses, Tivadar Kiss, Gábor Girst, László Papp, Judit Hohmann, Andrea Vasas","doi":"10.1007/s42977-025-00294-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42977-025-00294-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":"139-154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145480569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biologia futuraPub Date : 2026-02-24DOI: 10.1007/s42977-026-00307-4
Robina Shaukat, Muhammad Mubashar Shaukat, Shaaf Ahmad, Nabila Roohi, Sajjad-Ur-Rahman
{"title":"Biochemical and histological alterations in the liver of albino rats fed a carbohydrate-rich diet under chronic heat and humidity stress.","authors":"Robina Shaukat, Muhammad Mubashar Shaukat, Shaaf Ahmad, Nabila Roohi, Sajjad-Ur-Rahman","doi":"10.1007/s42977-026-00307-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s42977-026-00307-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The effects of short-term heat stress on normal-diet rats are well-known, but the impact of long-term heat and humidity on rats fed a carbohydrate-rich diet remains unexplored. The study examined the alterations caused by chronic heat and humidity stress in liver enzymes, blood biochemistry, and histology in rats fed a carbohydrate-rich diet. One hundred and eighty adult rats were divided into routine diet (RD) and carbohydrate-rich diet (CRD) groups, further divided into no stress, heat, and humidity stress conditions. Heat and humidity stress were applied daily for 4 h over 30 days. Blood and liver samples were collected at three decapitation intervals for enzyme (ALT, AST, ALP, GGT) and protein (TP, ALB, TB) analysis, and histological examination. CRD-fed rats exhibited higher ALT, AST, and GGT levels than RD-fed rats, with males showing greater increases, especially under heat stress. ALP levels rose in CRD-fed groups, particularly in females at the 3rd decapitation. TP and ALB levels varied by gender and diet but were not significantly different under stress, while TB showed non-significant results across interactions. Histological analysis indicated normal hepatic structures in controls, whereas CRD-fed rats under heat stress displayed cellular disorganization, inflammatory infiltration, and hepatocyte degeneration. Based on biochemical and histological changes, prolonged heat and humidity stress in CRD-fed rats exacerbates liver damage. The findings emphasize the need for dietary and environmental management strategies to support liver health in stressful conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8853,"journal":{"name":"Biologia futura","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147281958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}