3rd Global Summit on Plant Science August 07-09, 2017 Rome, Italy

Biography:

Dr. Grace Chen obtained her Ph.D from University of Wisconsin at Madison, and did her postdoctoral studies from University of California ̶ Plant Gene Expression Center. She has published more than 44 papers in reputed journals is globally recognized as an expert on oilseed biotechnology.

Abstract:

Castor seed oil contains 90% ricinoleic acid which has a wide range of industrial applications. Improvement in oil content would be of great benefit to castor growers and oil processers. Two cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection were conducted through screening for high oil content castor seeds using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Selection increased mean oil content of a base population (Cycle 0) of cultivar Impala from 50.33% to 53.87% in Cycle 1 and 54.47% in Cycle 2. Gains from Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 were 3.54% and 0.6%, respectively. The small gain in the second cycle indicated a genetic ceiling of oil content or the genetic variability of the base population was extensively explored. Nevertheless, the 54.47% mean oil content of Cycle 2 ranks the selected material in the top 1% of the entire 1103 castor accessions maintained at United States of Department of Agriculture. As a result of the recurrent selection, we found average seed weight was also increased from 0.44 g in Cycle 0 to 0.50 g in Cycle 1 and 0.54 g in Cycle 2.  Correlation between oil content and weight was moderate (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001) in Cycle 0, and strong in Cycle 1 (r = 0.63, p < 0.0001) and Cycle 2 (r = 0.77, p < 0.0001). To our knowledge, this is the first report of utilizing NMR and recurrent selection for improving oil content in castor

Biography:

Vanderlan da S. Bolzani is full professor at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP). Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), member of the Brazilian Academy of Science (ABC) and São Paulo Academy of Science (ACIESP) and TWAS, is CNPq Fellow level 1A, and has received several awards, highlighting: 2015 ABIQUIM Award on research innovation; 2014 CAPES-Elsevier Award for the contributions to science in Brazil, Distinguished Woman in Science Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, conceived by ACS & IUPAC (2011); Simão Mathias Medal, the highest honor conferred by Brazilian Chemical Society (2011). With Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, under guidance of Prof. Otto R. Gottlieb, at University of São Paulo, in 1990 she was awarded with a fellowship from DAAD for a short training at University of Hannover. After a post-doctorate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPISU-USA) under guidance of Prof. David Kingston, she joined to the UNESP, and since 2003, is member of the Biota-FAPESP Program Coordination. Her field of interest is plant science, and has been involved in the isolation, bioactivity and function of secondary metabolites and peptides from plants, and recently has been involved on metabolomics and medicinal chemistry. Has published > 270 papers, 7 patents, and 5 book chapter (ih = 39). Since 2011 is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of L’Oréal in Paris.

Abstract:

Plant species biosynthesize a wide variety of secondary metabolites, which play a vital role in the survival of the species themselves as well as in the preservation of ecological equilibrium of the ecosystems. They also are very important to regulate several functions that are fundamental to the plant/plant and plant/insect interaction, resistance against pests and diseases; attraction of pollinators, and interaction with symbiotic microorganisms. Therefore, natural compounds are treasure for synthesis and drug discovery new leads. The vast and biologically-rich Brazilian biodiversity represents an outstanding opportunity for the development of biology and chemistry sciences in many different research areas, including drug discovery. species exist in Brazil.

Within this scenario, the BIOTA/FAPESP Program was created in March 1999. Among the several objectives of this program, one goal is the search for bioactive compounds from Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes, aimed at to find new lead molecules. Some examples of lead molecules obtained in NuBBE Lab. Will be highlight showing the importance of tropical biodiversity for drug discovery. The 1^st natural products data base from the Brazilian biodiversity also has been organized and we have used these data. Some natural products were identified to be synthetize aimed at major concentration of the compound for further pharmacological and toxicological assays, or to prepare synthetic derivatives aimed to improve the active already detected.

Biography:

Professor Djebbar Atmani is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences, University of Bejaia (Algeria). He obtained his Master of Science degree from California State University, Los Angeles (USA) in 1987 and his PhD from the University of Sétif (Algeria) in 2004. His research interest is natural products from medicinal plants. He published more than thirty papers in high impact scientific journals and attended several seminars and symposia worldwide.

Abstract:

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) constitute a group of low-molecular weight substances formed as byproducts of the normal metabolism of oxygen and have important roles in cell signaling and homeostasis. However, accumulation of ROS in cells, a phenomenon observed in oxidative stress, may cause damage to biological molecules and cell membranes, ultimately leading to cell death. ROS are believed to cause cellular damage mainly by lipid peroxidation which incorporates oxygen into membrane lipids. They are implicated in ageing and disease, including atherosclerosis, cancer and lung disease.

Nevertheless, ROS production is constantly balanced through the action of an endogenous antioxidant system, essentially made up of superoxide dismutase and catalase. Plant phenolics, an essential part of the human diet, have an aromatic ring bearing hydroxyl groups and their structures may range from simple phenols to complex high-molecular weight tannins. The plant kingdom counts more than eight thousand different phenolic compounds, among which flavonoids represent more than half.

During the last decade, numerous research reports clearly have pled for a decisive role of phenolic compounds as potential therapeutic agents in the treatment of inflammation, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Hence, this study was designed to present an overview on ROS and associated pathologies, as well as case studies on plant phenolics. Moreover, evidence on the role of plant phenolics as potential new medicine will be presented and discussed.