Role of gum Arabic combined with cinnamic acid coating on quality and cell wall degradation enzymes of mango fruits at low temperature.

Mango exhibits a short shelf life when kept under ambient conditions. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the synergistic effect of gum Arabic (GA) and cinnamic acid (CA) coatings on mango fruits stored for 28 days at 12 ± 1 °C. The treatments included GA 10 and 20 % sole and its formulation with CA 0.2 % while the uncoated fruits were used as control. The results revealed that GA + CA coatings exhibited reduced weight loss, flesh firmness, delayed respiratory peak, retained soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA) and skin colour, retarded spoilage, and decreased electrolyte leakage of fruit as compared to uncoated fruit during storage. Among all, the coating GA 20 % + CA 0.2 % maintained higher firmness (16.6 N), SSC (20.1 %), TA (0.71 %), total flavonoid content (152 mg/kg) and total carotenoids content (45.1 mg/kg) and retained the higher sensory quality of mango fruit at the end of storage. Additionally, the GA 20 % + CA 0.2 % coating suppressed activities of polygalacturonase (PG), cellulase (CL) and pectin methyl esterase (PME) in stored mango fruits.

Limited replication of influenza A virus in human mast cells.

Mast cells are important in innate immunity and protective against certain bacterial infections. However, there is limited evidence that mast cells respond to viruses. As mast cells are abundant in mucosal tissues of the lung, they are in a prime location to detect and respond to influenza virus. In this study, we characterized for the first time the replication cycle of influenza A virus in human mast cells by measuring influenza A virus transcription, RNA replication, protein synthesis, and formation of infectious virus as compared to the replication cycle in epithelial cells. We detected the presence of influenza A viral genomic RNA transcription, replication, and protein synthesis in human mast cells and epithelial cells. However, there was no significant release of infectious influenza A virus from mast cells, whereas epithelial cells produce ~100-fold virus compared with the inoculating dose. We confirmed that influenza A virus infects human mast cells, begins to replicate, but the production of new virus is aborted. Thus, mast cells may lack critical factors essential for productive infection or there are intrinsic or inducible anti-influenza A mechanisms in mast cells.