Nourishing the Cognition with Millets: A Comprehensive Review of Their Nutritional Impact and Potential as Cognitive Enhancers.

Cognition is the mental processes and abilities involved in acquiring, storing, retrieving and using it for decision making. Cognitive decline due to aging, lifestyle factor, chronic health conditions, genetic, and environmental factors are rising global concern and propose a potential threat to the cognitive health. The nutritional imbalance has led to increase in cognitive disorders around the world. Millets can be a nutritional intervention for promoting cognitive health and preventing cognitive decline. Millets has abundant phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and antioxidants to protect against oxidative stress-induced cognitive impairment. Millets exert neuroprotective effects by modulating pathways involved in neuronal-survival, synaptic-plasticity, and release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Millets demonstrates anti-inflammatory properties by regulating inflammatory-pathways and suppressing cytokines associated with cognitive impairment. Millets maintain healthy gut microbiota by producing metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids, which influence brain function and cognition. However, further research is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and on optimizing the proportion do exploit its potential. Implementing millet-based dietary strategies through public health initiatives and educational programs can be a practical approach to support cognitive health across populations. Harnessing the potential of millets as a nutritional intervention offers a promising avenue for promoting cognitive health and improving the quality of life.

Exploring the mitochondrial genome of Caridina pseudogracilirostris: a comparative analysis within the Atyidae Family.

BACKGROUND: Caridina pseudogracilirostris is a highly adaptive estuarine species found in brackish waters and marshes along the southwestern and southern coastal regions of India. METHODS AND RESULTS: The whole mitochondrial genome of C. pseudogracilirostris is 15,451 bp in length with 59.3% AT content and encodes 37 genes, including 22 tRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, and two rRNAs, which are arranged in a distinctive pattern similar to most crustaceans. ML and BI methods were used for phylogenetic analysis of C. pseudogracilirostris clustered with other Caridina species, supporting the monophyly of the Caridina genus within the Atyidae family. The fully annotated mitochondrial genome of C. pseudogracilirostris was submitted to GenBank under accession number OQ534868.1. CONCLUSIONS: We are the first to report on the C. pseudogracilirostris whole mitochondrial genome, which provides a valuable resource for future research on genetics, evolution, phylogenetics, etc., among Caridina species and other species. The phylogenetic investigation supports the monophyly of the Caridina genus within the Atyidae family and emphasizes the value of mitochondrial genome data in determining the evolutionary relationships among crustaceans.

Real-time imaging and developmental biochemistry analysis during embryogenesis of Caridina pseudogracilirostris.

This paper reports on the real-time imaging and developmental biochemistry of the freshwater caridean shrimp, Caridina pseudogracilirostris. The complete time-lapse development of a single embryo was recorded in an artificial mold, developed in our lab, and imaged under a stereomicroscope. It took 8 days to complete the 5 stages of embryonic development (1 cleavage stage, 2 gastrulation stage, 3 nauplius stage, 4 prehatching embryo, and 5 zoea stages). As the decapod eggs are enriched with dense yolk, biochemical determination of the major components was made to evaluate the yolk utilization during embryogenesis. The concentration of protein, lipid, and carbohydrate declined drastically from Stage I (cleavage) to Stage IV (Zoea), reflecting sustained yolk utilization during embryogenesis. The increase in the size of the embryo correlates with changes in water content. Lipids, being the principal organic substrate, changes in the fatty acid (FA) composition of embryos during development were determined by GC. The FA composition was observed within the range of 25%-60.87% for saturated, 22.57%-56.45% for monounsaturated, and 5.64%-18.51% for total polyunsaturated FAs. The essential polyunsaturated fatty acid were higher in Stages I, IV, and V, suggesting a major role in embryogenesis. The cellular proliferation and organogenesis as visualized in the real-time imaging correlate well with the biochemical variations observed in C. pseudogracilirostris.