Breeding of new rice cultivar 'Tohoku 194' with 'Sasanishiki'-type good eating quality of cooked rice.

Cooked rice of 'Sasanishiki' is soft and not as sticky as those of Japanese leading cultivars 'Koshihikari' and 'Hitomebore'. As a method for efficient selection of a breeding line having a good eating quality like that of 'Sasanishiki', the use of physical properties of cooked rice and cooking quality was examined. There were differences of physical properties of the surface layer, starch-iodine blue value per solid substance weight in cooking water and volume expansion of cooked rice between 'Sasanishiki' and 'Hitomebore', these properties being considered to be usable for the selection of breeding lines. Using these traits as selection targets, one line, named 'Tohoku 194', which has eating quality highly similar to that of 'Sasanishiki' and cold tolerance derived from 'Hitomebore', was selected from progeny of a cross between 'Sasanishiki' and 'Hitomebore'. An application for registration as a new variety has been submitted for 'Tohoku 194' under the Japanese Plant Variety Protection Act, and is expected to become a recommended cultivar in Miyagi Prefecture. 'Tohoku 194' may fulfill various demands of consumers and companies in the food industry.

In vivo visualization of dermal collagen fiber in skin burn by collagen-sensitive second-harmonic-generation microscopy.

Optical assessment of skin burns is possible with second-harmonic-generation (SHG) microscopy due to its high sensitivity to thermal denaturation of collagen molecules. In contrast to previous studies that were performed using excised tissue specimens ex vivo, in vivo observation of dermal collagen fibers in living rat burn models with SHG microscopy is demonstrated. Changes in signal vanishing patterns in the SHG images are confirmed to be dependent on the burn degree. Comparison of the SHG images with Masson's trichrome-stained images indicated that the observed patterns were caused by the coexistence of molten and fibrous structures of dermal collagen fibers. Furthermore, a quantitative parameter for burn assessment based on the depth profile of the mean SHG intensity across the entire SHG image is proposed. These results and discussions imply a potential of SHG microscopy as a minimally invasive, highly quantitative tool for skin burn assessment.