Guangxi spans from the northern tropical zone to the middle subtropical zone and is rich in natural woody plant seed resources (including spice and oil plants). Woody spice plant seeds are characterized by remarkable varietal diversity, distinct regional features and high-value active ingredients, making them an excellent raw material for the development of functional oils. However, the development of woody vegetable oil in Guangxi is restricted by problems such as lagging large-scale planting, high investment in new extraction equipment (5 to 8 times higher than that in traditional extraction processes), and insufficient coordination across the industrial chain. Moreover, existing research has problems such as lagging systematic evaluation of germplasm resources, fragmented research on active components, and insufficient industrialization of green extraction technology. This article outlines an overview of the resources (geographical distribution, yield, and oil content), active components and extraction processes (traditional pressing, traditional solvent extraction, supercritical CO₂ extraction and subcritical extraction, in terms of oil extraction rate, advantages, and disadvantages) of Guangxi’s specialty woody plant seeds such as osmanthus seed oil, camphor tree seed oil, Litsea cubeba seed oil, star anise seed oil and Camellia oleifera seed oil. On this basis, a regional resource atlas is presented and current challenges and future directions are discussed to provide an important reference for promoting innovation in Guangxi’s characteristic oil industries and ensuring the security of vegetable oil supply in China.

Pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae can enter a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state under disinfectant stress. Disregarding species-specific differences in VBNC behavior likely leads to ineffective disinfection and underestimated contamination risks. Here, we compared VBNC dynamics in wild-type Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, Cronobacter sakazakii, and an E. coli O157:H7 ΔrelA mutant (constructed by homologous recombination) exposed to 1 mg/L free chlorine. All strains entered the VBNC state, with E. coli O157:H7 showing the highest incidence rate (56.53%), followed by C. sakazakii (29.44%) and S. Typhimurium (25.35%). In contrast, the ΔrelA mutant exhibited minimal VBNC incidence rate (10.84%). VBNC E. coli O157:H7 displayed a 5.15-fold increase in catalase activity and a 30.96% survival rate under ampicillin, indicating enhanced stress resistance. Notably, resuscitation time varied significantly: C. sakazakii recovered within 6 h, whereas E. coli O157:H7 and S. Typhimurium required 9 h; the ΔrelA mutant needed 10 h. Further analysis revealed that key stringent response regulators (SRRs), particularly RelA, drove bacterial chlorine resistance through a multipathway regulatory network. The RelA (encoded by relA) mediated species-specific survival by regulating antioxidant defense (oxyR, soxR), stress adaptation (rpoS), ribosome hibernation (rmf, hpf), cell division arrest (sulA), and efflux/porin systems (tolC, acrA/B/D, ompF). Notably, rmf and tolC showed maximal induction (6.4-fold and 10.0-fold, respectively) in E. coli O157:H7, significantly exceeding those of their orthologs in C. sakazakii and S. Typhimurium (P < 0.05). Collectively, our results reveal the enhanced chlorine resistance of E. coli O157:H7 through SRR-mediated networks and provide practical strategies for pathogen-specific disinfection.

Cronobacter sakazakii in powdered infant formula is extremely harmful to infants. While hygienic standards for infant formula have imposed a strict limit for this microorganism, Cronobacter sakazakii-tainted baby formula incidents continue to occur. There are many factors that contribute to the occurrence of Cronobacter sakazakii in the production line of powdered infant formula. This article describes the characteristics of spatial exposure of powdered infant formula to Cronobacter sakazakii during the production process, focusing on the adverse effects on the monitoring and removal of Cronobacter sakazakii residues caused by hidden contamination associated with the stress-tolerant phenotype and viable but non-culturable (VBNC) phenotype in Cronobacter sakazakii. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing detection technologies for Cronobacter sakazakii are discussed, highlighting the importance of detection sensitivity, recovery and identification of VBNC cells in the control of hidden contamination. It is hoped that this review will provide new ideas for the monitoring and prevention of Cronobacter sakazakii during infant formula production.

Phages are the most diverse and abundant biological entities on earth. In recent years, the proliferation of highthroughput sequencing technology has led to a surge in research on the composition and functions of phages in diverse ecological niches. Particularly, phages in fermented foods have been receiving increasing attention from researchers, which interact with their bacterial hosts through the lytic and lysogenic life cycles, playing important ecological roles and influencing the succession of microbial communities. Additionally, phages also exhibit potential auxiliary metabolic functions, which in turn affects the formation of flavor substances in fermented foods to a certain extent. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the present status and hot topics of research on phages in fermented foods, with a specific focus on the composition, diversity, genomic DNA extraction techniques and auxiliary metabolic functions of phages as well as their interactions with the host and the underlying mechanism (e.g., clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and binding receptors). Finally, this review concludes with a discussion of future research directions, aiming to provide a reference for further research and application of phages in fermented foods.

In this study, we investigated the advantages and potential of de-oiled soy sauce residue as a superior raw material for the preparation of highly adsorptive microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), which was achieved employing a step-by-step chemical treatment. Acid hydrolysis conditions were optimized by one-factor-at-a-time and L₉ (3⁴) orthogonal array design methods. Under the optimal conditions (1:25 solid-to-liquid ratio, 2 mol/L HCl, 65 ℃ and 90 min), the yield and degree of polymerization (DP) of microcrystalline cellulose were 85.46% and 263, respectively. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses indicated that the as-prepared MCC exhibited a cellulose I-like structure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the MCC particles were short rod-shaped, with numerous grooves on their surfaces. Compared with commercial MCC, this new MCC exhibited higher maximum degradation peak temperature (334 ℃), better water/oil-holding capacity (5.36 and 4.25 g/g), and stronger methylene blue adsorption capacity (73.15 mg/g). In conclusion, the MCC from soy sauce residue demonstrates strong biosorption capacity and has high application value.

In order to explore the antioxidant and anti-aging effects and underlying mechanism of Antarctic krill phospholipids, the antioxidant capacity in vitro of krill phospholipids was evaluated by radical scavenging capacities against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical cation, and ferric ion reducing power. Meanwhile, the effect of krill phospholipids at different concentrations on the life span, swallowing frequency, head swinging frequency, acute oxidative stress resistance, heat stress resistance, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, antioxidant capacity and aging-related gene expression in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans was studied. The results showed that krill phospholipids had good antioxidant capacity in vitro, which was superior to that of soybean phospholipids. Compared with the control group, krill phospholipids at all concentrations tested prolonged the life span of C. elegans, improved the swallowing frequency and mobility, and enhanced the resistance to stress. Moreover, krill phospholipids at the medium and high concentrations significantly increased the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase (P < 0.01) and the content of glutathione (P < 0.05), and significantly reduced the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and ROS levels (P < 0.01). In addition, krill phospholipids prolonged the life span of C. elegans by activating the transcription factors DAF-16, SKN-1 and HSF-1 and up-regulating the expression of antioxidant and detoxification genes. To sum up, krill phospholipids have good antioxidant capacity both in vivo and in vitro and delay the aging of C. elegans, thus being a potential functional food ingredient.