- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So began noted neuroscientist John Hildebrand in his keynote speech heralding the opening of the first-of-its kind international olfaction/taste symposium. Hildebrand is the Honors Professor and Regents Professor at the University of Arizona and the International Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences.
UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal coordinated and co-hosted the Zoom symposium, titled “Insect Olfaction and Taste in 24 Hours Around the Globe.” The free event drew attendees from 66 countries.
The presentations, which began at 9 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), Wednesday, Aug. 11, were uploaded to YouTube. All ten videos from the symposium are now online:
- Video One is at https://youtu.be/QlyNCZtSvtY
- Video Two is at https://youtu.be/-aO8-1yfQRI
- Video Three is at https://youtu.be/2SsQvYlXKXY
- Video Four is at https://youtu.be/hmmEac7MliI
- Video Five is at https://youtu.be/60D99Z6nJI8
- Video Six is at https://youtu.be/rZ7i4d7VogQ
- Video Seven is at https://youtu.be/19ukK_R7eKE
- Video Eight is at youtu.be/eROTKZFhu9w
- Video Nine is at https://youtu.be/uVrESHyAyvU
- Video Ten is at https://youtu.be/-XUuKGYbByc
"As an undergraduate student, I started in research working on bacteria in the laboratory of the biochemist John Law," he related. "At that time he was beginning to redirect his research to problems in insect biochemistry and among other projects; he was collaborating with the biologist E. O. Wilson in studies of ant pheromones. The term pheromone had been invented only three years earlier in 1959 in Germany by Peter Carlson and Martin Luther, and in that same year another German out of Bhutan and his group had reported the first chemical identification of an insect pheromone."
That was the silk moth pheromone, Bombykol, released by the female silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) to attract mates.
The rest, they say, is history. Insect history.
The symposium included 15 invited (keynote) and 36 contribution presentations,” said Leal, a UC Davis distinguished professor with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a former chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology). Leal hosted the PDT segment. Wynand van der Goes van Naters of Cardiff University, UK, hosted the British Summer Time (BST) segment; and Coral Warr of La Trobe University, Australia hosted the Australia Eastern Standard Time (AEST) segment.
The presentations covered a wide variety of insects, including three species of mosquitoes (Culex, Aedes and Anopheles); honey bee (Apis mellifera); fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila sechellia, and Drosophila suzukii); sand flies (the blood-sucking dipteran flies); cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera); housefly (Musca domestica); cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae); and the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana).
Some statistics:
- Total users (including those logging in periodically): 2,990
- 71 percent of the attendees surveyed said they were "very satisfied" with the symposium, and 12 percent "satisfied."
- 54 percent of the surveyed attendees had never attended a conference on chemosensation.
"One of the highlights of the symposium was the participation of students and postdocs who showcased their work and announced at the end, that they will be looking for a position," Leal said. "Other professors, at the end of their talks, advertised vacancies in their lab. I had asked all presenters to share some new data. In fact, many presenters showed unpublished data, while others showed data that they had already submitted to BioRxiv, a non-peer reviewed pre-print server."
At the closing, Leal selected two persons to give their impressions of the symposium:
- See opinion by Greg Pask, an assistant professor of biology at Middlebury College, Vermont: https://twitter.com/wsleal2014/status/1427040189147275271.
- See comments by Nathalia Brito, who just completed her Ph.D. at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro: https://twitter.com/wsleal2014/status/1427431406527934490
- "I used to work in the field of insect taste and olfaction and have attended a couple of ESITO meetings (European Symposium for Insect Taste and Olfaction) when I was a grad student and in early days as a postdoc. This was a wonderful opportunity to see that latest advances in the field and see many of the people whom I had met in person talk and some new people."
- "Thank you to the organizers for coordinating such an informative and well run virtual event."
- "Great collegial and convivial atmosphere. Really good idea to have a commentary on the lectures."
- "I am working on bark beetle olfaction, so I am available in the future with this topic. Thank you."
- "I learnt a lot from different groups especially disease vectors. It was a privilege to listen to some of the big names in this area. Looking forward to a future meeting."
- "I would like say the heartiest thanks to everyone who worked on this webinar. I am doing research for more than 10 years and I never experienced such a wonderful scientific event. What you have done can not be appreciated by words."
- "Undoubtedly, this is the best symposium I have ever attended to. I was able to join with almost every presentation. As an early-career researcher in chemical ecology, this inspired me a lot. Hope to present in this meeting and getting to know great scientists in the future. Hats off to the organisers. Thank you."
- "Thank you for organizing! I only wish there were more detailed times for each presentation so I could be sure to tune in for specific talks, but this is a great concept!"
The detailed schedule of times and speakers was purposely not announced in advance "in order to keep attendance high when students, postdocs, and early-career scholars presented," Leal said, adding "I enjoyed listening to the student/early-career researchers talks. All of them were very interesting and well executed."
For more information and updates, follow Walter Leal on Twitter at @wsleal2014 or access his biochemistry channel where all the videos will be posted. Folks can also turn on YouTube and Chrome browser notifications to receive alerts.
Help and Advice from the Master Gardeners of Contra Costa's Help Desk
Client's Request:
I'm growing a lot vegetables and fruits this year. I'm expecting that many of these plantings will come ripe at the same time, I'd like to get the maximum value out of all this effort. At this time I'm especially interested in advice on storage for maximizing flavor.
Help Desk Advice and Recommendations:
The flavor of fruits and vegetables are influenced by maturity and quality at harvest and by how they are stored afterwards. To maintain the freshness and flavor of the produce you buy at the market or after all that work growing them in your garden, you are right to use the appropriate methods to store them at home. UC has some published some great straight-forward advice on this scenario… see the chart below:
You can click the picture and you may get a bigger view … or you can go to http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1920.pdf to read and/or download and/or bookmark this easy-to-read and very informative two page guidance document from UC. (Thanks to Farmer Fred for reminding me of this very informative UC guidance….)
Good luck on your tasty garden harvest. Please do not hesitate to contact MGCC Help Desk again if you have further questions.
Master Gardeners Contra Costa's Help Desk
Note: The Master Gardeners of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/
/span>/span>- Written by: Liz Sanderson, Univision Insights Blog
According to the MDPA Magazine, one of the elements of their culture that they most want to retain — whether they’re immigrants or U.S. born—is their food and recipes. We know that this passion for food is developed at an early age and heavily influenced by their mothers. Because of that, cooking tends to play much more than a functional role in a Latina mother’s life; it reflects who she is as a mom. In a 2010 Yankelovich Banktract report, 81 percent of Hispanics 16+ agreed that they “put a lot of care and emotion into my cooking” vs. 65 percent of non-Hispanics.
We also know that this passion for food comes with an unwavering commitment to flavor. In focus group research, one mom told us, and many agreed, “I do not have the moral authority to make my kids eat healthy food that doesn’t taste good because I wouldn’t eat it myself.”
Like any other mother in the U.S., Hispanic moms strive for career advancement and work to provide a better financial future for their children. Because of this, Latinas have been left starved for time and more willing to make compromises that buck their Hispanic traditions. Latinas, who tend to cook from scratch more often than non-Hispanics, are increasingly embracing convenience foods like frozen vegetables, canned ingredients, and microwaveable side dishes as they pour themselves into their careers.
A recent syndicated Simmons study of Latinas 18+ shows that they are looking for solutions. Since 2006, the number of Latinas that answered “yes” to the statement “easy to prepare foods are my favorite” grew 16 percent vs. no growth for non-Hispanic women. Latina women also showed significantly more growth than non-Latinas across convenience products including hot snacks and frozen pizza, vegetables and waffles/pancakes over the same time period.
But the need for convenience does not mean that they are not concerned with nutrition. In fact, research shows that Latinas have become increasingly health-conscious consumers. The Latina mother also considers herself a food influencer with 31 percent saying “I’m usually the first to try new health foods” vs. just 16 percent of non-Hispanic moms.
For Latinas, the food options that balance taste, health and convenience are the ones they will most be drawn to.
Latinas are clearly sophisticated consumers who want the best for their children—a life filled with cherished family moments and good meals, a life of better opportunities and a healthy life. The marketers who understand the cultural influences Hispanic mothers face when providing for their families and develop products and marketing campaigns accordingly will be the ones to grow their sales.
Based in New York City, Liz Sanderson is senior director of Brand Solutions at Univision Communications Inc. Her team advises clients in the CPG and retail industries on how to develop and execute their strategies to drive sales with Hispanics.
Source: Univision Insights Blog, Latina Moms Balance Taste, Health & Convenience, January 2012.
- Author: Pam Devine
Umami is difficult to describe in just one word; it is a pleasant, hearty, savory, tongue-coating sensation. And because it is so complex - a taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products - the taste blends well with other tastes to round out the flavors. This is why it’s hard to describe the delicious flavor of chicken soup.
Umami is a relatively new concept to most Americans, but this taste has been known for more than 100 years in some parts of Europe and Japan, where chemist Kikunae Ikeda is credited with identifying the taste. Ikeda analyzed the active ingredients in kelp stock, a staple of Japanese cuisine, and discovered that the delectable taste was associated with glutamate. Glutamate is also present in other savory foods, including those used in Western cuisine, like tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, cheese and meat.
Ikeda later developed and patented a method of making monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a processed additive that adds umami taste to food, much like sugar makes things taste sweet. In this country, MSG is not looked upon favorably. There are as many discussions against the use of MSG as there are for the use of MSG to flavor foods.Hanne Siversten, a UC Davis specialist with the Department of Food Science and Technology explains, “MSG does not taste like much alone, but added to foods, it shows synergistic effects. This means that new flavors appear, as a reaction between MSG and the food itself.”
The taste of umami works much the same way. And since it is an experience naturally occurring from compounds found in many foods, you don’t have to add MSG to understand the taste. You probably eat umami-rich foods every day. Who doesn’t like their spaghetti sauce with a little parmesan cheese? Or cheese and bacon on their hamburger? These combinations ramp up the flavor of the whole meal. Check out the Umami Information Center (http://www.umamiinfo.com/), a great online resource for Umami information, facts and recipes.