Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum), commonly known as linseed is an oilseed crop, emerging as an important and functional ingredient of food and has been paid more attention due to its nutritional value as well as beneficial effects. It is mainly rich in is α-linolenic acid (ALA, omega-3 fatty acid), fibres and lignans that have potential health benefits in reducing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, cancer, arthritis, neurological and autoimmune disorders. Due to its richness in omega-3 fatty acid, a group of enzymes known as fatty acid desaturases (FADs) mainly introduce double bonds into fatty acids' (FAs) hydrocarbon chains that produce unsaturated fatty acids. Fatty acid desaturase 3 (FAD3), the commonest microsomal enzyme of omega-3 fatty acid, synthesizes linolenic acid (C18:3) from linoleic acid located in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) facing towards the cytosol. The emerging field of bioinformatics and large number of databases of bioactive peptides, helps in providing time-saving and efficient method for identification of potential bioactivities of any protein. In this study, 10 unique sequences of FAD3 from flaxseed protein have been used for in silico proteolysis and releasing of various bioactive peptides using three plant proteases, namely ficin, papain and stem bromelain, that are evaluated with the help of BIOPEP database. Overall, 20 biological activities were identified from these proteins. The results showed that FAD3 protein is a potential source of peptides with angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory and dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) activities, and also various parameters such as ∑A, ∑B, AE, W, BE, V and DHt were also calculated. Furthermore, PeptideRanker have been used for screening of novel promising bioactive peptides. Various bioinformatics tools also used to study protein's physicochemical properties, peptide's score, toxicity, allergenicity aggregation, water solubility, and drug likeliness. The present work suggests that flaxseed protein can be a good source of bioactive peptides for the synthesis of good quality and quantity of oil, and in silico method helps in investigating and production of functional peptides.
A large amount of ammonia volatilization from the agricultural system causes environmental problems and increases production costs. Conservation agriculture has emerged as an alternate and sustainable crop production system. Therefore, in the present study, ammonia losses from different agricultural practices were evaluated for the wheat crop under different tillage practices. The results of the present study showed that the cumulative emission of ammonia flux from the wheat field varied from 6.23 to 24.00 kg ha-1 (P ≤ 0.05) in conservation tillage (CA) and 7.03 to 26.58 kg ha-1 (P ≤ 0.05) in conventional tillage (CT) among different treatments. Application of basal 80% nitrogen resulted in the highest ammonia flux in conventional and conservation tillage practices. The ammonia volatilization followed the following trend: urea super granules with band placement > neem-coated urea with band placement > neem-coated urea with broadcast before irrigation > neem-coated urea with broadcast after irrigation > slow-release N fertilizer (urea stabilized with DCD and N(n-butyl)thiophosphoric triamide) with band placement. The conservation agricultural practices involving conservation tillage appear to be a sustainable approach for minimizing ammonia volatilization and improving wheat productivity.