Effectiveness of Aqueous Chlorine Dioxide in Minimizing Food Safety Risk Associated with , O157:H7, and on Sweet Potatoes.

Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) is a commonly used sanitizer in the produce industry despite its limited effectiveness against contaminated human pathogens in fresh produce. Aqueous chlorine dioxide (ClO) is an alternative sanitizer offering a greater oxidizing potency with greater efficacy in reducing a large number of microorganisms. We investigated the effect of aqueous chlorine dioxide treatment against human pathogens, , O157:H7, and seeded on sweet potatoes.

Loss of HCN2 leads to delayed gastrointestinal motility and reduced energy intake in mice.

Hyperpolarization-activated Cyclic Nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels are important regulators of excitability in neural, cardiac, and other pacemaking cells, which are often altered in disease. In mice, loss of HCN2 leads to cardiac dysrhythmias, persistent spike-wave discharges similar to those seen in absence epilepsy, ataxia, tremor, reduced neuropathic and inflammatory pain, antidepressant-like behavior, infertility, and severely restricted growth. While many of these phenotypes have tissue-specific mechanisms, the cause of restricted growth in HCN2 knockout animals remains unknown.