Characterization of the gut microbiome in the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua in response to the short-term thermal stress

The gut microbiota is critical for energy and nutrient utilization and plays a role in host immunity in response to environmental changes. The beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua is a worldwide polyphagous agricultural pest and has frequently experienced potentially stressful temperature fluctuations under natural environmental conditions. However, little is known about the effects of thermal stress on the gut microbiome of this moth pest. Therefore, we investigated the gut microbiome variations, composition and community structure of S. exigua among low-temperature (10 °C), control (26 °C) and high temperature (35 °C) treatments using 16S amplicon sequencing. Overall, 1,192,707 high-quality reads and 762 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected from 15 samples. A total of 289 genera belonging to 19 bacterial phyla were captured, with Firmicutes and Proteobacteria being the most prominent phyla. Alpha diversity metrics indicated no significant differences in the gut bacterial diversity of S. exigua among the three temperature treatments. Principal coordinates and hierarchical cluster analysis revealed significant differences in the structure of gut microbiota between the low-temperature treatment and the other two temperature treatments. In addition, PICRUSt2 analysis demonstrated that the predicted metagenomes associated with the gut microbiome were amino carbohydrate transport and metabolism, acid transport and metabolism, inorganic ion transport and metabolism and cellular processes. Our study showed that thermal stress induced changes in the gut microbiome of the beet armyworm, which may contribute to better understanding the ecological adaptation of S. exigua under changing temperature trends and to evaluating the use of gut microorganisms as biocontrol agents for this pest.     

Synthesis,antitumor testing and molecular modeling study of some new 6-substituted amido,azo or thioureido-quinazolin-4(3H)-ones

A new series of 6-substituted amido, azo or thioureido-quinazolin-4(3H)-one was synthesized and tested for their in-vitro antitumor activity. Compounds 21, 53 and 60 showed broad spectrum antitumor activity with average IC₅₀ values of 6.7, 7.6 and 9.1 μM, respectively compared with methotrexate (1, IC₅₀ 19.26 μM). As an attempt to reveal the mechanism of the antitumor potency, cell cycle analysis and DHFR inhibition were performed. Compounds 59 and 61 induced their cytotoxicity in Hela (IC₅₀ 10.6 μM) and HCT-116 (IC₅₀ 15.5 μM) cell lines, respectively through Pre-G1 apoptosis, inhibiting cell growth at G2-M phase. Compounds 29, 33, 59 and 61 showed DHFR inhibitory potency at IC₅₀ 0.2, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.3 μM, respectively. The active DHFR inhibitors showed high affinity binding toward the amino acid residues Thr56, Ser59 and Ser118. The active compounds obeyed Lipinski’s rule of five and could be used as template model for further optimization.     

含氟有机废水处理过程活性污泥微生物群落研究进展

随着有机氟化物在各领域的广泛应用,含氟有机废水处理面临巨大挑战。活性污泥作为有机废水处理的核心技术之一,微生物在其中发挥着极其重要的作用。本综述首先聚焦在活性污泥微生物群落多样性、组成、结构和功能及其与含氟废水类型、处理工艺和处理效率之间的关系,进而讨论了功能微生物降解/转化有机氟化物的途径和作用机制,最后展望了结合分离培养降解有机氟化物的关键微生物,以及微生物组学技术解析活性污泥微生物群落构建、互作、代谢等核心问题,以提高对含氟有机废水微生物降解机理的认识,优化含氟有机废水处理工艺。     

Monitoring clinical trials with multiple arms

In order to benefit from the substantial overhead expenses of a large group sequential clinical trial, the simultaneous investigation of several competing treatments becomes more popular. If at some interim analysis any treatment arm reveals itself to be inferior to any other treatment under investigation, this inferior arm may be or may even need to be dropped for ethical and/or economic reasons. Recently proposed methods for monitoring and analysis of group sequential clinical trials with multiple treatment arms are compared and discussed. The main focus of the article is on the application and extension of (adaptive) closed testing procedures in the group sequential setting that strongly control the familywise error rate. A numerical example is given for illustration.     

Using pooled exposure assessment to improve efficiency in case-control studies

Assays can be so expensive that interesting hypotheses become impractical to study epidemiologically. One need not, however, perform an assay for everyone providing a biological specimen. We propose pooling equal-volume aliquots from randomly grouped sets of cases and randomly grouped sets of controls, and then assaying the smaller number of pooled samples. If an effect modifier is of concern, the pooling can be done within strata defined by that variable. For covariates assessed on individuals (e.g., questionnaire data), set-based counterparts are calculated by adding the values for the individuals in each set. The pooling set then becomes the unit of statistical analysis. We show that, with appropriate specification of a set-based logistic model, standard software yields a valid estimated exposure odds ratio, provided the multiplicative formulation is correct. Pooling minimizes the depletion of irreplaceable biological specimens and can enable additional exposures to be studied economically. Statistical power suffers very little compared with the usual, individual-based analysis. In settings where high assay costs constrain the number of people an investigator can afford to study, specimen pooling can make it possible to study more people and hence improve the study's statistical power with no increase in cost.     

Power of 22 microsatellite markers in fluorescent multiplexes for parentage testing in goats (Capra hircus)

Two multiplex systems, each containing 11 microsatellite loci, were developed for semiautomated parentage testing in goats. Eight of the loci originate from goats, nine from cattle and five from sheep. Eighteen of the loci have been mapped to 16 different autosomes (in goats and cattle). Parentage exclusion probabilities were computed from allele frequencies in approximately 30 unrelated individuals from each of four economically important breeds: Mongolian Native Cashmere, Turkish Angora, Swiss Saanen, and Spanish Murciana-Grenadina. In cases where genotypes are known for one parent and an offspring, the 22 markers will exclude an (erroneously) alleged parent with a probability of > 0.999999 in the cashmere breed, > 0.99999 in Angora and Murciana-Grenadina, and > 0.9999 in Saanen. The multiplexes provide very high power for individual identification as the probability of finding two identical genotypes for the 22 loci is < 1 in 1.10(15) in each of the four breeds. The multiplexes will also be useful for studies of population structure, history, and diversity in goats and also in wild Capra species that represent important resources for genetic improvement of domestic breeds.