Temporal dynamics of soil bacterial network regulate soil resistomes

Soil bacteria are diverse and form complicated ecological networks through various microbial interactions, which play important roles in soil multi-functionality. However, the seasonal effects on the bacterial network, especially the relationship between bacterial network topological features and soil resistomes remains underexplored, which impedes our ability to unveil the mechanisms of the temporal-dynamics of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, a field investigation was conducted across four seasons at the watershed scale. We observed significant seasonal variation in bacterial networks, with lower complexity and stability in autumn, and a wider bacterial community niche in summer. Similar to bacterial communities, the co-occurrence networks among ARGs also shift with seasonal change, particularly with respect to the topological features of the node degree, which on average was higher in summer than in the other seasons. Furthermore, the nodes with higher betweenness, stress, degree, and closeness centrality in the bacterial network showed strong relationships with the 10 major classes of ARGs. These findings highlighted the changes in the topological properties of bacterial networks that could further alter antibiotic resistance in soil. Together, our results reveal the temporal dynamics of bacterial ecological networks at the watershed scale, and provide new insights into antibiotic resistance management under environmental changes.     

A new approach for extracting information from protein dynamics

Increased ability to predict protein structures is moving research focus towards understanding protein dynamics. A promising approach is to represent protein dynamics through networks and take advantage of well-developed methods from network science. Most studies build protein dynamics networks from correlation measures, an approach that only works under very specific conditions, instead of the more robust inverse approach. Thus, we apply the inverse approach to the dynamics of protein dihedral angles, a system of internal coordinates, to avoid structural alignment. Using the well-characterized adhesion protein, FimH, we show that our method identifies networks that are physically interpretable, robust, and relevant to the allosteric pathway sites. We further use our approach to detect dynamical differences, despite structural similarity, for Siglec-8 in the immune system, and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Our study demonstrates that using the inverse approach to extract a network from protein dynamics yields important biophysical insights.     

Coherent modeling of longitudinal causal effects on binary outcomes

Analyses of biomedical studies often necessitate modeling longitudinal causal effects. The current focus on personalized medicine and effect heterogeneity makes this task even more challenging. Toward this end, structural nested mean models (SNMMs) are fundamental tools for studying heterogeneous treatment effects in longitudinal studies. However, when outcomes are binary, current methods for estimating multiplicative and additive SNMM parameters suffer from variation dependence between the causal parameters and the noncausal nuisance parameters. This leads to a series of difficulties in interpretation, estimation, and computation. These difficulties have hindered the uptake of SNMMs in biomedical practice, where binary outcomes are very common. We solve the variation dependence problem for the binary multiplicative SNMM via a reparameterization of the noncausal nuisance parameters. Our novel nuisance parameters are variation independent of the causal parameters, and hence allow for coherent modeling of heterogeneous effects from longitudinal studies with binary outcomes. Our parameterization also provides a key building block for flexible doubly robust estimation of the causal parameters. Along the way, we prove that an additive SNMM with binary outcomes does not admit a variation independent parameterization, thereby justifying the restriction to multiplicative SNMMs.     

Subcellular Distribution and Chemical Forms of Cadmium in the Medicine Food Homology Plant <i>Platycodon grandiflorum</i> (Jacq.) A.DC.

Although Platycodon grandiflorum (Jacq.) A.DC. is a renowned medicine food homology plant, reports of excessive cadmium (Cd) levels are common, which affects its safety for clinical use and food consumption. To enable its Cd levels to be regulated or reduced, it is necessary to first elucidate the mechanism of Cd uptake and accumulation in the plant, in addition to its detoxification mechanisms. This present study used inductively couple plasma-mass-spectrometry to analyze the subcellular distribution and chemical forms of Cd in different tissues of P. grandiflorum. The experimental results showed that Cd was mainly accumulated in the roots [predominantly in the cell wall (50.96%–61.42%)], and it was found primarily in hypomobile and hypotoxic forms. The proportion of Cd in the soluble fraction increased after Cd exposure, and the proportion of insoluble phosphate Cd and oxalate Cd increased in roots and leaves, with a higher increase in oxalate Cd. Therefore, it is likely that root retention mechanisms, cell wall deposition, vacuole sequestration, and the formation of low mobility and low toxicity forms are tolerance strategies for Cd detoxification used by P. grandiflorum. The results of this study provide a theoretical grounding for the study of Cd accumulation and detoxification mechanisms in P. grandiflorum, and they can be used as a reference for developing Cd limits and standards for other medicine food homology plants.     

广西防城港黑翅长脚鹬的繁殖行为

本研究于2021年3～9月,采用目标观察和全事件记录法,对广西防城港市钦州湾八路水湿地黑翅长脚鹬（Himantopus himantopus）的繁殖习性进行全过程观察记录。黑翅长脚鹬的栖息生境主要在盐田、虾塘和鱼塘,而巢主要分布在盐田生境。共发现39巢,雌雄共同营巢,按照主要巢材将其巢分为干草巢、碎石巢、泥皮巢和牛毛毡草巢4种;巢材包括禾本科（Gramineae）和莎草科（Cyperaceae）植物以及碎石、贝壳等;巢外径为（23.3±10.7）cm,巢内径为（11.2±1.9）cm,巢深为（1.6±0.5）cm,巢高为（6.5±4.3）cm(n=39);筑巢需（3±2）d(n=6)。窝卵数2～4枚,1～2 d产1枚卵,7 d内产完满窝卵（n=6）。雌雄均参与孵卵,雄性孵卵时间比雌性长,但二者差异不显著（P> 0.05）,雄性（8 550±245.9）min,雌性（7 530±263.3）min,孵卵期为（25±2）d(n=6)。育雏期（26±3）d(n=6),雌雄轮流育雏,育雏前、中期（雏鸟1～20d日龄）,雌性育雏时间比雄性长,是雄性的2倍,育雏后期（雏鸟大于20 d日龄）,...     

幼虫密度对桑螟生长发育和繁殖的影响

【目的】本研究旨在了解桑螟Diaphania pyloalis幼虫不同饲养密度对其生长发育和繁殖的影响。【方法】本研究测定了室内同一条件下5个幼虫密度(130, 650, 1 300, 1 950和2 600头/m²)下桑螟生长发育和繁殖指标,包括发育历期、幼虫存活率、化蛹率、成虫羽化率、蛹重、产卵期、单雌产卵量等。【结果】幼虫密度对桑螟的生长发育和繁殖均产生不同程度影响,幼虫密度偏低或偏高都不利于桑螟生长发育和繁殖。其中以1 300和1 950头/m² 2种幼虫密度下的桑螟幼虫生长发育和成虫繁殖状态均最佳且两密度下各项指标无明显差异,1 300头/m²密度下,桑螟的幼虫历期、蛹历期和成虫历期分别为11.32, 6.33和5.31 d; 1 950头/m²密度下,桑螟的幼虫历期、蛹历期和成虫历期分别为11.50, 6.00和5.47 d。1 300头/m²幼虫密度下,桑螟化蛹率、成虫羽化率和幼虫存活率分别为86.67%, 100%和86.67%, 1 950头/m^2<...     

Thioredoxin 1 overexpression attenuated diabetes-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress in Müller cells via apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1

As one of the common and serious chronic complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), the related mechanism of diabetic retinopathy (DR) has not been fully understood. Müller cell reactive gliosis is one of the early pathophysiological features of DR. Therefore, exploring the manner to reduce diabetes-induced Müller cell damage is essential to delay DR. Thioredoxin 1 (Trx1), one of the ubiquitous redox enzymes, plays a vital role in redox homeostasis via protein–protein interactions, including apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1). Previous studies have shown that upregulation of Trx by some drugs can attenuate endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) in DR, but the related mechanism was unclear. In this study, we used DM mouse and high glucose (HG)-cultured human Müller cells as models to clarify the effect of Trx1 on ERS and the underlying mechanism. The data showed that the diabetes-induced Müller cell damage was increased significantly. Moreover, the expression of ERS and reactive gliosis was also upregulated in diabetes in vivo and in vitro. However, it was reversed after Trx1 overexpression. Besides, ERS-related protein expression, reactive gliosis, and apoptosis were decreased after transfection with ASK1 small-interfering RNA in stable Trx1 overexpression Müller cells after HG treatment. Taken together, Trx1 could protect Müller cells from diabetes-induced damage, and the underlying mechanism was related to inhibited ERS via ASK1.     

(Zn·Cd)S:Ag-KI催化的光合磷酸化

以半导体材料(Zn·Cd)S:Ag-KI为催化剂,在普通卤钨灯光照射下,成功地模拟了光合作用的光合磷酸化.文章报导了光强、照光时间、ADP浓度、Pi浓度及催化剂量等对ATP合成的影响.在合适的条件下,ADP浓度为1×10~(-3)mmolL时转化率可达到4-6°.最后有一简单讨论.     

自由飞行蜜蜂对静止目标形状和颜色的综合识别能力

研究了蜜蜂对相同颜色和不同颜色目标图对的形状以及颜色的综合识别能力实验过程中,蜜蜂始终处于自由飞行状态.做为刺激目标使用的图对分别有相同颜色不同几何形状、相同颜色不同拓扑结构和不同颜色几何形状三组.主要结果有三点:(1)在相同颜色的条件下,蜜蜂可以分辨出图形的几何形状,并且识别能力与图对的相似程度成反比(2)在刺激图形为环形时,蜜蜂对图形平均亮度敏感;在平均亮度相同的情况下,对环形细节变和尺寸大小不敏感.(3)在不同颜色不同几何形状的刺激条件下.蜜蜂视觉信息加工过程中颜色因素会抑制几何形状因素而起主要作用.这三个结果可以视为深入研究颜色加工通道和几何形状加工通道之间内在关系的基础.     

High-Resolution Performance of Polycaprolactone Functionalized with Guanidinium Ionic Liquid for Gas Chromatography

This work firstly reported a new polycaprolactone based material functionalized with guanidinium ionic liquid (PCL-GIL) as the stationary phase with high resolution performance for capillary gas chromatography (GC). It is composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) and guanidinium ionic liquid (GIL) with amphiphilic conformation. The PCL-GIL capillary column coated by static method exhibited high column efficiency of 3942 plates/m and moderate polarity. As a result, the PCL-GIL column exhibited high-resolution capability. For a mixture of 27 analytes with a wide ranging polarity and outperformed the PCL-2OH and HP-35 columns, showing its advantageous separation capability for analytes of diverse types. Moreover, the PCL-GIL column showed high resolving capability for various positional isomers and cis-/trans-isomers, including alkylbenzenes, chlorobenzenes, naphthalenes, bromonitrobenzenes, chloronitrobenzenes, benzaldehydes, phenols, alcohols, respectively. In a word, PCL derivatized by GIL units as a new type of stationary phase has a promising future in GC separations.