水仙根围细菌群落组成

【目的】探究水仙(Narcissus tazetta var.chinensis roem)土壤根围微生物组成及其与水仙生长特性的相关性。【方法】分别采集崇明水仙及漳州水仙健康植株根围土壤,抽提根围土壤中细菌总DNA并纯化,扩增16S r RNA基因并进行高通量测序分析比较不同产地植株根围细菌的组成与多样性。【结果】崇明水仙和漳州水仙根围微生物组成的主要细菌门类相同,均为12种,其中,优势菌为Proteobacteria、Chloroflexi、Bacteroidetes和Acidobacteria。根围微生物OTUs(Operational taxonomic units)分布及主成分分析(PCA)表明崇明水仙和漳州水仙根围微生物组成有较大差异,且Planctomycetales和Xanthomonadales在崇明水仙根围分布显著多于漳州水仙,而Chloroflexales和Chlorobiales在漳州水仙根围的丰度较高。【结论】根围微生物的组成,如厌氧氨氧化细菌、机会致病菌和光合细菌的多样性与丰度可能与水仙生长特性有密切的关系。     

一株新的α-糖苷酶抑制剂生产菌株PW0852的初步研究

从土壤中分离并筛选得到了一株α-糖苷酶抑制剂生产菌PW0852。根据形态特征、培养特征、生理生化特征及16S rRNA序列相似性分析等多相分类方法, 初步判定菌株PW0852为淡紫灰链霉菌(Streptomyces lavendulae)。该菌经10 L发酵罐水平发酵, 发酵液中可积累一定量的α-糖苷酶抑制剂。采用膜过滤技术、离子交换树脂吸附及冷冻干燥等方法, 从PW0852发酵液中分离获得混合型α-糖苷酶抑制剂GIB852。GIB852对人类胰腺α-淀粉酶和α-麦芽糖酶都有明显的抑制作用, 其对麦芽糖酶的抑制性比同剂量的市售双糖酶抑制剂米格列醇强28.7倍, 而对α-淀粉酶的抑制性较弱。通过小鼠糖耐量实验, 发现α-糖苷酶抑制剂GIB852对哺乳动物餐后高血糖的形成有明显改善作用, 具有开发为糖尿病药物的潜力。     

突触细胞黏附分子在应激中作用的研究进展

突触细胞黏附分子是一类介导突触前、后膜结构和功能互作的膜表面糖蛋白,可以动态调节突触活动和可塑性,其表达与功能受到环境因素调控。突触细胞黏附分子亦是应激反应重要的效应分子之一,可介导应激对认知和情绪的不良影响。本文综述近年来突触细胞黏附分子在应激中作用的研究进展,旨在为应激相关障碍的分子机制研究和药物研发提供思路。     

Mitophagy,a Form of Selective Autophagy,Plays an Essential Role in Mitochondrial Dynamics of Parkinson’s Disease

Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology - Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a severe neurodegenerative disorder caused by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and...     

Application and prospects of high-throughput screening for in vitro neurogenesis

Over the past few decades, high-throughput screening (HTS) has made great contributions to new drug discovery. HTS technology is equipped with higher throughput, minimized platforms, more automated and computerized operating systems, more efficient and sensitive detection devices, and rapid data processing systems. At the same time, in vitro neurogenesis is gradually becoming important in establishing models to investigate the mechanisms of neural disease or developmental processes. However, challenges remain in generating more mature and functional neurons with specific subtypes and in establishing robust and standardized three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models with neural cells cultured in 3D matrices or organoids representing specific brain regions. Here, we review the applications of HTS technologies on in vitro neurogenesis, especially aiming at identifying the essential genes, chemical small molecules and adaptive microenvironments that hold great prospects for generating functional neurons or more reproductive and homogeneous 3D organoids. We also discuss the developmental tendency of HTS technology, e.g., so-called next-generation screening, which utilizes 3D organoid-based screening combined with microfluidic devices to narrow the gap between in vitro models and in vivo situations both physiologically and pathologically.     

Termite mound formation reduces the abundance and diversity of soil resistomes

Termites are pivotal ecosystem engineers in tropical and subtropical habitats, where they construct massive nests (‘mounds’) that substantially modify soil properties and promote nutrient cycling. Yet, little is known about the roles of termite nesting activity in regulating the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the major Global Health challenges. Here, we conducted a large-scale (> 1500 km) investigation in northern Australia and found distinct resistome profiles in termite mounds and bulk soils. By profiling a wide spectrum of ARGs, we found that the abundance and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were significantly lower in termite mounds than in bulk soils (P < 0.001). The proportion of efflux pump ARGs was significantly lower in termite mound resistome than in bulk soil resistome (P < 0.001). The differences in resistome profiles between termite mounds and bulk soils may result from the changes in microbial interactions owing to the substantial increase in pH and nutrient availability induced by termite nesting activities. These findings advance our understanding of the profile of ARGs in termite mounds, which is a crucial step to evaluate the roles of soil faunal activity in regulating soil resistome under global environmental change.     

Precipitation increases the abundance of fungal plant pathogens in Eucalyptus phyllosphere

Understanding the current and future distributions of plant pathogens is critical to predict the plant performance and related economic benefits in the changing environment. Yet, little is known about the roles of environmental drivers in shaping the profiles of fungal plant pathogens in phyllosphere, an important habitat of microbiomes on Earth. Here, using a large-scale investigation of Eucalyptus phyllospheric microbiomes in Australia and the multiple linear regression model, we show that precipitation is the most important predictor of fungal taxonomic diversity and abundance. The abundance of fungal plant pathogens in phyllosphere exhibited a positive linear relationship with precipitation. With this empirical dataset, we constructed current and future atlases of phyllosphere plant pathogens to estimate their spatial distributions under different climate change scenarios. Our atlases indicate that the abundance of fungal plant pathogens would increase especially in the coastal regions with up to 100-fold increase compared with the current abundance. These findings advance our understanding of the distributions of fungal plant pathogens in phyllospheric microbiomes under the climate change, which can improve our ability to predict and mitigate their impacts on plant productivity and economic losses.     

Protopanaxadiol improves endometriosis associated infertility and miscarriage in sex hormones receptors-dependent and independent manners

Background: Patients with endometriosis (EMs) have high risks of infertility and spontaneous abortion. How to remodel the fertility of patients with EMs has always been the hot spot and difficulty in the field of reproductive medicine. As an aglycone of ginsenosides, protopanaxadiol (PPD) possesses pleiotropic biological functions and has high medicinal values. We aimed to investigate the effect and potential mechanism of PPD in the treatment of EMs-associated infertility and spontaneous abortion.Methods: The EMs mice models were constructed by allotransplantation. The pregnancy rates, embryo implantation numbers and embryo resorption rates of control and EMs were counted. RNA sequencing, qRT-PCR, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and FCM analysis were performed to screen and confirm the expression of endometrial receptivity/decidualization-related molecules, inflammation cytokines and NK cell function-related molecules in vitro and/or in vivo. The SWISS Target Prediction, STRING and Cytoscape were carried out to predict the potential cellular sensory proteins, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network between sensory proteins and fertility-related molecules, respectively. Micro-CT detection, liver and kidney function tests were used to evaluate the safety.Results: Here, we observe that PPD significantly up-regulates endometrial receptivity-related molecules (e.g., Lif, Igfbp1, Mmps, collagens) and restricts pelvic inflammatory response (low levels of IL-12 and IFN-γ) of macrophage, and further remodel and improve the fertility of EMs mice. Additionally, PPD increases the expression of decidualization-related genes and Collagens, and promotes the proliferation, residence, immune tolerance and anagogic functions of decidual NK cells (low levels of CD16 and NKp30, high levels of Ki67, VEGF, TGF-β) in pregnant EMs mice, and further triggers decidualization, decidual NK cell-mediated maternal-fetal immune tolerance and angiogenesis, preventing pregnant EMs mice from miscarriage. Mechanically, these effects should be dependent on ESRs, PGR and other sensory proteins (e.g., AR). Compared with GnRHa (the clinic first-line drug for EMs), PPD does not lead to the decline of serum estrogen and bone loss.Conclusion: These data suggest that PPD prevents EMs-associated infertility and miscarriage in sex hormones receptors-dependent and independent manners possibly, and provides a potential therapeutic strategy with high efficiency and low side effects to remodels the fertility of patients with EMs.     

Termite mounds reduce soil microbial diversity by filtering rare microbial taxa

Termites are ubiquitous insects in tropical and subtropical habitats, and some of them construct massive nests (‘mounds’), which substantially promote substrate heterogeneity by altering soil properties. Yet, the role of termite nesting process in regulating the distribution and diversity of soil microbial communities remains poorly understood, which introduces uncertainty in predictions of ecosystem functions of termite mounds in a changing environment. Here, by using amplicon sequencing, we conducted a survey of 134 termite mounds across >1500 km in northern Australia and found that termite mounds significantly differed from bulk soils in the microbial diversity and community compositions. Compared with bulk soils, termite nesting process decreased the microbial diversity and the relative abundance of rare taxa. Rare taxa had a narrower habitat niche breadth than dominant taxa and might be easier to be filtered by the potential intensive microbial competition during the nesting processes. We further demonstrated that the shift in pH induced by termite nesting process was a major driver shaping the microbial community profiles in termite mounds. Together, our work provides novel evidence that termite nesting is an important process in regulating soil microbial diversity, which advances our understanding of the functioning of termite mounds.