不同大豆连作年限对黑土细菌群落结构的影响

大豆连作导致作物产量下降、病原微生物富集和土壤退化等问题日趋严重。然而,目前关于大豆连作对土壤细菌群落结构组成及多样性分布的影响及发生机制尚不清楚。采用高通量测序技术,对大豆连作(不同年限)和大豆-玉米轮作下的黑土细菌16S rRNA基因进行测序分析。结果表明:轮作5年(CR5)和13年长期连作(CC13)处理显著增加了土壤pH、全氮(TN)、全磷(TP)和速效养分(AN、AP和AK)含量。与短期连作相比,CR5和CC13处理均提高了细菌群落的OTUs数量、PD值、Chao1指数和Shannon指数。聚类分析图谱结果显示细菌群落结构组成受到轮作和连作年限的双重影响,而土壤pH、TN、TP、AN、AP和AK是细菌群落结构发生变化的主要驱动因子(P0.05)。此外,VPA分析发现上述土壤因子中,土壤pH对细菌群落结构变化的贡献度最大。本研究证明大豆长期连作提高了土壤养分含量和细菌群落的丰富度和多样性指数,从分子生物学的角度证实大豆长期连作在一定程度上改善了土壤环境,为大豆连作障碍的研究提供了理论依据。     

青少年痤疮面部皮肤微生物群落结构变化

【背景】青少年痤疮是一种最常见的慢性炎症性损容性皮肤病,与痤疮丙酸杆菌的异常增殖有关。【目的】探究痤疮皮损区与附近无明显皮损区微生物组成与健康对照的差异,为从微生态角度防治痤疮提供理论基础。【方法】利用细菌16S rRNA基因V1-V2区和真菌TIS1高通量测序技术分析北京地区16岁青少年面部痤疮皮肤细菌和真菌群落结构,将痤疮皮损区与附近无明显皮损区微生物组成与健康组进行比较,寻找差异菌群。【结果】痤疮患者面部皮损区与附近无明显皮损区细菌多样性(Shannon指数)较健康对照组显著性降低(P0.001),主要与丙酸杆菌(痤疮丙酸杆菌)和葡萄球菌(表皮葡萄球菌PM221)显著性上升相关,而痤疮皮损区与附近未明显皮损区细菌组成无显著性差异。痤疮患者皮损区与附近无明显皮损区较健康对照组真菌丰富度(Chao1指数)显著性上升(P0.05),与限制性马拉色菌的显著上升相关。【结论】面部皮肤微生物变化与青少年痤疮的发生相关。本研究为从微生物角度防治痤疮提供理论依据。     

Transcriptional landscape of alternative splicing during peripheral nerve injury

Alternative splicing (AS) regulates a variety of biological activities in numerous tissues and organs, including the nervous system. However, the existence and specific roles of AS events during peripheral nerve repair and regeneration remain largely undetermined. In the current study, by mapping splice-crossing sequence reads, we identified AS events and relevant spliced genes in rat sciatic nerve stumps following sciatic nerve crush. AS-related genes at 1, 4, 7, and 14 days post nerve crush were compared with those at 0 day to discover alternatively spliced genes induced by sciatic nerve crush. These injury-induced alternatively spliced genes were then categorized to diseases and biological functions, genetic networks, and canonical signaling pathways. Bioinformatic analysis indicated that these alternatively spliced genes were mainly correlated to immune response, cellular growth, and cellular function maintenance. Our study elucidated AS events following peripheral nerve injury and might help deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying peripheral nerve regeneration.     

Targeted amplification and MinION nanopore sequencing of key azole and echinocandin resistance determinants of clinically relevant Candida spp. from blood culture bottles

The objective of the study was to evaluate the use of targeted multiplex Nanopore MinION amplicon re-sequencing of key Candida spp. from blood culture bottles to identify azole and echinocandin resistance associated SNPs. Targeted PCR amplification of azole (ERG11 and ERG3) and echinocandin (FKS) resistance-associated loci was performed on positive blood culture media. Sequencing was performed using MinION nanopore device with R9.4.1 Flow Cells. Twenty-eight spiked blood cultures (ATCC strains and clinical isolates) and 12 prospectively collected positive blood cultures with candidaemia were included. Isolate species included Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida krusei, Candida parapsilosis, Candida tropicalis and Candida auris. SNPs that were identified on ERG and FKS genes using Snippy tool and CLC Genomic Workbench were correlated with phenotypic testing by broth microdilution (YeastOne™ Sensititre). Illumina whole-genome-sequencing and Sanger-sequencing were also performed as confirmatory testing of the mutations identified from nanopore sequencing data. There was a perfect agreement of the resistance-associated mutations detected by MinION-nanopore-sequencing compared to phenotypic testing for acquired resistance (16 with azole resistance; 3 with echinocandin resistance), and perfect concordance of the nanopore sequence mutations to Illumina and Sanger data. Mutations with no known association with phenotypic drug resistance and novel mutations were also detected.     

Copy number variations of 11 macronuclear chromosomes and their gene expression in Oxytricha trifallax

Genome-wide methylation studies frequently lack adequate controls to estimate proportions of background reads in the resulting datasets. To generate appropriate control pools, we developed technique termed nMETR (non-methylated tag recovery) based on digestion of genomic DNA with methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, ligation of adapter oligonucleotide and PCR amplification of non-methylated sites associated with genomic repetitive elements. The protocol takes only two working days to generate amplicons for deep sequencing. We applied nMETR for human DNA using BspFNI enzyme and retrotransposon Alu-specific primers. 454-sequencing enabled identification of 1113 nMETR tag sites, of them ~65% were parts of CpG islands. Representation of reads inversely correlated with methylation levels, thus confirming nMETR fidelity. We created software that eliminates background reads and enables to map and annotate individual tags on human genome. nMETR tags may serve as the controls for large-scale epigenetic studies and for identifying unmethylated transposable elements located close to genomic CpG islands.     

Current methods for molecular typing of Campylobacter species

Campylobacter remains one of the most common bacterial causes of gastroenteritis worldwide. Tracking sources of this organism is challenging due to the large numbers of human cases, and the prevalence of this organism throughout the environment due to growth in a wide range of animal species. Many molecular subtyping methods have been developed to characterize Campylobacter species, but only a few are commonly used in molecular epidemiology studies. This review examines the applicability of these methods, as well as the role that emerging whole genome sequencing technologies will play in tracking sources of Campylobacter spp. infection.     

Genome-wide analysis of Nilaparvata lugens nymphal responses to high-density and low-quality rice hosts

The brown planthopper （BPH） Nilaparvata lugens is an economically impor- tant pest on rice plants. In this study, the higher population density and yellow-ripe stage of rice plants were used to construct adverse survival conditions （ASC） against BPH nymphs. Simultaneously, the low population density and tillering stage of rice plants were used to establish a suitable survival condition （SSC） as a control. Solexa/Illumina sequencing was used to identify genes of BPH nymphs responding to ASC. Significantly longer duration development of BPH nymphs and significantly lower brachypterous ratio of BPH adults were observed by ASC compared with SSC. A total of 2 544 differentially expressed genes （DEGs） were obtained and analyzed by BLASTx, Gene Ontology and KEGG Orthology. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly involved in categories of cell, cell part, cellular process, binding, catalytic, organelle and metabolic processes. 1138 DEGs having enzyme commission numbers were assigned to different metabolic pathways. The largest clusters were neurodegenerative diseases （137, 12.0%）, followed by carbohy- drate metabolism （113, 9.9%）, amino acid metabolism （94, 8.3%）, nucleotide metabolism （76, 6.7%）, energy metabolism （64, 5.6%）, translation （60, 5.3%）, lipid metabolism （58, 5.1%）, and folding, sorting and degradation （52, 4.6%）. Expressing profile of 11 DEGs during eight nymphal developmental stages of BPH were analyzed by quantitative real- time polymerase chain reaction. The 11 genes exhibited differential expression between ASC and SSC during at least one developmental stage. The DEGs identified in this study provide molecular proof of how BPH reconfigures its gene expression profile to adapt to overcrowding and low-quality hosts.     

Novel rhodococci and other mycolate actinomycetes from the deep sea

A large number of mycolate actinomycetes have been recovered from deep-sea sediments in the NW Pacific Ocean using selective isolation methods. The isolates were putatively assigned to the genus Rhodococcus on the basis of colony characteristics and mycolic acid profiles. The diversity among these isolates and their relationship to type strains of Rhodococcus and other mycolate taxa were assessed by Curie point pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS). Three major (A, C, D) and two minor (B, E) groups were defined by PyMS. Cluster A was a large group of isolates recovered from sediment in the Izu Bonin Trench (2679 m); Cluster C comprised isolates from both the Izu Bonin Trench (6390 and 6499 m) and from the Japan Trench (4418, 6048 and 6455 m). These Cluster C isolates showed close similarity to Dietzia maris and this was subsequently confirmed using molecular methods. Cluster D contained isolates recovered from a sediment taken from a depth of 1168m in Sagami Bay and were identified as members of the terrestrial species Rhodococcus luteus. Clusters B and E had close affinities with members of the genera Gordonia and Mycobacterium. The presence of Thermoactinomyces in certain of the deep-sea sediments studied was indicative of the movement of terrestrial material into the ocean depths.16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence analyses produced excellent definition of most genera of the mycolata, and indicated that the among the deep sea isolates (1) were novel species of Corynebacterium, Gordonia and Mycobacterium, and (2) a Sea of Japan isolate the phylogenetic depth of which suggests the possibility of a new genus. Polyphasic taxonomic analysis revealed considerable diversity among the deep sea rhodococci and evidence for recently diverged species or DNA groups.