Biodiversity and species competition regulate the resilience of microbial biofilm community

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem stability is poorly understood in microbial communities. Biofilm communities in small bioreactors called microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) contain moderate species numbers and easy tractable functional traits, thus providing an ideal platform for verifying ecological theories in microbial ecosystems. Here, we investigated the resilience of biofilm communities with a gradient of diversity, and explored the relationship between biodiversity and stability in response to a pH shock. The results showed that all bioreactors could recover to stable performance after pH disturbance, exhibiting a great resilience ability. A further analysis of microbial composition showed that the rebound of Geobacter and other exoelectrogens contributed to the resilient effectiveness, and that the presence of Methanobrevibacter might delay the functional recovery of biofilms. The microbial communities with higher diversity tended to be recovered faster, implying biofilms with high biodiversity showed better resilience in response to environmental disturbance. Network analysis revealed that the negative interactions between the two dominant genera of Geobacter and Methanobrevibacter increased when the recovery time became longer, implying the internal resource or spatial competition of key functional taxa might fundamentally impact the resilience performances of biofilm communities. This study provides new insights into our understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning.     

茄子栽培种砧用种质农业生物学性状及嫁接适用性研究

青枯病是热带亚热带地区普遍发生的一种土传病害,为选配具有优良抗病性和嫁接适用性的茄子砧木杂交组合,该研究对国内外11份茄子栽培种砧用种质进行农业生物学评价和青枯病抗病性鉴定,研究了不同砧用种质对嫁接苗生长的影响。结果表明:供试砧用种质中,果型为卵圆形5份、倒卵形2份、长卵圆4份;幼果颜色紫色7份、淡紫色1份、绿色1份、淡绿色2份;老熟果实颜色均为黄色;种质J14、J15、J16、J17的主茎紫色,其余均为绿色;J61的花瓣白色,其余均为紫色或淡紫色。供试砧木种质与接穗Rf的嫁接成活率均在80%以上,最高达97%。采用苗期伤根-浸根接种法鉴定砧木种质对青枯病的抗病性,有9份砧用种质自根苗表现高抗(HR),病情指数为3.67~12.33,其中6份砧木种质(BC01、BC03、BC04、BC06、J15、J16)嫁接感病接穗后表现抗病(R),病情指数为16.67~21.00。砧用种质能显著改善接穗的生长,其中,BC01、BC03、BC04、BC06、J15、J16的嫁接苗的生物量增长率显著高于其他种质的嫁接苗。综合试验结果显示茄子栽培种砧用种质农业生物学性状表现多样性,可区分为不同生态类型。抗病砧木种质嫁接高感病接穗的防病效果显著,种质BC01、BC03、BC04、BC06、J15、J16高抗青枯病,嫁接高感病品种表现抗青枯病,可作为配制抗青枯病砧木杂交组合的候选亲本。     

Characterization of microbial communities during anode biofilm reformation in a two-chambered microbial electrolysis cell (MEC)

GeoChip (II) and single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) were used to characterize anode microbial communities of a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC). Biofilm communities, enriched in a two-chamber MEC (R1, 0.6 V applied) having a coulombic efficiency (CE) of 35±4% and a hydrogen yield (Y(H?))of 31±3%, were used as the inoculum for a new reactor (R2). After three months R2 achieved stable performance with CE=38±4% and (Y(H?)). Few changes in the predominant populations were observed from R1 to R2. Unlike sludge inoculation process in R1 in the beginning, little further elimination was aroused by community competitions in anode biofilm reformation in R2. Functional genes detection of biofilm indicated that cytochrome genes enriched soon in new reactor R2, and four genera (Desulfovibrio, Rhodopseudomonas, Shewanella and Geobacter) were likely to contribute to exoelectrogenic activity. This work also implied that symbiosis of microbial communities (exoelectrogens and others) contribute to system performance and stability.     

Kinetic, crystallographic, and mechanistic characterization of TomN: elucidation of a function for a 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase homologue in the tomaymycin biosynthetic pathway

The biosynthesis of the C ring of the antitumor antibiotic agent, tomaymycin, is proposed to proceed through five enzyme-catalyzed steps from l-tyrosine. The genes encoding these enzymes have recently been cloned and their functions tentatively assigned, but there is limited biochemical evidence supporting the assignments of the last three steps. One enzyme, TomN, shows 58% pairwise sequence similarity with 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT), an enzyme found in a catabolic pathway for aromatic hydrocarbons. The TomN sequence includes three amino acids (Pro-1, Arg-11, and Arg-39) that have been identified as critical catalytic residues in 4-OT. However, the proposed substrate for TomN is very different from that processed by 4-OT. To establish the function and mechanism of TomN and its relationship with 4-OT, we conducted kinetic, mutagenic, and structural studies. The kinetic parameters for TomN, and four alanine mutants, P1A, R11A, R39A, and R61A, were determined using 2-hydroxymuconate, the substrate for 4-OT. The TomN-catalyzed reaction using this substrate compares favorably to that of 4-OT. In addition, the kinetic parameters for the P1A, R11A, and R39A mutants of TomN parallel the trends observed for the corresponding 4-OT mutants, implicating an analogous mechanism. A high-resolution crystal structure (1.4 ?) of TomN shows that the overall structure and the active site region are highly similar to those of 4-OT with a root-mean-square deviation of 0.81 ?. Moreover, key active site residues are positionally conserved. The combined results suggest that the tentative assignment for TomN and the proposed sequence of events in the biosynthetic pathway leading to the formation of the C ring of tomaymycin might not be correct. An alternative pathway that awaits biochemical confirmation is proposed.     

Caveolin-1 regulates nitric oxide-mediated matrix metalloproteinases activity and blood-brain barrier permeability in focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury

The roles of caveolin-1 (cav-1) in regulating blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability are unclear yet. We previously reported that cav-1 was down-regulated and the production of nitric oxide (NO) induced the loss of cav-1 in focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury. The present study aims to address whether the loss of cav-1 impacts on BBB permeability and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity during cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. We found that focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion down-regulated the expression of cav-1 in isolated cortex microvessels, hippocampus, and cortex of ischemic brain. The down-regulation of cav-1 was correlated with the increased MMP-2 and -9 activities, decreased tight junction (TJ) protein zonula occludens (ZO)-1 expression and enhanced BBB permeability. Treatment of N(G) -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester [L-NAME, a non-selective nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor] reserved the expression of cav-1, inhibited MMPs activity, and reduced BBB permeability. To elucidate the roles of cav-1 in regulating MMPs and BBB permeability, we used two approaches including cav-1 knockdown in cultured brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) in vitro and cav-1 knockout (KO) mice in vivo. Cav-1 knockdown remarkably increased MMPs activity in BMECs. Meanwhile, with focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, cav-1 deficiency mice displayed higher MMPs activities and BBB permeability than wild-type mice. Interestingly, the effects of L-NAME on MMPs activity and BBB permeability was partly reversed in cav-1 deficiency mice. These results, when taken together, suggest that cav-1 plays important roles in regulating MMPs activity and BBB permeability in focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury. The effects of L-NAME on MMPs activity and BBB permeability are partly mediated by preservation of cav-1.     

Ecological control and integral utilization of Spartina alterniflora

Spartina alterniflora Loisel (S. alterniflora) is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of North America and was introduced to China in 1979. Over the years, S. alterniflora played an important role in protecting coastal banks, accelerating sediment deposition, improving local economies, and alleviating natural disasters. As an exotic species, S. alterniflora has a very strong capability of propagation, which has caused some negative effects, such as occupying ecological niches of some seashells and blocking harbors by fast sediment deposition. As a result, ecological control of S. alterniflora in some areas has drawn wide attention from biologists and ecologists in China and abroad. For this paper, we studied the technology of topography and hydrology modification to substitute S. alterniflora with P. asutralis and reported our results in a project applying this technology. Furthermore, we studied various ways to make use of biomass of S. alterniflora and found that such ways were a good alternative to ecological control of S. alterniflora.     

饲料种类和饲养密度对黄粉虫幼虫生长发育的影响

室内研究了饲料种类、饲养密度对黄粉虫幼虫生长速度、死亡率、化蛹率和虫体营养成分的影响.结果表明：（1）黄粉虫幼虫平均每头增重大小顺序为：C组（麦麸＋菜叶）＞ B组（麦麸）＞A组（白菜叶）＞D组（饥饿）,密度1～4头/cm^2的黄粉虫幼虫平均每头增重幅度大于6～8头/cm^2的处理组.（2）黄粉虫幼虫总死亡率的大小顺序分别为：A组、C组＞D组＞B组,8头/cm^2＞2～6头/cm^2＞1头/cm^2;自然死亡率的大小顺序分别为：B组、C组＞A组＞D组,8头/cm^2＞1～6头/cm^2;自相残杀死亡率的大小顺序分别为：A组、C组、D组＞B组,8头/cm^2＞4～6头/cm^2＞1～2头/cm^2;自相残杀死亡率占总死亡率比例的大小顺序分别为：D组＞A组、C组＞B组, 4～8头/cm^2＞2头/cm^2＞1头/cm^2.（3）黄粉虫幼虫化蛹率的大小顺序分别为：C组＞A、B、D组,1～2头/cm^2＞4头/cm^2＞6～8头/cm^2.（4）黄粉虫幼虫干物质含量的大小顺序分别为：B组＞ C组＞D组＞A组,8头/cm^2 ＞6头/cm^2＞1头/cm^2、4头/cm^2＞2头/cm^2;不同饲料条件下虫体中氮、磷含量的大小顺序为：D组、A组＞B组、C组;饲养密度对黄粉虫幼虫氮、磷含量均没有明显的影响.（5）在生产中,饲料以精饲料和青饲料合理搭配为宜,如果考虑化蛹繁殖,密度以2头/cm^2为宜;如果不考虑化蛹繁殖,则黄粉虫幼虫密度可以提高到4头/cm^2.     

Volatile fatty acids productivity by anaerobic co-digesting waste activated sludge and corn straw: Effect of feedstock proportion

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are the most suitable and biodegradable carbon substrates for many bioprocesses. This study explored a new approach to improve the VFAs production from anaerobic co-digesting waste activated sludge (WAS) with corn straw (CS). The effect of feedstock proportion on the acidification efficiency was investigated. The maximum VFAs yield (corresponding fermentation time) was substantially increased 69% (96 h), 45% (72 h), 13% (120 h) and 12% (120 h) with 50%, 35%, 25% and 20% CS proportion of feedstock, respectively. HAc (acetic acid) was consistently the most abundant, followed by HPr (propionic acid) and n-HBu (butyric acid) in the co-digesting tests. The increase of CS in feedstock led to more production of HAc and HPr. Moreover, the consumption of protein and carbohydrate were also improved remarkably from 2955 and 249 mg COD/L (individual WAS fermentation) to 6575 and 815 mg COD/L (50%_WAS:50%_CS co-digestion) from 120 onward, respectively. The highest contribution of CS to additional VFAs production was1113 mg VFAs (as COD)/g CS/L in the 65%_WAS:35%_CS co-digesting test. Our study indicated a valuable method to improve VFAs production from anaerobic co-digesting WAS and CS.