The Potential of Endophytes in Improving Salt-Alkali Tolerance and Salinity Resistance in Plants.

Ensuring food security for the global population is a ceaseless and critical issue. However, high-salinity and high-alkalinity levels can harm agricultural yields throughout large areas, even in largely agricultural countries, such as China. Various physical and chemical treatments have been employed in different locations to mitigate high salinity and alkalinity but their effects have been minimal. Numerous researchers have recently focused on developing effective and environmentally friendly biological treatments. Endophytes, which are naturally occurring and abundant in plants, retain many of the same characteristics of plants owing to their simultaneous evolution. Therefore, extraction of endophytes from salt-tolerant plants for managing plant growth in saline-alkali soils has become an important research topic. This extraction indicates that the soil environment can be fundamentally improved, and the signaling pathways of plants can be altered to increase their defense capacity, and can even be inherited to ensure lasting efficacy. This study discusses the direct and indirect means by which plant endophytes mitigate the effects of plant salinity stress that have been observed in recent years.

Advances in Polysaccharide Production Based on the Co-Culture of Microbes.

Microbial polysaccharides are natural carbohydrates that can confer adhesion capacity to cells and protect them from harsh environments. Due to their various physiological activities, these macromolecules are widely used in food, medicine, environmental, cosmetic, and textile applications. Microbial co-culture is an important strategy that is used to increase the production of microbial polysaccharides or produce new polysaccharides (structural alterations). This is achieved by exploiting the symbiotic/antagonistic/chemo-sensitive interactions between microbes and stimulating the expression of relevant silent genes. In this article, we review the performance of polysaccharides produced using microbial co-culture in terms of yield, antioxidant activity, and antibacterial, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to the advantages and application prospects of co-culture. Moreover, the potential for microbial polysaccharides to be used in various applications is discussed.

Application of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire in Chinese Community Elderly.

Background: The present study investigated the applicability of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) in the Chinese community elderly and explored the influence of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on late-life depression. Methods: A total of 367 community elderly aged 60-94 were deemed eligible and completed CERQ, the Perceived Stress Scale-10, the Geriatric Depression Questionnaire-15, and the State Anxiety Inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis was adopted to verify the 9-factor structure of CERQ. Cronbach's α coefficient, Ω coefficient and split-half reliability were used to test the internal consistency of CERQ. Pearson correlations among scores of CERQ and other scales were calculated to examine its convergent validity. In addition, a structural equation model was used to further examine the effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on the association between perceived stress and late-life depression. Results: All the fitting indexes of CERQ's 9-factor model met the criterion (χ 2/df= 2.26, CFI= 0.916, TLI= 0.904, RMSEA= 0.052). For the total score of CERQ, the Cronbach's α coefficient and Ω coefficient were both 0.90, and the split-half reliability was 0.74. For the nine subscales, the α coefficients ranged from 0.66 to 0.88, and the Ω coefficients ranged from 0.69 to 0.88. Significant positive correlations were found between the maladaptive dimension of CERQ and other scales (all p < 0.001). The maladaptive emotion regulation strategies indirectly affected the effect of perceived stress on late-life depression (effect size was 21.57%). Conclusion: With good reliability and factor validity, the CERQ showed good applicability in the Chinese elderly population. The influence of perceived stress on depression in the elderly was mediated by maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.

First report of Atractylodes lancea leaf spot caused by Fusarium acuminatum in China.

Atractylodes lancea Thunb. DC (cangzhu) is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant (Cai et al., 2020). In June 2020, leaf spots were observed in A. lancea plants at the Chongqing Institute of Medicinal Plant Cultivation located in Nanchuan District, Chongqing, China (29°8'26.46″ N, 107°13'23'21″ E). Approximately 75% of the plants displayed leaf spot, partial leaf wilting, and stunted growth, and some plants died. To determine the cause of this disease, five typical leaf spots were cut into small pieces. The pieces were successively surface-disinfected with 0.5% NaClO for 1 min and 75% ethanol for 30 s, washed thrice with sterile water, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) to incubate at 25 ℃. These isolates initially formed abundant white aerial mycelium, then gradually developed a rose pigmentation with a brownish color in the center and grayish rose at the periphery of the colony (Li et al. 2019). Mycelial tips were picked and placed on carnation leaf agar (CLA) and inoculated for 7 days. The macroconidia of the isolates were slender, distinctively curved in the bottom half of the apical cell, and sickle-shaped, with 3-4 septa. They ranged in size from 16.68-26.49 × 1.48-2.34 µm (n=50). The microconidia were fusiform with or without one septum. Their size ranged from 6.19-11.02 × 1.25-1.43 µm (n=50) (Li et al. 2019). The morphological characteristics of the isolates were consistent with those of Fusarium spp. PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and ß-tubulin (TUB2) gene were performed using the primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990) and Bt-2a/Bt-2b (Robideau et al. 2011), respectively. BLASTn analysis revealed that the ITS sequences of the isolates were 100% identical to those of the F. acuminatum isolates from the Fusarium MLST database (http://isolate.fusariumdb.org/guide.php). Further analysis revealed that the TUB2 sequences were 99.14% identical to those of the F. acuminatum strain S16 isolates (MF662644) from the GeneBank database of the NCBI server. Based on the morphology and sequence analyses, the isolates were identified as F. acuminatum. Pathogenicity tests were conducted on 1.5-year-old A. lancea plants by inoculating spore suspensions under greenhouse conditions (25°C). For this, wound were made on leaves by piercing with sterilized toothpicks. 30 µl of spore suspension containing 2 × 106 conidia/ml was placed on each wound. Wounds on the leaves of control plants were inoculated with 10 µl of sterile distilled water. There were three plants for each treatment. After incubation at 25 °C for 5 days in a greenhouse, the leaves of the treated plants all showed partial wilting, consistent with the field observations. No symptoms were observed in controlled plants. The fungi were again isolated from the symptomatic tissues and were identical to the original isolate. The experiment was repeated twice with similar results. Pathogenicity symptoms were similar to what was first observed in the field and the isolated fungi were verified based on morphological characteristics, thus fulfilling Koch's postulate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that A. lancea leaf spot caused by F. acuminatum has been discovered in China. The leaf spot caused by F. acuminatum on A. lancea has serious yield loss, and proper control measures should be applied.

Psychological resilience and daily stress mediate the effect of childhood trauma on depression.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood trauma (CT) is a well-recognized distal risk factor for depression. Previous studies suggested that the psychological mechanism of the impact of childhood trauma on depression may be attributed to some mediators such as daily stress and psychological resilience. This study aimed to assess how daily stress and resilience affect the relationship between childhood trauma and depression in adult clinical context. METHOD: In this cross-section survey, a total of 569 clinical patients with psychological disorders completed a series of psychological scales such as the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). To show the relationship among childhood trauma, psychological resilience, daily stress and depression, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. RESULTS: The results indicated that psychological resilience and daily stress partially mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms. Childhood trauma not only exerted direct effect on depressive symptoms, but also had indirect effect through the mediation pathway (resilience â†’ daily stress) on depressive symptoms. The chain mediation pathway through resilience and daily stress was weighted 43.31%. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides novel evidence on the underlying process between childhood trauma and depression. The distal factor childhood trauma can influence the latter depression by the chain effect of psychological resilience and daily stress. Therefore, some clinical interventions to improve psychological resilience to carry off daily stress are the way to reduce the impact of childhood trauma on depression.

Factorial Validity and Factorial Invariance Across Gender of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Chinese version in Undergraduates.

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to examine the factor structure and factorial invariance across gender of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Chinese version (FMPS-CV). METHODS: The FMPS-CV was completed by 2451 undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to verify its factorial validity, and Multigroup CFA were performed to examine its factorial invariance across gender. Gender differences were compared on scores of FMPS-CV. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also detected. Clinical characteristics were compared between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists categorized by positive and negative scores of FMPS-CV. RESULTS: CFA supported the six-factor structure of FMPS-CV, and Multigroup CFA evidenced its factorial invariance across gender. No significant gender differences were found. The adaptive perfectionists scored significantly lower on clinical variables than maladaptive perfectionists. Moreover, the reliability indicators met the standards. CONCLUSIONS: The good psychometrics properties of FMPS-CV supported it could be used to assess perfectionism in Chinese young adults.

Impaired impulse inhibition of emotional stimuli in patients with borderline personality disorder.

This study was aimed to investigate whether BPD patients showed impaired impulse inhibition of emotional and non-emotional stimuli and to explore relevant neuroelectrophysiological mechanisms. A total of 32 BPD patients and 32 matched healthy controls were recruited. Self-reported scales were used to measure psychiatric symptoms. The event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when subjects were performing neutral and emotional Stop Signal Task (SST). Group differences in self-reported scores, behavioral variables and ERPs were compared. The BPD group scored significantly higher on impulsivity, severity of BPD symptoms, levels of depression and anxiety than the control group. In neutral SST, no significant group differences were detected in the amplitude and latency of ERPs components induced. In emotional SST, the P2 amplitude of negative emotion was significantly larger than that of neutral emotion in Go trials. In Stop trials, the P2 amplitude of BPD group was significantly smaller than that of control group, and the N2 amplitude of BPD group was significantly greater than that of control group. BPD patients showed impaired inhibition of emotional stimuli rather than non-emotional stimuli. The deficits of emotional impulse control mainly exhibit at the early attention, stimulus evaluation and conflict detection stages.

Increased functional interaction within frontoparietal network during working memory task in major depressive disorder.

Abnormal fronto-parietal activation has been suggested as a neural underpinning of the working memory (WM) deficits in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the potential interaction within the frontoparietal network during WM processing in MDD remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the role of abnormal functional interactions within frontoparietal network in the neuropathological mechanisms of WM deficits in MDD. A total of 40 MDD patients and 47 demographic matched healthy controls (HCs) were included. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral data were collected during numeric n-back tasks. The psychophysiological interaction and dynamic causal modelling methods were applied to investigate the connectivity within the frontoparietal network in MDD during n-back tasks. The psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that MDD patients showed increased functional connectivity between the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) compared with HCs during the 2-back task. The dynamic causal modelling analysis revealed that MDD patients had significantly increased forward modulation connectivity from the right IPL to the right dlPFC than HCs during the 2-back task. Partial correlation was used to calculate the relationship between connective parameters and psychological variables in the MDD group, which showed that the effective connectivity from right IPL to right dlPFC was correlated negatively with the sensitivity index d' of WM performances and positively with the depressive severity in MDD group. In conclusion, the abnormal functional and effective connectivity between frontal and parietal regions might contribute to explain the neuropathological mechanism of working memory deficits in major depressive disorder.

Insecure attachment and maladaptive emotion regulation mediating the relationship between childhood trauma and borderline personality features.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggested that childhood trauma is an important etiologic factor for the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Moreover, insecure attachment and maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) might be related to childhood trauma and BPD. This study was aimed to explore the relationships among childhood trauma, insecure attachment, maladaptive ER, and BPD features. METHODS: A cohort of 637 patients with psychological disorders completed a series of psychometric instruments such as the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+), the 23-Item Borderline Symptom List, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Attachment Style Questionnaire, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The path analyses were conducted to investigate the experience-driven model that whether insecure attachment and maladaptive ER could mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and BPD features. The random forest regression was performed to select variables that contribute significantly to BPD features, which variables would be incorporated into the data-driven model to further confirm the experience-driven model. RESULTS: Both the experience-driven model and the data-driven model verified that there were three significant mediation pathways (childhood trauma → insecure attachment/maladaptive ER → BPD features, childhood trauma → insecure attachment → maladaptive ER → BPD features; all p < .05), and the most weighted mediation pathway by which childhood trauma influencing the BPD features was through insecure attachment and then through maladaptive ER (weighted 53.16%). CONCLUSION: The influence of childhood trauma on BPD features was mainly mediated by the combination of insecure attachment and maladaptive emotion regulation.

Impaired set-shifting in drug-naïve patients with borderline personality disorder: an event-related potentials study.

BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive impairments might play a key role in the development of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), however, the pathophysiological mechanism underlying cognitive impairment of BPD is largely unknown. This study was aimed to examine the electrophysiological mechanism of deficits in set-shifting processing in patients with BPD. METHODS: Twenty-seven drug-naïve patients with BPD and twenty-four healthy controls were recruited. Demographic variables and clinical characteristics of all subjects were collected. Behavioral data and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when subjects were performing the task-switching paradigm, which was applied to investigate the set-shifting function. The P2, N2 and P3 components in the task-switching paradigm would be analyzed. RESULTS: Patients with BPD had significantly higher level of impulsivity, depression and anxiety than healthy controls. When performing the switching task, the BPD group had lower P2 amplitude and higher N2 amplitude than the control group. In the BPD group, the P2 latency at Fz electrode in repeat task was correlated positively with the level of depression, and P2 latency at Pz electrode in repeat task and switch task both had significantly negative relationships with the the level of anxiety. LIMITATIONS: This cross-sectional designed study did not clarify the causal relationship of the electrophysiological characteristics and the development of BPD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with BPD might have abnormal brain activities when overcoming the inhibition of current task and inhibiting the effects of prior task, and their top-down control function might be impaired. These findings provide some useful clues for the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of BPD.

Structural and Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidences supported the hypothesis that emotional dysregulation results from aberrant connectivity within the fronto-limbic neural networks in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Considering its important role in emotional regulation, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has not yet been fully explored in BPD patients. Therefore, using the seed-based resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) and probabilistic fiber tracking, we aimed to explore the alterations of functional and structural connectivity (SC) of the ACC in patients with BPD. METHODS: A cohort of 50 unmedicated, young BPD patients and 54 sex-, age-, and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) completed psychological tests and underwent rs-fMRI and diffuse tensor imaging (DTI) scanning. Rs-FC analysis and probabilistic fiber tracking were used to plot SC and FC of the ACC. RESULTS: With the left ACC selected as a seed, BPD patients exhibited increased rsFC and abnormal SC with the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and decreased rsFC with the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), compared with HCs. Additionally, negative cognitive emotion regulation and depressive symptoms both correlated negatively with the rsFC of the left ACC in BPD patients. CONCLUSION: Abnormal SC and FC of the ACC underlie the deficient emotional regulation circuitry in BPD patients. Such alterations may be important biomarkers of BPD and thus could point to potential BPD treatment targets.

Functional Connectivity Density, Local Brain Spontaneous Activity, and Their Coupling Strengths in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder.

In this study, combining degree centrality (DC) and fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (fALFF) analyses of resting state (rs)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, we aimed to explore functional connectivity density, local brain spontaneous activity, and their coupling strengths in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Forty-three BPD patients and 39 demographically-matched controls underwent rs-fMRI after completing a series of psychological tests. Two-sample t-tests were performed to compare DC and fALFF between these two groups. Across-voxel correlation analysis was conducted to assess DC-fALFF coupling strengths in each group. Imaging parameters and psychological variables were correlated by Pearson correlation analysis in the BPD group. Altered DC and fALFF values in the BPD group, compared with the control group, were distributed mainly in default mode network (DMN), and DC-fALFF coupling strengths were decreased in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and right precuneus in the BPD group. Additionally, insecure attachment scores correlated positively with left precuneus DC and negatively with fALFF of the right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the BPD group. These altered DC and fALFF findings indicate that the BPD patients had disturbed functional connectivity density and local spontaneous activity in the DMN compared with control subjects. Their decreased connectivity-amplitude coupling suggests that the left MTG and right precuneus may be functional impairment hubs in BPD. Disturbed rs function in the left precuneus and right PCC might underlie insecure attachment in BPD.