[Accumulation of Sulfonamides and Macrolides Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Soils with Different Utilization Patterns in China].

To explore the variation in the absolute abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in different regions of China under different land use modes and different planting years, the qualitative and quantitative study of sulfonamide (sul1,sul2) and macrolide (ermB,mefA) ARGs and an integron gene (intl1) were conducted using ordinary PCR and the fluorescence quantitative technique. The results revealed that the frequencies of sulfonamides (sul1,sul2) and intl1 were all 100% in different soils, and the detection frequencies of macrolides (ermB,mefA) were 100% in facilities vegetable fields; however, in open vegetable fields, and open grain fields, the frequencies of ermB were 94%, and those of mefA were 92% and 90%, respectively. The absolute abundance of sulfonamide and macrolide ARGs was the highest in 15 years facilities vegetable soil in Heilongjiang Province. The absolute abundance of intl1 was the highest in 15 years facilities vegetable soil in Neimenggu Province. The absolute abundances of ARGs and intl1 in facilities vegetable soil of 3, 7, and 15 years were significantly higher than that in open grain fields and open vegetable fields of the same years. The absolute abundance of ARGs and intl1 in facilities vegetable fields for 7 years and 15 years were significantly higher than that for 3 years. There was no significant linear relationship between the gene accumulation and planting life in open vegetable fields and open grain fields, except for sul1 andsul2, whereas there was a significantly positive correlation in facilities vegetable soil. Correlation analysis demonstrated that there was a significant positive correlation between the abundance of ARGs and the abundance of intl1 in different soils. This reveals the accumulation of ARGs and intl1 in soils with different utilization patterns, thereby providing reference and support for secure agricultural production.

Treatment With Wheat Root Exudates and Soil Microorganisms From Wheat/Watermelon Companion Cropping Can Induce Watermelon Disease Resistance Against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum.

Companion cropping with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) can enhance watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] wilt disease resistance against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum. However, the mechanism of resistance induction remains unknown. In this study, the effects of microbial community dynamics and the interactions between wheat and watermelon plants, particularly the effect of wheat root exudates on watermelon resistance against F. oxysporum f. sp. niveum, were examined using a plant-soil feedback trial and plant tissue culture approach. The plant-soil feedback trial showed that treating watermelon with soil from wheat/watermelon companion cropping decreased watermelon wilt disease incidence and severity, increased lignin biosynthesis- and defense-related gene expression, and increased ß-1,3-glucanase activity in watermelon roots. Furthermore, soil microbes can contribute to increasing disease resistance in watermelon plants. Tissue culture experiments showed that both exogenous addition of wheat root exudates and companion cropping with wheat increased host defense gene expression, lignin and total phenols, and increased ß-1,3-glucanase activity in watermelon roots. In conclusion, both root exudates from wheat and the related soil microorganisms in a wheat/watermelon companion cropping system played critical roles in enhancing resistance to watermelon wilt disease induced by F. oxysporum f. sp. niveum.

Enhanced functional connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) in patients with spleen deficiency syndrome: A resting-state fMRI study.

Numerous studies had investigated the biological basis of spleen deficiency syndrome on gastrointestinal dysfunctions. However, little was known about neuropsychological mechanism of spleen deficiency syndrome. The default model network (DMN) plays an important role in cognitive processing. Our aim is to investigate the change of neuropsychological tests and DMN in patients with spleen deficiency syndrome.Sixteen patients and 12 healthy subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging examination, and 15 patients with spleen deficiency syndrome and 6 healthy subjects take part in the two neuropsychological tests.Compared with healthy subjects, patients with spleen deficiency syndrome revealed significantly increased functional connectivity within DMN, and significantly higher in the scores of 2-FT (P = .002) and 3-FT (P = .014).Our findings suggest that patients with spleen deficiency syndrome are associated with abnormal functional connectivity of DMN and part of neuropsychological tests, which provide new evidence in neuroimaging to support the notion of TCM that the spleen stores Yi and domains thoughts.

Effects of soil improvement technology on soil quality in solar greenhouse.

Currently, cucumber cultivation is mainly through monoculture, as continuous culture leads to the decrease of crop yield and soil quality. In order to improve soil quality to achieve continuous monocultures, soil physicochemical properties, microbial biomass, content of phenolic compounds, and the size of bacterial, fungal, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), and Fusarium oxysporum were first evaluated in cucumber monoculture solar greenhouse. Soil improvement technology, including catch wheat (CW), calcium cyanamide disinfection (LN), and straw reactor technology (SR) during summer fallow period, was compared with conventional fallow (CK). Results showed that CW, LN, and SR all significantly increased soil pH, and LN and SR increased soil electrical conductivity (EC); however, CW decreased soil EC. Meanwhile, LN increased soil available N content significantly and SR increased available P content significantly. CW had negative effect on the accumulation of soil available nutrients, conversely, CW and SR had positive effect on the accumulation of microbial biomass carbon (MBC). All the treatments increased the total phenol content in the soil compared with CK. While CW increased the size of bacteria, AOB in the soil inhibited fungal and wilt pathogen size. LN also increased the size of soil bacteria and reduced the size of fungi. The comprehensive evaluation of all treatments showed that CW could control soil nutrient loss and improve the continuous cropping soil, making the soil transform from fungi to bacteria type. All the treatments accelerate the accumulation of phenolic compound, while whether or not developing autotoxicity requires further investigation.

Sini powder () decoction alleviates mood disorder of insomnia by regulating cation-chloride cotransporters in hippocampus.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism of Sini Powder () decoction (SND) in the treatment of insomnia. METHODS: The rats were randomly divided into four groups: control, model, SND-treated, and Estazolamtreated groups (n=15 in each group). Sleep deprivation (SD) rat model was established using the modifified multiple platform method for 14 h per day for 14 days, and the behavior of the rats were observed. Na-K-Cl-cotransporter (NKCC1) and K+/Cl- cotransporter (KCC2) in the hippocampus were tested by immunohistochemistry, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blot. RESULTS: SD rats displayed anxiety-like behavior, which was alleviated by SND. The protein expressions of NKCC1 and KCC2 in the hippocampus were signifificantly decreased in SD rats compared with those in control rats (P<0.05); these proteins were signifificantly increased by SND (P<0.05). The mRNA expression of KCC2 was signifificantly decreased in SD rats (0.62±0.35 vs. 2.29±0.56; P=0.044), while SND showed a tendency to increase the mRNA of KCC2 in SD rats (P>0.05). By contrast, the mRNA expression of NKCC1 was signifificantly increased in the hippocampus of SD rats (6.58±1.54 vs. 2.82±0.32; P=0.011), while SND decreased the mRNA expression of NKCC1 (6.58±1.54 vs. 2.79±0.81; P=0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Chinese medicine SND could alleviate mood disorder of SD rats by regulating cation-chloride cotransporters, such as NKCC1 and KCC2. These fifindings would have major implications in the mechanism of SND to relieve insomnia.

[Effects of wheat root exudates on cucumber growth and soil fungal community structure].

With wheat as the donor plant and cucumber as the receptor plant, this study investigated the effects of root exudates from wheat cultivars with different allelopathic potentials (positive or negative) and companion cropping with wheat on soil fungal community structure by PCR-DGGE method and cucumber growth. Results showed that the wheat root exudates with positive allelopathic potential increased height and stem diameter of cucumber seedlings significantly, compared to the control seedlings (W) after 6 days and 12 days treatment, respectively. Also, wheat root exudates with both positive and negative allelopathic potential increased the seedling height of cucumber significantly after 18 days treatment. The wheat root exudates with different allelopathic potentials decreased the band number, Shannon and evenness indices of soil fungal community significantly in cucumber seedling rhizosphere, and those in the soil with the control seedlings (W) were also significantly higher than that in the control soil without seedlings (Wn) after 6 days treatment. The band number, Shannon and evenness indices in all the treatments were significantly higher than those in the control soil without seedlings (Wn) after 18 days treatment. Companion cropping with negative allelopathic potential wheat decreased the Shannon and evenness indices of soil fungi community significantly in the cucumber seedling rhizosphere, suggesting the wheat root exudates and companion cropping with wheat changed soil fungal community structure in the cucumber seedling rhizosphere. The results of DGGE map and the principal component analysis showed that companion cropping with wheat cultivars with different allelopathic potentials changed soil fungal community structure in cucumber seedling rhizosphere.

[Effects of different catch modes on soil enzyme activities and bacterial community in the rhizosphere of cucumber].

Effects of different catch modes on soil enzyme activities and bacterial community in the rhizosphere of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) were analyzed by conventional chemical method, PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and real-time PCR methods. Pot experiment was carried out in the greenhouse for three consecutive years with cucumber as the main crop, and scallion (Allium fistulosum), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and oilseed rape (Brassica campestri) as catch crops. Results showed that, with the increase of crop planting times, soil urease, neutral phosphatase and invertase activities in the wheat treatment were significantly) higher than in the scallion and oilseed rape treatments, and these enzyme activities in the oilseed rape treatment were significantly higher than in the scallion treatment. PCR-DGGR analysis showed that cucumber rhizosphere bacterial community structures were different among treatments. Scallion and wheat treatments maintained relatively higher diversity indices of bacterial community structure. qPCR results showed that the abundance of soil bacterial community in the wheat treatment was significantly higher than in the scallion and oilseed rape treatments. In conclusion, different catch treatments affected soil enzyme activities and bacteria community and changed the soil environment. Wheat used as summer catch crop could maintain relatively higher soil enzyme activities, bacterial community diversity and abundance.

[Effects of Chinese onion' s root exudates on cucumber seedlings growth and rhizosphere soil microorganisms].

Taking the Chinese onion cultivars with different allelopathy potentials as the donor and cucumber as the accepter, this paper studied the effects of Chinese onion' s root exudates on the seedlings growth of cucumber and the culturable microbial number and bacterial community structure in the seedlings rhizosphere soil. The root exudates of the Chinese onion cultivars could promote the growth of cucumber seedlings, and the stimulatory effect increased with the increasing concentration of the root exudates. However, at the same concentrations of root exudates, the stimulatory effect had no significant differences between the Chinese onion cultivars with strong and weak allelopathy potential. The root exudates of the Chinese onion cultivars increased the individual numbers of bacteria and actinomyces but decreased those of fungi and Fusarium in rhizosphere soil, being more significant for the Chinese onion cultivar with high allelopathy potential (L-06). The root exudates of the Chinese onion cultivars also increased the bacterial community diversity in rhizosphere soil. The cloning and sequencing results indicated that the differential bacteria bands were affiliated with Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Anaerolineaceae, and Anaerolineaceae only occurred in the rhizosphere soil in the treatment of high allelopathy potential Chinese onion (L-06). It was suggested that high concentration (10 mL per plant) of root exudates from high allelopathy potential Chinese onion (L-06) could benefit the increase of bacterial community diversity in cucumber seedlings rhizosphere soil.

[Temporal variations of clay content in eroded sediment under different rainfall condition].

Erosion and sediment characteristics were measured using simulated rainfall on two cultivated soils from the Loess Plateau, China. The size distribution of eroded sediment (non-dispersed) was compared with equivalent measurements of the same samples after chemical and mechanical dispersion(dispersed) to investigate the aggregation ratio (AR) and enrichment ratio (ER). Results show that clay content is increasing with the length and rainfall intensity. The loessial soil increased by 8.77% and 2.43%, but the Lou soil increased by only 2.76% and 0.4%. With the increase of slope, the clay content of the two loess reduced by 4.91% and 3.93%, respectively. AR values were less than 1 and ER values were greater than 1. These indicated that relatively slight clay dispersion occurred and that most of the clay in the sediments was in the form of aggregates. The results will improve understanding of erosion and sedimentation processes, which in turn will improve erosion modeling. Knowledge of temporal variations of clay in sediment can also provide the basis for understanding and modeling the transfer of nutrients on hillslope.

[Accumulation characteristics of applied cinnamic acid in cucumber seedling-soil system under NaCl stress].

Taking cucumber cultivars' Jinlv No. 5' (salt-tolerant) and 'Jinyou No. 1' (salt-sensitive) as test materials, a pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of applying cinnamic acid on the accumulation of applied cinnamic acid in cucumber seedling-soil system under NaCl (585 mg x kg(-1) soil) stress. The concentration of applied cinnamic acid was the main factor affecting the accumulation of the exogenous cinnamic acid in the cucumber plant and soil. With the increasing concentration of applied cinnamic acid, except in the treatment of highest concentration (200 mg x kg(-1) soil) cinnamic acid, the total content of cinnamic acid in cucumber plant was increased. NaCl stress enhanced the toxicity of cinnamic acid. In the treatments of low and medium concentration cinnamic acid, the cinnamic acid content in cucumber plant increased; whereas in the treatments of high concentration cinnamic acid, the decline of the seedlings growth was observed, and led to the decrease of the cinnamic acid content in the plant. The content of cinnamic acid in 'Jinlv No. 5' plant decreased at the concentration of applied cinnamic acid being > 200 mg x kg(-1) soil, while that in 'Jinyou No. 1' started to decrease when the concentration of applied cinnamic acid was > 100 mg x kg(-1) soil, reflecting the discrepancy in salt tolerance of the two cultivars. For the cucumber plant, its leaf had the highest content of cinnamic acid. In the cucumber seedling-soil system, most of applied cinnamic acid was mainly accumulated in soil.

[Effects of intercropping Chinese onion cultivars of different allelopathic potential on cucumber growth and soil micro-environment].

A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of intercropping various Chinese onion cultivars of different allelopathic potential on the cucumber growth and rhizospheric soil environment. When intercropped with high allelopathic Chinese onion cultivars, the EC value and peroxidase activity of cucumber rhizospheric soil decreased, while the pH value, invertase and catalase activities, and bacterial community diversity increased. The cloning and sequencing results indicated that most DGGE bands amplified from cucumber rhizospheric soil samples showed a high homology to uncultured bacterial species. The common bands were affiliated with Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, and the differential bacteria bands were affiliated with Proteobacteria and Anaerolineaceae. Rhodospirillales and Acidobacteria were only found in the cucumber rhizospheric soil intercropped with low allelopathic Chinese onion cultivars. Correlation analysis showed that there were significant positive correlations between rhizospheric soil urease activity and cucumber seedlings height, total dry biomass, leaf area, and DGGE band number. It was suggested that intercropping high allelopathic Chinese onion cultivars could establish a good rhizospheric soil micro-environment for cucumber growth, and promote the growth of cucumber seedlings markedly.

[Effects of drought stress on photosynthesis capability of Spiraea fritschiana and Spiraea bunmalba 'Goldmound'].

In this paper, Spiraea fritschiana and Spiraea bunmalba 'Goldmound' were treated with mild, moderate, and severe drought to study the dynamic changes of their photosynthesis capability, and two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were adopted to analyze and identify the differences in the protein expression of the two species before and after the treatments, and the physiological mechanisms inducing the changes of the photosynthesis capability. Drought treatments had significant effects on the photosynthesis capability of the two species. Under drought stress, the maximum photosynthetic rate, light compensation point, and light saturation point decreased gradually, suggesting that the responses of the two species to drought stress were progressive. The two species presented stronger recovery capability after the mild and moderate stresses, but weaker recovery capability after severe stress. After the inducement of drought stress, the weaker drought-resistant S. bunmalba 'Goldmound' had six protein spots lost, eleven new protein spots appeared, thirteen protein spots up-regulation expression, and four protein spots down-regulation expression. All of the proteins were low molecular weight acidic proteins, of which, there were three kinds of different proteins that had been induced expression by drought and were the oxygen-enhanced protein factor 1 and 2 and the degradation fragments of large subunit 1,5-ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. The drought- resistant difference of the two Spiraea species was related to the changes of their photosynthesis capability during drought stress.

[Effects of cinnamic acid on bacterial DNA polymorphism in rhizosphere soil of cucumber under NaCl stress].

By using PCR-DGGE technique, this paper studied the effects of different concentration (0, 25, 50, 100, and 200 mg x kg(-1) soil) cinnamic acid on the bacterial DNA polymorphism in rhizosphere soil of cucumber seedlings under the stress of 292.5 and 585 mg NaCl x kg(-1) soil. At all growth stages of cucumber seedlings, treatment 50 mg x kg(-1) of cinnamic acid had the similar band numbers and band gray scales in DGGE profiles to treatment 0 mg x kg(-1) of cinnamic acid, but the diversity index, richness index, and evenness index were the highest; while in treatments 100 and 200 mg x kg(-1) soil of cinnamic acid, the band numbers and band gray scales decreased, and the diversity index, richness index, and evenness index were lower. Our results demonstrated that low concentration cinnamic acid relieved the salt stress on soil microbes, while high concentration cinnamic acid aggravated the stress. The cloning and sequencing results showed that the main bacterial groups affected by salt stress were uncultured bacterial species, alpha-Proteobacteria, beta-proteobacteria, and gamma-proteobacteria, and a few were Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria.

[Effects of wheat and soybean stubbles on soil microbial ecological characteristics in cucumber field].

The study with traditional dilution plate method and BIOLOG ECO system indicated that under wheat and soybean stubbles, the amounts of soil fungi, bacteria and actinomyces in cucumber field increased, while that of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum decreased (P <0.05). The Shannon-Wiener index, evenness index, Simpson index, and McIntosh index of soil microbial communities as well as soil microbial biomass C increased (P <0.05), basal respiration and metabolic quotient qCO2 decreased (P <0.05), and soil microbe's sole-carbon-source utilization enhanced. In addition, the contents of soil available P and K and the cucumber yields were also increased markedly. All of these illustrated that wheat and soybean stubbles improved the ecological environment of soil microbes.

[Effects of rotation and intercropping on bacterial communities in rhizosphere soil of cucumber].

By the method of PCR-DGGE, this paper studied the effects of rotation with wheat, soybean, villose vetch, clover, and alfalfa and intercropping with onion and garlic on the bacterial communities in rhizosphere soil of cucumber. The results showed that rotation and intercropping with test plants increased the diversity and evenness indices of bacterial communities in cucumber rhizosphere soil, and also, cucumber yield. The sequencing of DGGE bands indicated that most of the bands had high homology with uncultured bacterial species, and were of Sphingobacterium and Proteobacteria. High bacterium G+C was only detected when cucumber was intercropped with onion. The diversity of soil bacterial communities varied with the growth stages of cucumber, being the highest at vigorous fruiting stage. It was suggested that intercropping with onion and rotation with wheat were the best cultivation modes of cucumber.