Parvalbumin and Somatostatin: Biomarkers for Two Parallel Tectothalamic Pathways in the Auditory Midbrain.

The inferior colliculus (IC) represents a crucial relay station in the auditory pathway, located in the midbrain's tectum and primarily projecting to the thalamus. Despite the identification of distinct cell classes based on various biomarkers in the IC, their specific contributions to the organization of auditory tectothalamic pathways have remained poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that IC neurons expressing parvalbumin (ICPV+) or somatostatin (ICSOM+) represent two minimally overlapping cell classes throughout the three IC subdivisions in mice of both sexes. Strikingly, regardless of their location within the IC, these neurons predominantly project to the primary and secondary auditory thalamic nuclei, respectively. Cell class-specific input tracing suggested that ICPV+ neurons primarily receive auditory inputs, whereas ICSOM+ neurons receive significantly more inputs from the periaqueductal gray and the superior colliculus (SC), which are sensorimotor regions critically involved in innate behaviors. Furthermore, ICPV+ neurons exhibit significant heterogeneity in both intrinsic electrophysiological properties and presynaptic terminal size compared with ICSOM+ neurons. Notably, approximately one-quarter of ICPV+ neurons are inhibitory neurons, whereas all ICSOM+ neurons are excitatory neurons. Collectively, our findings suggest that parvalbumin and somatostatin expression in the IC can serve as biomarkers for two functionally distinct, parallel tectothalamic pathways. This discovery suggests an alternative way to define tectothalamic pathways and highlights the potential usefulness of Cre mice in understanding the multifaceted roles of the IC at the circuit level.

Harmonizing three-dimensional MRI using pseudo-warping field guided GAN.

In pursuit of cultivating automated models for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to aid in diagnostics, an escalating demand for extensive, multisite, and heterogeneous brain imaging datasets has emerged. This potentially introduces biased outcomes when directly applied for subsequent analysis. Researchers have endeavored to address this issue by pursuing the harmonization of MRIs. However, most existing image-based harmonization methods for MRI are tailored for 2D slices, which may introduce inter-slice variations when they are combined into a 3D volume. In this study, we aim to resolve inconsistencies between slices by introducing a pseudo-warping field. This field is created randomly and utilized to transform a slice into an artificially warped subsequent slice. The objective of this pseudo-warping field is to ensure that generators can consistently harmonize adjacent slices to another domain, without being affected by the varying content present in different slices. Furthermore, we construct unsupervised spatial and recycle loss to enhance the spatial accuracy and slice-wise consistency across the 3D images. The results demonstrate that our model effectively mitigates inter-slice variations and successfully preserves the anatomical details of the images during the harmonization process. Compared to generative harmonization models that employ 3D operators, our model exhibits greater computational efficiency and flexibility.

Discovery and Characterization of Pyridoxal 5'-Phosphate-Dependent Cycloleucine Synthases.

Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes are the most versatile biocatalysts for synthesizing nonproteinogenic amino acids. α,α-Disubstituted quaternary amino acids, such as 1-aminocyclopentane-1-carboxylic acid (cycloleucine), are useful building blocks for pharmaceuticals. In this study, starting with the biosynthesis of fusarilin A, we discovered a family of PLP-dependent enzymes that can facilitate tandem carbon-carbon forming steps to catalyze an overall [3 + 2]-annulation. In the first step, the cycloleucine synthases use SAM as the latent electrophile and an in situ-generated enamine as the nucleophile for γ-substitution. Whereas previously characterized γ-replacement enzymes protonate the resulting α-carbon and release the acyclic amino acid, cycloleucine synthases can catalyze an additional, intramolecular aldol or Mannich reaction with the nucleophilic α-carbon to form the substituted cyclopentane. Overall, the net [3 + 2]-annulation reaction can lead to 2-hydroxy or 2-aminocycloleucine products. These studies further expand the biocatalytic scope of PLP-dependent enzymes.

Theoretical insights into the mechanism underlying aflatoxin B1 transformation by the BsCotA-methyl syringate system.

Global concern exists regarding the contamination of food and animal feed with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), which poses a threat to the health of both humans and animals. Previously, we found that a laccase from Bacillus subtilis (BsCotA) effectively detoxified AFB1 in a reaction mediated by methyl syringate (MS), although the underlying mechanism has not been determined. Therefore, our primary objective of this study was to explore the detoxification mechanism employed by BsCotA. First, the enzyme and mediator dependence of AFB1 transformation were studied using the BsCotA-MS system, which revealed the importance of MS radical formation during the oxidation process. Aflatoxin Q1 (AFQ1) resulting from the direct oxidation of AFB1 by BsCotA, was identified using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The results of UPLC-MS/MS and density functional theory calculations indicated that the products included AFQ1, AFB1-, and AFD1-MS-coupled products in the BsCotA-MS system. The toxicity evaluations revealed that the substances derived from the transformation of AFB1 through the BsCotA-MS mechanism exhibited markedly reduced toxicity compared to AFB1. Finally, we proposed a set of different AFB1-transformation pathways generated by the BsCotA-MS system based on the identified products. These findings greatly enhance the understanding of the AFB1-transformation mechanism of the laccase-mediator system.

Correction: Dong et al. Identification of the Trace Components in BopuzongJian and Macleaya cordata Extract Using LC-MS Combined with a Screening Method. Molecules 2021, 26, 3851.

The article in question [...].

Effects of long-term different-scale rice-duck farming on the growth and yield of paddy rice.

BACKGROUND: To maintain rice production and increase revenue, rice-duck (RD) farming is a contemporary ecological cycle technology that has been widely used in Asia. However, due to the clustering activity of duck flocks, the consequences of long-term RD farming on rice growth at different scales are still unknown. Here, we studied RD farming using several different treatments (CK: conventional rice farming; RD1: 667 m2 ; RD2: 2000 m2 ; and RD3: 3333 m2 ). RESULTS: The results demonstrated that the maximum tillers, effective spikes, dry matter accumulation, and lodging index of rice under RD farming were significantly decreased by 17.9%, 9.8%, 14.8%, and 17.8%, respectively, which ultimately caused a significant decrease in yield of 10.6%. However, RD farming significantly increased root oxidation activity and the ear-bearing tiller rate of rice by 25.5% and 11.1%, respectively, and improved yield stability. For different scales of RD farming, the lodging resistance index of RD1 was significantly lower than that of RD2 and RD3 by 10.0% and 15.2%, respectively, whereas the root oxidation activity and dry matter accumulation of RD2 were significantly higher than those of RD1 and RD3 by 11.1%, 4.7%, 8.6%, and 5.1%, respectively. For rice yield, there was no significant difference among the different scales. CONCLUSION: This long-term experiment helped elucidate the complicated effects of RD farming at different scales on the growth and yield of rice. It is also critical to consider the economic advantages of different scales of RD farming to assess the impact of this system more thoroughly. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Monolithic Interphase Enables Fast Kinetics for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries at Subzero Temperature.

In spite of the competitive performance at room temperature, the development of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) is still hindered by sluggish electrochemical reaction kinetics and unstable electrode/electrolyte interphase under subzero environments. Herein, a low-concentration electrolyte, consisting of 0.5M NaPF6 dissolving in diethylene glycol dimethyl ether solvent, is proposed for SIBs working at low temperature. Such an electrolyte generates a thin, amorphous, and homogeneous cathode/electrolyte interphase at low temperature. The interphase is monolithic and rich in organic components, reducing the limitation of Na+ migration through inorganic crystals, thereby facilitating the interfacial Na+ dynamics at low temperature. Furthermore, it effectively blocks the unfavorable side reactions between active materials and electrolytes, improving the structural stability. Consequently, Na0.7Li0.03Mg0.03Ni0.27Mn0.6Ti0.07O2//Na and hard carbon//Na cells deliver a high capacity retention of 90.8 % after 900 cycles at 1C, a capacity over 310 mAh g-1 under -30 °C, respectively, showing long-term cycling stability and great rate capability at low temperature.

Style transfer generative adversarial networks to harmonize multisite MRI to a single reference image to avoid overcorrection.

Recent work within neuroimaging consortia have aimed to identify reproducible, and often subtle, brain signatures of psychiatric or neurological conditions. To allow for high-powered brain imaging analyses, it is often necessary to pool MR images that were acquired with different protocols across multiple scanners. Current retrospective harmonization techniques have shown promise in removing site-related image variation. However, most statistical approaches may over-correct for technical, scanning-related, variation as they cannot distinguish between confounded image-acquisition based variability and site-related population variability. Such statistical methods often require that datasets contain subjects or patient groups with similar clinical or demographic information to isolate the acquisition-based variability. To overcome this limitation, we consider site-related magnetic resonance (MR) imaging harmonization as a style transfer problem rather than a domain transfer problem. Using a fully unsupervised deep-learning framework based on a generative adversarial network (GAN), we show that MR images can be harmonized by inserting the style information encoded from a single reference image, without knowing their site/scanner labels a priori. We trained our model using data from five large-scale multisite datasets with varied demographics. Results demonstrated that our style-encoding model can harmonize MR images, and match intensity profiles, without relying on traveling subjects. This model also avoids the need to control for clinical, diagnostic, or demographic information. We highlight the effectiveness of our method for clinical research by comparing extracted cortical and subcortical features, brain-age estimates, and case-control effect sizes before and after the harmonization. We showed that our harmonization removed the site-related variances, while preserving the anatomical information and clinical meaningful patterns. We further demonstrated that with a diverse training set, our method successfully harmonized MR images collected from unseen scanners and protocols, suggesting a promising tool for ongoing collaborative studies. Source code is released in USC-IGC/style_transfer_harmonization (github.com).

Mendelian randomization analysis suggests no associations of herpes simplex virus infections with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) characterized by immune dysfunction is possibly more vulnerable to herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. The infection has been intensively considered a common onset and exacerbation of SLE. This study is aimed at elucidating the causal association between SLE and HSV. A bidirectional two-sample Mendelian Randomization (TSMR) analysis was systematically conducted to explore the causal effect of SLE and HSV on each other. The causality was estimated by inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger and weighted median methods based on the summary-level genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data from a publicly available database. Genetically proxied HSV infection exhibited no causal association with SLE in the forward MR analysis using IVW method (odds ratio [OR] = 0.987; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.891-1.093; p = 0.798), nor did HSV-1 IgG (OR = 1.241; 95% CI: 0.874-1.762; p = 0.227) and HSV-2 IgG (OR = 0.934; 95% CI: 0.821-1.062; p = 0.297). Similar null results with HSV infection (OR = 1.021; 95% CI: 0.986-1.057; p = 0.245), HSV-1 IgG (OR = 1.003; 95% CI: 0.982-1.024; p = 0.788) and HSV-2 IgG (OR = 1.034; 95% CI: 0.991-1.080; p = 0.121) were observed in the reverse MR where SLE served as the exposure. Our study demonstrated no causal association between the genetically predicted HSV and SLE.

Brain age predicted using graph convolutional neural network explains neurodevelopmental trajectory in preterm neonates.

OBJECTIVES: Dramatic brain morphological changes occur throughout the third trimester of gestation. In this study, we investigated whether the predicted brain age (PBA) derived from graph convolutional network (GCN) that accounts for cortical morphometrics in third trimester is associated with postnatal abnormalities and neurodevelopmental outcome. METHODS: In total, 577 T1 MRI scans of preterm neonates from two different datasets were analyzed; the NEOCIVET pipeline generated cortical surfaces and morphological features, which were then fed to the GCN to predict brain age. The brain age index (BAI; PBA minus chronological age) was used to determine the relationships among preterm birth (i.e., birthweight and birth age), perinatal brain injuries, postnatal events/clinical conditions, BAI at postnatal scan, and neurodevelopmental scores at 30 months. RESULTS: Brain morphology and GCN-based age prediction of preterm neonates without brain lesions (mean absolute error [MAE]: 0.96 weeks) outperformed conventional machine learning methods using no topological information. Structural equation models (SEM) showed that BAI mediated the influence of preterm birth and postnatal clinical factors, but not perinatal brain injuries, on neurodevelopmental outcome at 30 months of age. CONCLUSIONS: Brain morphology may be clinically meaningful in measuring brain age, as it relates to postnatal factors, and predicting neurodevelopmental outcome. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: Understanding the neurodevelopmental trajectory of preterm neonates through the prediction of brain age using a graph convolutional neural network may allow for earlier detection of potential developmental abnormalities and improved interventions, consequently enhancing the prognosis and quality of life in this vulnerable population. KEY POINTS: •Brain age in preterm neonates predicted using a graph convolutional network with brain morphological changes mediates the pre-scan risk factors and post-scan neurodevelopmental outcomes. •Predicted brain age oriented from conventional deep learning approaches, which indicates the neurodevelopmental status in neonates, shows a lack of sensitivity to perinatal risk factors and predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes. •The new brain age index based on brain morphology and graph convolutional network enhances the accuracy and clinical interpretation of predicted brain age for neonates.

Bacterial DNA metabolism analysis by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) after treatment of bloodstream infection.

BACKGROUND: With the advent of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), the time of DNA metabolism can be explored after bacteria be killed. In this study, we applied mNGS in investigation of the clearance profile of circulating bacteria DNA. METHODS: All of the rabbits were injected with the inactivated Escherichia coli. Using mNGS, we analyzed serial samples of plasma collected from rabbits to detect clearance profile of circulating E. coli DNA. RESULTS: In this study, we found that the of E. coli DNA could still be detected 6 h after injecting killed bacteria. The clearance half-lives associated with the 2 phases are 0.37 and 1.81 h. We also explored there is no correlation between the disease severity with the E. coli DNA reads in circulation. CONCLUSIONS: After the bacteria were completely killed, their DNA could still be detected in the blood circulation. The metabolism of bacterial DNA in the circulation had two phases: fast and slow phases, and there were no correlations between the level of bacteria reads with the severity of patients' disease after the bacteria have been completely killed.

Cyto/myeloarchitecture of cortical gray matter and superficial white matter in early neurodevelopment: multimodal MRI study in preterm neonates.

The cerebral cortex undergoes rapid microstructural changes throughout the third trimester. Recently, there has been growing interest on imaging features that represent cyto/myeloarchitecture underlying intracortical myelination, cortical gray matter (GM), and its adjacent superficial whitematter (sWM). Using 92 magnetic resonance imaging scans from 78 preterm neonates, the current study used combined T1-weighted/T2-weighted (T1w/T2w) intensity ratio and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measurements, including fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), to characterize the developing cyto/myeloarchitectural architecture. DTI metrics showed a linear trajectory: FA decreased in GM but increased in sWM with time; and MD decreased in both GM and sWM. Conversely, T1w/T2w measurements showed a distinctive parabolic trajectory, revealing additional cyto/myeloarchitectural signature inferred. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal courses were regionally heterogeneous: central, ventral, and temporal regions of GM and sWM exhibited faster T1w/T2w changes; anterior sWM areas exhibited faster FA increases; and central and cingulate areas in GM and sWM exhibited faster MD decreases. These results may explain cyto/myeloarchitectural processes, including dendritic arborization, synaptogenesis, glial proliferation, and radial glial cell organization and apoptosis. Finally, T1w/T2w values were significantly associated with 1-year language and cognitive outcome scores, while MD significantly decreased with intraventricular hemorrhage.

Hippocampal asymmetry of regional development and structural covariance in preterm neonates.

Premature birth is associated with a high prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairments in surviving infants. The hippocampus is known to be critical for learning and memory, yet the putative effects of hippocampal dysfunction remain poorly understood in preterm neonates. In particular, while asymmetry of the hippocampus has been well noted both structurally and functionally, how preterm birth impairs hippocampal development and to what extent the hippocampus is asymmetrically impaired by preterm birth have not been well delineated. In this study, we compared volumetric growth and shape development in the hippocampal hemispheres and structural covariance (SC) between hippocampal vertices and cortical thickness in cerebral cortex regions between two groups. We found that premature infants had smaller volumes of the right hippocampi only. Lower thickness was observed in the hippocampal head in both hemispheres for preterm neonates compared with full-term peers, though preterm neonates exhibited an accelerated age-related change of hippocampal thickness in the left hippocampi. The SC between the left hippocampi and the limbic lobe of the premature infants was severely impaired compared with the term-born neonates. These findings suggested that the development of the hippocampus during the third trimester may be altered following early extrauterine exposure with a high degree of asymmetry.

Modulating photothermal properties by integration of fined Fe-Co in confined carbon layer of SiO2 nanosphere for pollutant degradation and solar water evaporation.

Environmental governance by photothermal materials especially for the separation of organic pollutants and regeneration of freshwater afford growing attention owing to their special solar-to-heat properties. Here, we construct a special functional nanosphere composed of an internal silica core coated by a thin carbon layer encapsulated plasmonic bimetallic FeCo2O4 spinel (SiO2@CoFe/C) by a facile self-assembled approach and tuned calcination. Through combining the advantage of bimetallic Fe-Co and carbon layer, this obtained nanosphere affords improved multiple environmental governing functions including peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation to degrade pollutants and photothermal interfacial solar water evaporation. Impressively, fined bimetal (FeCo) species (20 nm) acted as main catalytic substance were distributed on the N-doping carbon thin layer, which favors electron transfer and reactive accessibility of active metals. The increasing treatment temperature of catalysts caused the optimization of the surface active metal species and tuning catalytic properties in the AOPs. Besides, the incorporation of Co in the SiO2@CoFe/C-700 could enable the improved PMS activation efficiency compared to SiO2@Fe/C-700 and the mixed SiO2@Co/C-700 and SiO2@Fe/C-700, hinting a synergetic promotion effect. The bimetal coupled catalyst SiO2@CoFe/C-700 affords enhanced photothermal properties compared to SiO2@Co/C-700. Furthermore, photothermal catalytic PMS activation using optimal SiO2@CoFe/C-700 was further explored in addressing stubborn pollutants including oxytetracycline, sulfamethoxazole, 2, 4-dichlorophenol, and phenol. The free radical quenching control suggests that both the sulfate radical, hydroxyl radical, superoxide radical, and singlet oxygen species are involved in the degradation, while the hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen play a dominant role. Furthermore, the implementation of a solar-driven interfacial water evaporation model using SiO2@CoFe/C-700 was further studied to obtain freshwater regeneration (1.26 kg m-2 h-1, 76.81% efficiency), indicating the comprehensive ability of the constructed nanocomposites for treating complicated environmental pollution including organics removal and freshwater regeneration.

Gold-catalyzed carbocyclization and imidization of alkyne-tethered diazo compounds with nitrosoarenes for the synthesis of nitrones and naphthalene derivatives.

A gold-catalyzed carbocyclization/imidization cascade reaction has been developed,leading a facile access to the synthesis of functionalized nitrones in moderate to good yields under mild conditions. The reaction initiated by a catalytic 6-endo-dig diazo-yne carbocyclization to form the key endocyclic vinyl carbene from alkyne-tethered diazo compounds, followed by addition with nitrosoarenes that features an imidization process. Notably, these resulting nitrone products could be smoothly converted into different substituted naphthalenol analogues, such as 4-aminonaphthalen-1-ol, naphthalene-1,4-dione, and naphthalene-1,4-diol derivatives, in high yields. Moreover, the generated products exhibited potential tumor suppression activity in tested cancer celllines; compound 3c (HCT116 cells, IC50 = 7.41 µM; MCF-7 cells, IC50 = 14.28 µM) exhibits higher anticancer potency than other tested compounds.

Assessing the agreement between the partners at care transitions measure and the care transitions measure for elderly patients with chronic diseases.

BACKGROUND: Elderly patients with chronic diseases are very vulnerable during the transition from hospital to home and have a high need for transitional care. The quality of transitional care is closely related to patient health outcomes. Using appropriate scales to evaluate the quality of transitional care is important for efforts aimed at improving it. The study aimed to analyze the consistency between the Chinese version of the Partners at Care Transitions Measure (PACT-M) and the Care Transition Measure (CTM) in assessing the quality of transition care in elderly patients with chronic diseases. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study, we used a convenience sampling method to investigate patients with chronic diseases aged ≧ 65 years who were about to be discharged from the three affiliated hospitals of Zhengzhou University in Henan Province, from August 2021 to May 2022. The sample consisted of 196 elderly patients with chronic diseases. Data were collected using a demographic survey, PACT-M, and CTM. We used EpiData 3.1 software for systematic logical error checking, SPSS 21.0 to analyze the data, and the Bland-Altman analysis to analyze the consistency of the two scales. RESULTS: The mean total scores for PACT-M and CTM were 65.52 ± 6.23 and 52.07 ± 7.26, respectively. The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the mean difference and ratios were (-31.52, 4.61) and (0.85, 1.72), with 3.57% and 5.10% of the points outside the 95% CI limits, separately. CONCLUSIONS: The difference analysis of Bland-Altman showed a good consistency of the two scales, while the rate analysis did not meet the a priori definition of good consistency, but it is very close to 5%. Therefore, the consistency of the two scales in assessing the quality of transitional care for elderly patients with chronic diseases needs to be further validated.

Treadmill Exercise Alleviates Cognition Disorder by Activating the FNDC5: Dual Role of Integrin αV/ß5 in Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease with cognitive impairment (PD-CI) results in several clinical outcomes for which specific treatment is lacking. Although the pathogenesis of PD-CI has not yet been fully elucidated, it is related to neuronal plasticity decline in the hippocampus region. The dopaminergic projections from the substantia nigra to the hippocampus are critical in regulating hippocampal plasticity. Recently, aerobic exercise has been recognized as an effective therapeutic strategy for enhancing plasticity through the secretion of various muscle factors. The exact role of FNDC5-an upregulated, newly identified myokine produced after exercise-in mediating hippocampal plasticity and regional dopaminergic projections in PD-CI remains unclear. In this study, the effect of treadmill exercise on hippocampal synaptic plasticity was evaluated in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced chronic PD models. The results showed that treadmill exercise substantially alleviated the motor dysfunction, cognition disorder, and dopaminergic neuron degeneration induced by MPTP. Here, we discovered that the quadriceps, serum, and brain FNDC5 levels were lower in PD mice and that intervention with treadmill exercise restored FNDC5 levels. Moreover, treadmill exercise enhanced the synaptic plasticity of hippocampal pyramidal neurons via increased dopamine levels and BDNF in the PD mice. The direct protective effect of FNDC5 is achieved by promoting the secretion of BDNF in the hippocampal neurons via binding the integrin αVß5 receptor, thereby improving synaptic plasticity. Regarding the indirect protection effect, FNDC5 promotes the dopaminergic connection from the substantia nigra to the hippocampus by mediating the interaction between the integrin αVß5 of the hippocampal neurons and the CD90 molecules on the membrane of dopaminergic terminals. Our findings demonstrated that treadmill exercise could effectively alleviate cognitive disorders via the activation of the FNDC5-BDNF pathway and enhance the dopaminergic synaptic connection from SNpc to the hippocampus in the MPTP-induced chronic PD model.

Insight into functional mechanisms of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitors in degrading fungicide residues and shaping microbial communities in soil-plant systems.

Fungicides and nitrogen (N) fertilizers are essential to maintain plant yield in current intensive agriculture. Percarbamide is a novel type of N fertilizer with strong oxidizing property, and the nitrification inhibitor is widely used in agricultural production. It may be feasible to apply percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor as N management to promote fungicide dissipations in soil-plant system. This study quantified the effects of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) and 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on carbendazim residues, and microbial communities of soil-plant systems, and relationships among carbendazim residues, soil and endophytic microbial communities and plant yields were also comprehensively quantified. Compared with the control, the percarbamide significantly reduced soil carbendazim residues by 29.4% but enhanced the lettuce yield by 28.0%. Soil carbendazim residues were significantly and negatively correlated with the soil total N and NO3--N contents. Soil microbial community structures and co-occurrence networks were more sensitive to N management than their endophytic counterparts. In comparison to the percarbamide alone, the DCD significantly increased the nodes of soil fungal community co-occurrence network which were positively correlated with the plant yield. The DCD outweighed DMPP in increasing the lettuce yield and soil fungal community stability and reshaping soil bacterial community structure. Our study suggested that soil microbial communities were more sensitive to percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor applications than their endophytic counterparts under fungicide pressure and that the DCD outweighed DMPP in reshaping microbial communities. The integrated applications of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitors were promising soil N management strategies to promote fungicide removal and stimulate microbial community in the soil-plant systems.

Identification of Sanguinarine Metabolites in Rats Using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS.

Sanguinarine (SAN), as the main active component of a traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, has been widely used in the animal husbandry and breeding industry. However, the metabolites of SA are still uncertain. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the metabolites of SA based on rats in vivo. The blood, feces, and urine of rats were collected after the oral administration of 40 mg/kg SAN. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was employed to identify the metabolites of SAN. The elemental composition of sanguinarine metabolites was inferred by analyzing their exact molecular weight, and the structures of the metabolites were predicted based on their fragment ions and cleavage pathways. A total of 12 metabolites were identified, including three metabolites in the plasma, four in the urine, and nine in the feces. According to the possible metabolic pathways deduced in this study, SAN was mainly metabolized through reduction, oxidation, demethylation, hydroxylation, and glucuronidation. This present research has summarized the metabolism of SAN in rats, which is helpful for further studying the metabolic mechanism of SAN in vivo and in vitro.

Enzymatic Benzofuranoindoline Formation in the Biosynthesis of the Strained Bridgehead Bicyclic Dipeptide (+)-Azonazine A.

We uncovered and reconstituted a concise biosynthetic pathway of the strained dipeptide (+)-azonazine A from marine-derived Aspergillus insulicola. Formation of the hexacyclic benzofuranoindoline ring system from cyclo-(l-Trp-N-methyl-l-Tyr) is catalyzed by a P450 enzyme through an oxidative cyclization. Supplementing the producing strain with various indole-substituted tryptophan derivatives resulted in the generation of a series of azonazine A analogs.