Whole genome analysis of Streptomyces sp. RerS4, a Rehmannia glutinosa rhizosphere microbe producing a new lipopeptide.

Rehmannia glutinosa, a valuable medicinal plant, is threatened by ring rot, a condition that greatly affects its yield and quality. Interactions between plant and the rhizosphere soil microbiome in the context of pathogen invasion are generally more specific, with recruitment of specialized microbes potentially antagonistic to a certain pathogen. Isolation of microorganisms from rhizosphere soil of healthy and ring rot-infected R. glutinosa was carried out to screen antifungal microbes. A strain designated RerS4 isolated from ring rot-infected R. glutinosa rhizosphere soil with strong antifungal activities was selected for further study. RerS4 was taxonomically characterized as the genus Streptomyces according to its morphology and 16S rRNA sequences that were most closely related to Streptomyces racemochromogenes NRRL B-5430T (99.72%) and Streptomyces polychromogenes NBRC 13072T (99.72%). A new lipopeptide isolated from RerS4 showed restrained proliferation, but was devoid of significant antibacterial and antioxidant activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 20.3 ± 2.5 and 70.8 ± 3.7 µg/mL and half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 23.3 ± 0.8 and 58.8 ± 2.9 µg/mL, respectively. In addition, we report the complete genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. RerS4, which consists of a 7,301,482 bp linear chromosome and a 242,139 bp plasmid. Genome analysis revealed that Streptomyces sp. RerS4 contained 25 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for secondary metabolites, among which 68% had low similarities with known BGCs, leading us to believe that Streptomyces sp. RerS4 could produce valuable bioactive compounds.

Different Amounts of Water Supplementation Improved Cognitive Performance and Mood among Young Adults after 12 h Water Restriction in Baoding, China: A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).

Water is indispensable to keeping the functions of the human body working properly, including that of the brain. The purpose of this research was to explore the impacts of water supplementation on cognitive performance and mood, and to determine the optimum amount of water to alleviate detriments of dehydration after 12 h water restriction. A randomized controlled trial was implemented among 64 young adults from Baoding, China. Fasting overnight for 12 h, and at 8:00 a.m. on day 2, osmolality of first morning urine and blood, cognitive performance, and mood were assessed as the dehydration test. Then, participants were randomly separated into four groups: water supplementation groups (WS groups 1, 2, and 3 with 500, 200, and 100 mL purified water, respectively) and no water supplementation group (NW group). Participants in WS groups were instructed to drink the water within 10 min, while those in NW group drank no water. After 90 min, the same measurements were taken as the rehydration test. There was significant interaction between TIME and VOLUME in thirst when comparing dehydration with rehydration tests (F = 6.172, p = 0.001). Significant thirst reductions were found in WS group 1 and WS group 2 (p = 0.003; p = 0.041), and a significant increase was found in the NW group (p = 0.039). In the rehydration test, significant interactions between TIME and VOLUME were found in scores of anger, fatigue, and TMD (total mood disturbance) (F = 3.815, p = 0.014; F = 10.429, p < 0.001; F = 5.246, p < 0.001), compared to the dehydration test. Scores of anger were only decreased in WS group 2 (p = 0.025), and scores of fatigue and TMD decreased in WS group 1 and WS group 2 (all p < 0.05). Significant interaction between TIME and VOLUME was only found for operation span test scores (F = 2.816, p = 0.047), with scores being only higher in WS group 1 in the rehydration test compared to the dehydration test (p = 0.003). Comparing WS group 1 and WS group 2, scores of thirst, fatigue, and TMD did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). Water supplementation improved working memory and attenuated anger, fatigue, and TMD. A small amount of water (200 mL) was sufficient to attenuate thirst, anger, fatigue, and TMD of young adults, but the larger volume (500 mL) appeared to be necessary to improve working memory. The amount of 500 mL was the optimum volume to improve the cognitive performance and mood among young adults.

Effect of processing on the reduction of pesticide residues in a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The behaviour of residues of tebuconazole, prochloraz, and abamectin in rehmannia during rehmannia decoction processing was systemically assessed. The pesticides were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) after each processing step including washing, steaming and drying, carbonising, and boiling. Results showed that the pesticide residues significantly decreased after the steps of washing, carbonising, and boiling. Washing reduced pesticide residues by 41.2%-60.0%; carbonising reduced pesticides by 27.1%-71.1% in both prepared rehmannia and unprepared rehmannia. After boiling, the concentrations of tebuconazole and prochloraz were 0.0002-0.0022 mg kg-1 in decoctions. Abamectin was not detected in rehmannia after carbonising, and it was not detected in decoctions either. The processing factors (PFs) were less than 1 during food processing, indicating that the full set of processing can reduce the residues of tebuconazole, prochloraz, and abamectin in rehmannia decoction.

The effect of Astragalus as an adjuvant treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A (preliminary) meta-analysis.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Astragalus is a traditional Chinese medicine that is widely used for tonifying Qi (Qi mainly means life energy) to treat diabetes mellitus and its complications. AIM OF THE STUDY: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of Astragalus in adjuvant treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and to provide novel information to improve clinical decision-making. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted an exhaustive database search (PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI), Wanfang data and SinoMed) of studies associated with "Astragalus" and "type 2 diabetes mellitus" until December 2015. Following quality assessment of study eligibility, the extracted data were statistically analyzed using STATA, ver. 12.0 (Stata Corp.). RESULTS: A total of 13 studies with 1054 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Two subgroups were identified, based on Astragalus dosing regimens: control group vs. Astragalus injection (AI); control group vs. Astragalus aqueous decoction (AAD). The pooled results showed that, in comparison with control group, Astragalus administration significantly reduced fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in both the AI group (WMD=-0.28, 95% CI=-0.46 to -0.10, P=0.002, I(2)=18.5%) and the AAD group (WMD=-0.83, 95% CI=-1.07 to -0.58, P=0.000, I(2)=0.0%); postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) was also significantly reduced in the AI group (WMD=-0.47, 95% CI=-0.77 to -0.17, P=0.002, I(2)=46.8%) and the AAD group (WMD=-1.19, 95% CI=-1.63 to -0.75, P=0.000, I(2)=49.3%). Fasting insulin (Fins) was significantly reduced only in the AAD treatment group (SMD=-0.33, 95% CI=-0.55 to -0.10, P=0.005, I(2)=1.0%) as was the homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IRI) levels (SMD=-1.66, 95% CI=-3.24 to -0.09, P=0.038, I(2)=94.0%). Although AAD treatment significantly reduced levels of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (WMD=-1.77, 95% CI=-3.06 to -0.47, P=0.007, I(2)=90.8%), AI treatment failed to show significant efficacy (WMD=-0.28, 95% CI=-0.63 to 0.06, P=0.102, I(2)=83.8%). Sensitivity analysis failed to detect outliers in all studies while Egger's linear regression test revealed a lack of publication bias in this meta-analysis (P=0.771, 95%CI =-3.51 to 4.56). CONCLUSIONS: Astragalus may be beneficial as an adjuvant therapy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, due to the limited quality of existing studies, further high-quality studies are warranted before definitive conclusions may be reached.

Sphaerisporangium dianthi sp. nov., an endophytic actinomycete isolated from a root of Dianthus chinensis L.

A novel actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-CY18(T), was isolated from the root of a Chinese medicinal plant Dianthus chinensis L and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. The novel strain was found to develop spherical sporangia with non-motile spores on aerial mycelium. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid. The whole-cell sugars were identified as madurose, mannose, ribose, galactose and glucose. The phospholipid profile was found to contain diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxy-phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol mannosides and an unidentified phospholipid. The predominant menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H4), MK-9(H2) and MK-9(H6). The major fatty acids were identified as C17:0 10-methyl, iso-C16:0 and C16:0. EzTaxon-e analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the strain belongs to the genus Sphaerisporangium and was most closely related to Sphaerisporangium cinnabarinum JCM 3291(T) (98.9 %) and Sphaerisporangium melleum JCM 13064(T) (98.3 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain NEAU-CY18(T) forms a monophyletic clade with S. cinnabarinum JCM 3291(T), an association that was supported by a bootstrap value of 97 % in the neighbour-joining tree and also recovered with the maximum-likelihood algorithm. Comparisons of some phenotypic properties and low DNA-DNA relatedness values enabled the strain to be differentiated from S. cinnabarinum JCM 3291(T) and S. melleum JCM 13064(T). Therefore, it is concluded that strain NEAU-CY18(T) represents a novel Sphaerisporangium species, for which the name Sphaerisporangium dianthi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-CY18(T) ( = CGMCC 4.7132(T) = DSM 46736(T)).