Cyanobacteria bloom hazard function and preliminary application in lake taihu, China.

In recent years, due to the intensification of human activities, water ecological problems are gradually increasing. As the third largest freshwater lake in China, Lake Taihu is an important drinking water source for several densely populated cities in China. The prominent water ecological problem in this area is mainly Cyanobacteria Bloom. Cyanobacterial blooms have been erupting which have affected local residents' drinking water and caused losses to the national economy. Based on the interpretation results of MODIS data in the Lake Taihu region from 2004 to 2014, this paper analyzes the main driving factors of cyanobacterial bloom are phosphorus and potassium through the correlation analysis of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and cyanobacteria area, normalizes nutrient, and identifies that the water level of Lake Taihu is the influencing factor of cyanobacterial bloom. A Lake Taihu cyanobacteria bloom hazard function is constructed to quantitatively assess the losses (economic losses) caused by cyanobacterial blooms from 2001 to 2012, supporting for cyanobacteria control management in Lake Taihu.

Enhanced Cd phytostabilization and rhizosphere bacterial diversity of Robinia pseudoacacia L. by endophyte Enterobacter sp. YG-14 combined with sludge biochar.

Robinia pseudoacacia L., a pioneer woody legume grown in mining areas, has been recognized as a remarkable accumulator of various heavy metals. Compared with other hazardous heavy metals (HMs), it is of low capacity in accumulating Cd, which, as a result, may hinder the phytoremediation efficiency. To enhance R. pseudoacacia's uptake efficiency of Cd, the individual effects of various rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have been reported, however, the combined influence of endophytes and biochar receives little attention. In the current study, a Cd-adsorbing endophyte Enterobacter sp. YG-14 was inoculated to R. pseudoacacia, and its extraordinary effect on increasing R. pseudoacacia's Cd uptake was found, which was ascribed to the reinforced root Cd chelation by the strain through secreting siderophores/LMWOAs. Further, P-enriched sludge biochar was applied along with YG-14 to form a combined biochar-endophyte-accumulator system, in which biomineralization were reinforced (i.e. CdCO3 and Cd2P2O7 were generated), as the total and acid-soluble Cd in rhizosphere were reduced by 61.75% and 69.01% respectively, and soil's bacterial diversity was further improved with diversified N2-fixing microbial biomarkers. Multiple synergistic effects (E > 0) were also found, with the optimum performance on plant growth parameters (increased by 39.61%-561.91%) in comparison to the control group. Moreover, the system exhibited a preferable Cd phytostabilization capacity with the highest increase (81.42%) in Cd accumulation and a significant reduction (72.73%) in Cd root-to-shoot translocation.

The Role of Iron Competition in the Antagonistic Action of the Rice Endophyte Streptomyces sporocinereus OsiSh-2 Against the Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae.

Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae severely impacts global rice yield stability. The rice endophyte Streptomyces sporocinereus OsiSh-2, with strong antagonistic activity towards M. oryzae, has been reported in our previous study. To decipher the model of the antagonistic action of OsiSh-2 towards M. oryzae, we compared the iron-capturing abilities of these two strains. The cultivation of OsiSh-2 and a M. oryzae strain under iron-rich and iron-starved conditions showed that M. oryzae depended more on iron supplementation for growth and development than did OsiSh-2. Genomic analysis of the S. sporocinereus and M. oryzae species strains revealed that they might possess different iron acquisition strategies. The actinobacterium OsiSh-2 is likely to favor siderophore utilization compared to the fungus M. oryzae. In addition, protein annotations found that OsiSh-2 contains the highest number of the siderophore biosynthetic gene clusters among the 13 endophytic actinomycete strains and 13 antifungal actinomycete strains that we compared, indicating the prominent siderophore production potential of OsiSh-2. Additionally, we verified that OsiSh-2 could excrete considerably more siderophores than Guy11 under iron-restricted conditions and displayed greater Fe3+-reducing activity during iron-supplemental conditions. Measurements of the iron mobilization between the antagonistic OsiSh-2 and Guy11 showed that the iron concentration is higher around OsiSh-2 than around Guy11. In addition, adding iron near OsiSh-2 could decrease the antagonism of OsiSh-2 towards Guy11. Our study revealed that the antagonistic capacity displayed by OsiSh-2 towards M. oryzae was related to the competition for iron. The highly efficient iron acquisition system of OsiSh-2 may offer valuable insight for the biocontrol of rice blast.

Engineering Glucose Responsiveness Into Insulin.

Insulin has a narrow therapeutic index, reflected in a small margin between a dose that achieves good glycemic control and one that causes hypoglycemia. Once injected, the clearance of exogenous insulin is invariant regardless of blood glucose, aggravating the potential to cause hypoglycemia. We sought to create a "smart" insulin, one that can alter insulin clearance and hence insulin action in response to blood glucose, mitigating risk for hypoglycemia. The approach added saccharide units to insulin to create insulin analogs with affinity for both the insulin receptor (IR) and mannose receptor C-type 1 (MR), which functions to clear endogenous mannosylated proteins, a principle used to endow insulin analogs with glucose responsivity. Iteration of these efforts culminated in the discovery of MK-2640, and its in vitro and in vivo preclinical properties are detailed in this report. In glucose clamp experiments conducted in healthy dogs, as plasma glucose was lowered stepwise from 280 mg/dL to 80 mg/dL, progressively more MK-2640 was cleared via MR, reducing by ∼30% its availability for binding to the IR. In dose escalations studies in diabetic minipigs, a higher therapeutic index for MK-2640 (threefold) was observed versus regular insulin (1.3-fold).

[Effects of tengcha flavonoids on scavenging oxygen free radicals and inhibiting lipid-peroxidation].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of Tengcha flavonoids (TCF) on scavenging oxygen free radicals and inhibiting lipid-peroxidation. METHODS: The effects of TCF on scavenging superoxide anion radical induced by xanthine-xanthine oxidase, inhibiting lipid-peroxidation of heart, liver, brain tissue homogenate and mitochondria induced by Fe2+ -VitC, Fe2+ -H2O2, Fe-Cys were discussed by TBA spectrometric method. RESULTS: TCF could significantly inhibit the superoxide anion radical, IC50 is 14.7 mg/L, and the lipid peroxidation of liver homogenate and mitochondria induced by auto-oxidation and induced-oxidation. The inhibition exhibited concentration-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: It indicated that TCF could scavenge oxygen free radicals and was capable of prophylacticly antagonizing against the oxidative injury by superoxide anion.

[Studies on the effect of dihydromyricetin on antilipid-peroxidation].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of Dihydromyricetin (DMY) on antilipid-peroxidation. METHOD: The antilipid-peroxidation of DMY on heart, liver, brain tissue homogenate and mitochondria was measured by the determination of malondiadehyde (MDA) induced by Fe2+ -Vit C, Fe2+ -H2O2, Fe-Cys with TBA spectrometric method. RESULT: DMY could inhibit the lipid peroxidation of homogenate and mitochondria. The inhibition exhibited concentration-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: DMY has good antilipid-peroxidation effect, which is worth studing further.