Livestock Depredation by Large Carnivores and Human-Wildlife Conflict in Two Districts of Balochistan Province, Pakistan.

Livestock herding is a vital practice in Balochistan, contributing to the economy and culture. The livestock sector is significant in Balochistan, providing 20% of the national stock. Large predators and their prey species, including livestock, have coexisted in these mountainous landscapes for centuries. The aim of the present research is to investigate the impacts of livestock depredation by large predators on livelihoods and predator conservation in two districts of Balochistan, Pakistan. A human-carnivore conflict survey was conducted from July to September 2019, collecting data from 311 residents in a selected study area. Large predators in the study area preyed on a total of 876 livestock during a one-year period, including 560 goats, 292 sheep, 19 cows, and 5 donkeys. The gray wolf is the leading predator, responsible for 66.3% of livestock depredation, followed by the caracal (24.3%), Asiatic jackal (8.9%), and striped hyena (0.6%). The total economic loss was USD 78,694. Overall, 80% of respondents had a negative perception of wolves compared to 24.4% for caracals. Only 20.6% of respondents knew about the importance of conserving carnivores. Livestock depredation by carnivores in the study area created a negative perception of these animals among people. There is a lack of awareness about the importance of conserving carnivore species and their role in the ecosystem. This lack of understanding has ultimately led to detrimental effects on predator populations. It is imperative to raise awareness among people about the ecological significance of carnivores through community meetings, seminars in educational institutions, and providing basic education to herders about effective livestock guarding practices.

Effects of vegetation type differences induced by human disturbance on the nutrition strategy and gut microbiota of Siberian roe deer.

The Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) is a widely distributed ungulate in northeast China. Due to a series of human disturbance activities such as large-scale forest cutting, deforestation and reclamation, road construction in the past, the appearance and internal structure of forest vegetation in the habitat of Siberian roe have changed significantly. At the same time, Siberian roe population had a series of ecological adaptation responses in the face of such habitat changes. Therefore, two typical vegetation types with differences were selected in the Muling Forest, China. We used nutritional ecology and microbial metagenomic analysis techniques to compare the nutritional selection strategy and the structure and functional characteristics of faecal microbiota of Siberian roe groups in two vegetation types. The results showed that the α diversity of dietary and gut microbes of deer in Natural Forest was higher than that in Plantation Forest. However, the gut microbes of the Plantation Forest group contained more unique enzymes in the functional pathways of carbon metabolism and biosynthesis of amino acids. This study suggests that habitat type is associated with plant community composition, and contributes to changes in the intake proportions of major macronutrients by altering the availability, quality, and composition of certain edible plants. Feeding behaviour may be an important regulatory factor of gut microbiota structure and function of deer. The metabolic function of gut microbiota to different nutrients may affect the microbial community structure. Therefore, our results suggest that the gut microbes of Siberian roe may have coevolved with their diets, and reflect the adaptability of deer populations to environmental changes (e.g., vegetation type). Our study provides new insights into how spatial heterogeneity affects nutrition and microecosystems by describing the interactions among the environment, diet, and symbiotic gut microbes in wild ungulates.

New Evidence of Tiger Subspecies Differentiation and Environmental Adaptation: Comparison of the Whole Genomes of the Amur Tiger and the South China Tiger.

Panthera tigris is a top predator that maintains the integrity of forest ecosystems and is an integral part of biodiversity. No more than 400 Amur tigers (P. t. altaica) are left in the wild, whereas the South China tiger (P. t. amoyensis) is thought to be extinct in the wild, and molecular biology has been widely used in conservation and management. In this study, the genetic information of Amur tigers and South China tigers was studied by whole-genome sequencing (WGS). A total of 647 Gb of high-quality clean data was obtained. There were 6.3 million high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), among which most (66.3%) were located in intergenic regions, with an average of 31.72% located in coding sequences. There were 1.73 million insertion-deletions (InDels), among which there were 2438 InDels (0.10%) in the coding region, and 270 thousand copy number variations (CNVs). Significant genetic differences were found between the Amur tiger and the South China tiger based on a principal component analysis and phylogenetic tree. The linkage disequilibrium analysis showed that the linkage disequilibrium attenuation distance of the South China tiger and the Amur tiger was almost the same, whereas the r2 of the South China tiger was 0.6, and the r2 of the Amur tiger was 0.4. We identified functional genes and regulatory pathways related to reproduction, disease, predation, and metabolism and characterized functional genes related to survival in the wild, such as smell, vision, muscle, and predatory ability. The data also provide new evidence for the adaptation of Amur tigers to cold environments. PRKG1 is involved in temperature regulation in a cold climate. FOXO1 and TPM4 regulate body temperature to keep it constant. Our results can provide genetic support for precise interspecies conservation and management planning in the future.

N6-Methyladenosine Modification of CDH1 mRNA Promotes PM2.5-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis via Mediating Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition.

The association between ambient airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and respiratory diseases has been investigated in epidemiological studies. To explore the potential mechanism of PM2.5-induced pulmonary fibrosis, 60 mice were divided into 3 groups to expose to different levels of PM2.5 for 8 and 16 weeks: filtered air, unfiltered air, and concentrated PM2.5 air, respectively. BEAS-2B cells were treated with 0, 25, 50, and 100 µg/ml PM2.5 for 24 h. The biomarkers of pulmonary fibrosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification, and metabolism of mRNAs were detected to characterize the effect of PM2.5 exposure. The results illustrated that PM2.5 exposure induced pathological alteration and pulmonary fibrosis in mice. The expression of E-cadherin was decreased whereas vimentin and N-cadherin expression were increased in a dose- and time-dependent manner after PM2.5 exposure. Mechanistically, PM2.5 exposure increased the levels of METTL3-mediated m6A modification of CDH1 mRNA. As a target gene of miR-494-3p, YTHDF2 was upregulated by miR-494-3p down-regulation and then recognized m6A-modified CDH1 mRNA to inhibit the E-cad expression, consequently induced the EMT progression after PM2.5 exposure. Our study indicated that PM2.5 exposure triggered EMT progression to promote the pulmonary fibrosis via miR-494-3p/YTHDF2 recognized and METTL3 mediated m6A modification.

Can artificial ecological islands alter the biodiversity of macroinvertebrate? A case study in Fujin National Wetland Park, the Sanjiang Plain, China.

Many policies and studies globally have highlighted the pivotal role of wetland ecosystems regarding wetland biota and their ecological status. With the strengthening of wetland ecosystem management legislation and policy, wetland restoration should also consider increasing habitat diversity to improve biota. We explore whether the construction of artificial ecological islands can increase the diversity of and macroinvertebrates before assessing the effects of actively constructing islands via human intervention on wetland protection.We discuss changes in macroinvertebrate diversity (i) with and without islands, (ii) at different water-level gradients surrounding the islands, (ⅲ) on different island substrates, and (ⅳ) at different time scales. We used ANOVA, ANOSIM, and cluster analysis to test the differences.The macroinvertebrate communities had spatially heterogeneous distributions which changes over time due to both natural and anthropogenic stresses. The establishment of islands significantly increased the community composition and biodiversity of the macroinvertebrate. Water depth and substrate affect community composition of macrozoobenthos. The abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrates can influence the biodiversity of their predators (fish and waterbirds). Potentially, the construction of islands could provide some cobenefits for the conservation of wetland fauna. Synthesis and applications. Establishing artificial ecological islands in broad open-water areas and increasing water-level gradient and substrate diversity can increase microhabitat availability and habitat heterogeneity. These changes can adapt to different ecological niches of aquatic organisms, increase biodiversity, and have a positive effect on the ecological restoration of inland freshwater marshes and wetlands.

Notes from the Field: Effectiveness of Prevention and Control Measures for Imported COVID-19 in Guangming District of Shenzhen.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was present in most provinces of China after January 2020. We implemented a surveillance and screening strategy that included early detection of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and people who were exposed to the disease in Guangming District of Shenzhen. Separate targeted treatment and management strategies were applied to confirmed and suspected cases. From January 23 to March 13, 2020, we found 12 suspected cases, and 11 were confirmed as positive. Although eight of the 11 confirmed cases were family-aggregated, they were all imported cases with common exposure, which did not further cause local community transmission, and no medical staff were infected. After February 14, when the last case was confirmed, there were no newly confirmed cases for 28 consecutive days under the strict outbreak control. The targeted and whole-society involved prevention and control measures prevented the spread of the disease in a very short time and provided a strong guarantee for the orderly recovery of returning to work and social activities.

Oxidative damage and OGG1 expression induced by a combined effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and lead acetate in human hepatocytes.

Titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) is a widely used nanomaterial that can cause biological damage through oxidative stress. At low concentrations, TiO(2) can interact with lead acetate (PbAc) to produce different toxic responses, compared with TiO(2) or PbAc alone. In this study, we utilized the following as indicators of toxic responses in human embryo hepatocytes (L02): reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the DNA adducts 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase homolog 1 (OGG1). These were used to evaluate the oxidative stress of TiO(2) (at 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 µg mL(-1)) mixed with PbAc (1 µg mL(-1)) on L02 cells without photoactivation. Compared with the negative control (1‰ dimethyl sulfoxide), TiO(2) mixed with PbAc induced increased release of ROS (at 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)), intracellular SOD activity (at 0.1 and 0.01 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)), GSH levels (at 0.01-1 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)), 8-OHdG levels (at 1 and 10 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)), OGG1 expression (at 0.001-1 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)), and cytotoxicity (at 0.1, 1, and 10 µg mL(-1) TiO(2)) in L02 cells. There were no significant changes in ROS, GSH, SOD, 8-OHdG, or OGG1 levels when L02 cells were treated with TiO(2) alone or PbAc alone. These findings indicate that TiO(2) and PbAc in combination induce cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in L02 cells in the absence of photoactivation.

Magnetic molecularly imprinted nanoparticles for recognition of lysozyme.

Molecular imprinting is an attractive technique for preparing mimics of natural, biological receptors. Nevertheless, the imprinting of macromolecule remains a challenge due to their bulkiness and sensitivity to denaturation. In this work, we presented a method for preparing multifunctional lysozyme-imprinted nanoparticles (magnetic susceptibility, molecular recognition and environmental response). The magnetic susceptibility was imparted through the successful encapsulation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Selective lysozyme recognition depended on molecularly imprinted film. Moreover, it was also a hydrophilic stimuli-responsive polymer, which could undergo a reversible change of imprinted cavity in response to a small change in the environmental conditions. Thus, magnetic molecularly imprinted nanoparticles had high adsorption capacity (0.11 mg mg(-1)), controlled selectivity and direct magnetic separation (22.1 emicro g(-1)) in crude samples. After preconcentration and purification with magnetic MIPs nanoparticles, a sensitive chemiluminescence method was developed for determination of lysozyme in human serum samples. The results indicated that the spiked recoveries were changed from 92.5 to 113.7%, and the RSD was lower than 11.8%.

In vitro toxicity of surface water disinfected by different sequential treatments.

The in vitro toxicity of extracts of Hanjiang water disinfected by different sequential treatments was evaluated. Hanjiang water was disinfected using ozone, chloride dioxide or chlorine as the primary disinfectant followed by chlorine as the secondary disinfectant. HepG(2) cells were exposed to extracts corresponding to concentrations of 0.2, 1, 5, 25 and 125 mL water/mL medium. Compared with control, HepG(2) cells exposed to extracts of raw water and all disinfected water for 24h increased oxidative stress level, DNA damage and micronuclei frequency, and decreased cell viability. Water disinfected by Cl(2)+Cl(2) had the highest DNA double-strand breaks. All disinfected water and raw water increased micronuclei frequency via clastogenic and aneugenic effects. Oxidative stress induced DNA strand breaks and micronuclei frequency and therefore reduced cell viability either in disinfected water or raw water. Compared with raw water, water after disinfection increased DNA strand breaks, decreased cell viability and changed oxidative stress potential. Compared with chlorination, sequential treatment using O(3) or ClO(2) as primary disinfectant followed by chlorine disinfection reduced chlorinated by-products, DNA double-strand breaks and cell viability, but did not decrease micronuclei frequency and other DNA damage such as DNA single-strand break, alkali liable sites and incomplete excision sites. Sequential treatments did not significantly reduce in vivo toxicity of disinfected Hanjiang water.

A stable and sensitive testing system for potential carcinogens based on DNA damage-induced gene expression in human HepG2 cell.

In order to analyze potential carcinogenic and genotoxic responses caused by exposure to pollutants existing in environment, a screening method has been established in our laboratory that uses a stably transfected HepG2 cell lines containing gadd153 promoter regions which drive a luciferase reporter gene. Activation of the exogenous gadd153 promoter was quantified using the luciferase activity following drug exposure. Twenty four agents were used to evaluate this screening assay. We selected the agents, ranging from DNA alkylating agents, oxidative agent, radiation, DNA cross-linking agent, nongenotoxic carcinogens, precarcinogenic agents, which included cadmium chloride, chromium trichloride, mercuric chloride, lead nitrate, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, deltamethrin, biphenylamine, 2-aminofluorene, benzo[a]pyrene, 2,3,7,8,-tetracblorodibenzo-p-dioxin, diethyl-stilbestrol, carbon tetrachloride, mitomycin C, hydroxycamptothecin, UV, sodium fluoride, acrylamide, hydrogen peroxide. In addition, two complex genotoxic agents (water samples) existing in the environment were selected. The results showed that all 20 tested known carcinogenic and genotoxic agents were able to induce gadd153-Luc expression at a sublethal dose. In contrast, four tested non-carcinogens, included 4-acetylaminofluorene, pyrene, benzylpenicillin sodium and vitamin C, were unable to induce gadd153-Luc expression. In conclusion, this reporter system can facilitate in vitro screening for potential carcinogens. Therefore, the gadd153-Luc test system we have developed appears to be a useful and complementary system to existing genotoxic and mutagenic tests.