Fungal Diversity and Community Assembly of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi Associated With Five Pine Species in Inner Mongolia, China.

Ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi play vital roles in ensuring host plants' health, plant diversity, and the functionality of the ecosystem. However, EM fungal diversity, community composition, and underlying assembly processes in Inner Mongolia, China, where forests are typically semiarid and cold-temperate zones, attract less attention. In this study, we investigated EM fungal communities from 63 root samples of five common pine plants in Inner Mongolia across 1,900 km using Illumina Miseq sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 region. We evaluated the impact of host plant phylogeny, soil, climatic, and spatial variables on EM fungal diversity and community turnover. Deterministic vs. stochastic processes for EM fungal community assembly were quantified using ß-nearest taxon index scores. In total, we identified 288 EM fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to 31 lineages, of which the most abundant lineages were Tomentella-Thelephora, Wilcoxina, Tricholoma, and Suillus-Rhizopogon. Variations in EM fungal OTU richness and community composition were significantly predicted by host phylogeny, soil (total nitrogen, phosphorus, nitrogen-phosphorus ratio, and magnesium), climate, and spatial distance, with the host plant being the most important factor. ß-nearest taxon index demonstrated that both deterministic and stochastic processes jointly determined the community assembly of EM fungi, with the predominance of stochastic processes. At the Saihanwula site selected for preference analysis, all plant species (100%) presented significant preferences for EM fungi, 54% of abundant EM fungal OTUs showed significant preferences for host plants, and 26% of pairs of plant species and abundant fungal OTUs exhibited remarkably strong preferences. Overall, we inferred that the high diversity and distinctive community composition of EM fungi associated with natural pine species in Inner Mongolia and the stochastic processes prevailed in determining the community assembly of EM fungi. Our study shed light on the diversity and community assembly of EM fungi associated with common pine species in semiarid and cold temperate forests in Inner Mongolia, China, for the first time and provided a better understanding of the ecological processes underlying the community assembly of mutualistic fungi.

Characteristic and phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast genome for Ephedra monosperma (Ephedraceae), an important medicinal species.

Ephedra monosperma is an important medicinal plant of Ephedra (Ephedraceae). The complete chloroplast genome of E. monosperma was assembled from Illumina pair-end sequence reads. The whole chloroplast (cp) genome is 109,548 bp in length and presents a quadripartite structure consisting of two copies of inverted repeat (IR) regions (20,398) separated by a large single copy (LSC) region (60,674 bp) and a small single copy (SSC) region (8078 bp). The cp genome of E. monosperma encodes a total of 118 genes, including 73 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of E. monosperma cp genome is 36.6%. A maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis revealed that E. monosperma was close to Ephedra equisetina. The ML tree also showed Ephedraceae appeared more closely related to Gnetaceae than to the other families in Gymnospermae.

Longitudinal associations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with metabolic syndrome in the Chinese population: a prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Currently, most studies only reveal the relationship between baseline high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels and metabolic syndrome (MetS). The relationship between dynamic changes in HDL-c or LDL-c and MetS remains unclear. We aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between the dynamic changes in HDL-c or LDL-c and MetS. DESIGN: A prospective study. SETTING: The Medical Centre of the Second Hospital affiliated with Dalian Medical University from 2010 to 2016. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4542 individuals who were initially MetS-free and completed at least two follow-up examinations as part of the longitudinal population were included. METHODS: The Joint Interim Statement criteria 2009 were used to define MetS. We used the Joint model to estimate the relative risks (RRs) of incident MetS. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of MetS was 17.81% and was 14.86% in men and 5.36% in women during the 7 years of follow-up. In the Joint models, the RRs of the longitudinal decrease in HDL-c and the longitudinal increase in LDL-c for the development of MetS were 18.8781-fold (95% CI 12.5156 to 28.4900) and 1.3929-fold (95% CI 1.2283 to 1.5795), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight that the dynamic longitudinal decrement of HDL-c or the increment of LDL-c is associated with an elevated risk of MetS.

The cellular decision between apoptosis and autophagy.

Apoptosis and autophagy are important molecular processes that maintain organismal and cellular homeostasis, respectively. While apoptosis fulfills its role through dismantling damaged or unwanted cells, autophagy maintains cellular homeostasis through recycling selective intracellular organelles and molecules. Yet in some conditions, autophagy can lead to cell death. Apoptosis and autophagy can be stimulated by the same stresses. Emerging evidence indicates an interplay between the core proteins in both pathways, which underlies the molecular mechanism of the crosstalk between apoptosis and autophagy. This review summarizes recent literature on molecules that regulate both the apoptotic and autophagic processes.

Differential effects of pro-BDNF on sensory neurons after sciatic nerve transection in neonatal rats.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a critical role in the development of the central and peripheral nervous systems, and also in neuronal survival after injury. The actions of BDNF are mediated by its high-affinity receptors TrkB and p75NTR. Recent studies have shown that proneurotrophins bind p75NTR and sortilin with high affinity, and trigger apoptosis of neurons in vitro. As proneurotrophins are a dominant form of gene products in developing and adult animals, it is imperative to understand their physiological functions in animals. Here, we showed differential roles of proBDNF in injured and uninjured sensory neurons. proBDNF, p75NTR and sortilin are highly expressed in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. Recombinant proBDNF induced a dose-dependent death of PC12 cells and the death activity was completely abolished in the presence of antibodies against the prodomain of BDNF. The exogenous proBDNF enhanced the death of axotomized sensory neurons and the neutralizing antibodies to the prodomain or exogenous sortilin-extracellular domain-Fc fusion molecule reduced the death of axotomized sensory neurons. Interestingly, the treatment of neutralizing antibody in vivo increased the number of sensory neurons in the contralateral DRG. We conclude that proBDNF may induce the death of axotomized sensory neurons and suppress neuronal addition in the intact DRG in neonatal rats, and the suppression of endogenous proBDNF may protect neurons after neurotrauma.

[Expression of the infectious bursal disease virus polyprotein in Vero cells using attenuated Salmonella typhimurium as transgenic carrier].

To examine if polyprotein gene (VP2/VP4/VP3) of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) could be delivered into mammalian cells and expressed using attenuated Salmonella typhimurium as vector. The IBDV polyprotein gene was amplified by RT-PCR and inserted in to pCI, an eukaryotic expression plasmid. The resulting recombinant pCI-VP2/VP4/VP3 was transformed by electroporation into attenuated Salmonella typhimurium strain ZJ111 (dam- and phoP-), which was then use to transfect the Vero cells. Gene specific RT-PCR revealed that VP2/VP4/VP3 was transcribed into mRNA in the Vero cells. Indirect immunofluorscence assay, SDS-PAGE and Western-blot analysis showed that VP2/VP4/VP3 was expressed and the product was immuno-reactive with anti-IBDV serum. This work provides essential precondition for developing a new oral DNA vaccine against IBDV.