Synthesis of [2.2]Paracyclophane-Fused Heterocycles via Palladium-Catalyzed C-H Activation/Annulation of [2.2]Paracyclophanecarboxamides with Arynes.

[2.2]Paracyclophane-fused heterocycles represent an important scaffold. Traditional approaches often suffer from tedious synthetic routes, and the development of catalytic synthesis of them remains in its infancy. Herein, by employing highly strained aryne intermediates as partners, we have developed a concise protocol by palladium-catalyzed C-H activation/annulation from [2.2]paracyclophanecarboxamide substrates. [2.2]Paracyclophane-fused quinolinone products are obtained in good yields (up to 84%). Furthermore, the utility of the process has been shown through the synthesis of [2.2]paracyclophane-fused heterocyclic catalysts.

Strong suppression of silver nanoparticles on antibiotic resistome in anammox process.

This study comprehensively deciphered the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on anammox flocculent sludge, including nitrogen removal performance, microbial community structure, functional enzyme abundance, antibiotic resistance gene (ARGs) dissemination, and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) mechanisms. After long-term exposure to 0-2.5 mg/L AgNPs for 200 cycles, anammox performance significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the relative abundances of dominant Ca. Kuenenia and anammox-related enzymes (hzsA, nirK) increased compared to the control (P < 0.05). For antibiotic resistome, ARG abundance hardly changed with 0-0.5 mg/L AgNPs but decreased by approximately 90% with 1.5-2.5 mg/L AgNPs. More importantly, AgNPs effectively inhibited MGE-mediated HGT of ARGs. Additionally, structural equation model (SEM) disclosed the underlying relationship between AgNPs, the antibiotic resistome, and the microbial community. Overall, AgNPs suppressed the anammox-driven nitrogen cycle, regulated the microbial community, and prevented the spread of ARGs in anammox flocs. This study provides a theoretical baseline for an advanced understanding of the ecological roles of nanoparticles and resistance elements in engineered ecosystems.

Ultrasensitive Dual-Mode Visual/Photoelectrochemical Bioassay for Antibiotic Resistance Genes through Incorporating Rolling Circle Amplicons into a Tailored Nanoassembly.

As emerging contaminants in the environment, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have aroused a global health crisis and posed a serious threat to ecological safety and human health. Thus, efficient and accurate onsite detection of ARGs is crucial for environmental surveillance. Here, we presented a colorimetric-photoelectrochemical (PEC) dual-mode bioassay for simultaneous detection of multiple ARGs by smartly incorporating rolling circle amplification (RCA) into a stimuli-responsive DNA nanoassembly, using the tetracycline resistance genes tetA and tetC as models. The tailored DNA nanoassembly containing RCA amplicons hybridized with specific signal probes: CuO nanoflowers-anchored signal DNA1 and HgO nanoparticles-anchored signal DNA2, respectively. Upon exposure to an acidic stimulus, numerous Cu2+ and Hg2+ were released, serving as the reporting agent of colorimetric/PEC dual-mode assay. The released Cu2+ and Hg2+ induced localized surface plasmon resonance shifts in Au nanorods and triangular Ag nanoplates through an etching process, respectively, enabling visual analysis of ARGs with distinguishing color changes. Meanwhile, numerous Cu2+ and Hg2+ triggered the amplified PEC variations via reacting with the photoactive layers of CuS/CdS and ZnS, respectively. Thus, a rapid and ultrasensitive colorimetric/PEC dual-mode detection of multiple ARGs was achieved with the detection limit down to 17.2 aM. Furthermore, such dual-mode bioassay could discriminate single-base mismatch and successfully determine ARGs in E. coli plasmids and sludge samples, holding great promise for point-of-care genetic diagnostics.

Erratum: PFKFB4 promotes angiogenesis via IL-6/STAT5A/P-STAT5 signaling in breast cancer: Erratum.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/jca.66773.].

Myeloid Deletion of Cdc42 Protects Liver From Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury via Inhibiting Macrophage-Mediated Inflammation in Mice.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI) often occurs in liver surgery, such as partial hepatectomy and liver transplantation, in which myeloid macrophage-mediated inflammation plays a critical role. Cell division cycle 42 (Cdc42) regulates cell migration, cytoskeleton rearrangement, and cell polarity. In this study, we explore the role of myeloid Cdc42 in HIRI. METHODS: Mouse HIRI models were established with 1-hour ischemia followed by 12-hour reperfusion in myeloid Cdc42 knockout (Cdc42mye) and Cdc42flox mice. Myeloid-derived macrophages were traced with RosamTmG fluorescent reporter under LyzCre-mediated excision. The experiments for serum or hepatic enzymic activities, histologic and immunologic analysis, gene expressions, flow cytometry analysis, and cytokine antibody array were performed. RESULTS: Myeloid deletion of Cdc42 significantly alleviated hepatic damages with the reduction of hepatic necrosis and inflammation, and reserved hepatic functions following HIRI in mice. Myeloid Cdc42 deficiency suppressed the infiltration of myeloid macrophages, reduced the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, restrained M1 polarization, and promoted M2 polarization of myeloid macrophages in livers. In addition, inactivation of Cdc42 promoted M2 polarization via suppressing the phosphorylation of STAT1 and promoting phosphorylation of STAT3 and STAT6 in myeloid macrophages. Furthermore, pretreatment with Cdc42 inhibitor, ML141, also protected mice from hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition or deletion of myeloid Cdc42 protects liver from HIRI via restraining the infiltration of myeloid macrophages, suppressing proinflammatory response, and promoting M2 polarization in macrophages.

Research on detection of potato varieties based on spectral imaging analytical algorithm.

Potatoes are popular among consumers due to their high yield and delicious taste. However, due to the numerous varieties of potatoes, different varieties are suitable for different processing methods. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish varieties after harvest to meet the needs of processing enterprises and consumers. In this study, a new visible-near-infrared spectroscopic analysis method was proposed, which can achieve detection of five potato varieties. The method measures the transmission and reflection spectra of potatoes using a spectral acquisition system, encodes one-dimensional spectra into two-dimensional images using Gramian Angular Summation Field (GASF), Gramian Angular Difference Field (GADF), Markov Transition Field (MTF) and Recurrence Plot (RP), and improves the coordinated attention mechanism module and embeds the improved module into the ConvNeXt V2 model to build the ConvNeXt V2-CAP model for potato variety classification. The results show that compared with directly using one-dimensional classification models, image encoding of spectral data for classification greatly improves the accuracy. Among them, the best accuracy of 99.54% is achieved by using GADF image encoding of transmission spectra combined with the ConvNeXt V2-CAP model for classification, which is 16.28% higher than the highest accuracy of the one-dimensional classification model. The CAP attention mechanism module improves the performance of the model, especially when the dataset is small. When the training set is reduced to 150 images, the accuracy of the model is improved by 2.33% compared to the original model. Therefore, it is feasible to classify potato varieties using visible-near infrared spectroscopy and image encoding technology.

Simulated microgravity altered the gene expression profiles and inhibited the proliferation of Kupffer cells in the early phase by downregulating LMO2 and EZH2.

Microgravity is a primary challenge that need to overcome, when human travel to space. Our study provided evidence that Kupffer cells (KCs) are sensitive to simulated microgravity (SMG), and no similar research report has been found in the literature. Using transcriptome sequencing technology, it was showed that 631 genes were upregulated and 801 genes were downregulated in KCs after treatment under SMG for 3 days. The GO analysis indicated that the proliferation of KCs was affected when exposed to SMG for 3 days. CCK-8 assay confirmed that the proliferation of KCs was inhibited in the third day under the environment of SMG. Furthermore, we identified 8 key genes that affect the proliferation of KCs and predicted 2 transcription factors (TFs) that regulate the 8 key genes. Significantly, we found that microgravity could affect the expression of LMO2 and EZH2 to reduce the transcription of Racgap1, Ccna2, Nek2, Aurka, Plk1, Haus4, Cdc20, Bub1b, which resulting in the reduction in KCs proliferation. These finding suggested that the inhibition of KCs proliferation under microgravity may influence the homeostasis of liver, and LMO2 and EZH2 can be the targets in management of KCs' disturbance in the future practice of space medicine.

Ketamine alleviates fear memory and spatial cognition deficits in a PTSD rat model via the BDNF signaling pathway of the hippocampus and amygdala.

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with traumatic stress experiences. This condition can be accompanied by learning and cognitive deficits. Studies have demonstrated that ketamine can rapidly and significantly alleviate symptoms in patients with chronic PTSD. Nonetheless, the effects of ketamine on neurocognitive impairment and its mechanism of action in PTSD remain unclear. METHODS: In this study, different concentrations of ketamine (5, 10, 15, and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) were evaluated in rat models of single prolonged stress and electrophonic shock (SPS&S). Expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and post-synaptic density-95 (PSD-95) in the hippocampus (HIP) and amygdala (AMG) were determined by Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The data showed that rats subjected to SPS&S exhibited significant PTSD-like cognitive impairment. The effect of ketamine on SPS&S-induced neurocognitive function showed a U-shaped dose effect in rats. A single administration of ketamine at a dosage of 10-15 mg/kg resulted in significant changes in behavioral outcomes. These manifestations of improvement in cognitive function and molecular changes were reversed at high doses (15-20 mg/kg). CONCLUSION: Overall, ketamine reversed SPS&S-induced fear and spatial memory impairment and the down-regulation of BDNF and BDNF-related PSD-95 signaling in the HIP and AMG. A dose equal to 15 mg/kg rapidly reversed the behavioral and molecular changes and promoted the amelioration of cognitive dysfunction. The enhanced association of BDNF signaling with PSD-95 effects could be involved in the therapeutic efficiency of ketamine for PTSD.

KAN0438757, a novel PFKFB3 inhibitor, prevent the progression of severe acute pancreatitis via the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway in infiltrated macrophage.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a non-infectious pancreatic enzyme-induced disorder, a life-threatening inflammatory condition that can cause multi-organ dysfunction, characterized by high morbidity and mortality. Several therapies have been employed to target this disorder; however, few happen to be effectively employable even in the early phase. PFKFB3(6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase-3) is a critical regulator of glycolysis and is upregulated under inflammatory, mitogenic, and hypoxia conditions. Essential information on the targeting of the inflammatory pathway will present the termination of the disorder and recovery. Herein we investigated the protective function of KAN0438757, a potent inhibitor of PFKFB3, and its mechanism of impeding AP induced in mice. KAN0438757 was confirmed to activate the Nrf2/HO-1 inflammatory signaling pathways in response to caerulein induced acute pancreatitis (CAE-AP) and fatty acid ethyl ester induced severe acute pancreatitis (FAEE-SAP). Additionally, KAN0438757 alleviated the inflammatory process in infiltrated macrophage via the Nrf2/HO-1 inflammatory signaling pathway and demonstrated a significant effect on the growth of mice with induced AP. And more importantly, KAN0438757 displayed negligible toxicity in vivo. Taken together our data suggest KAN0438757 directly suppresses the inflammatory role of PFKFB3 and induces a protective role via the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, which could prove as an excellent therapeutic platform for SAP amelioration.

Exposure to blue space surroundings and depressive symptoms in young Chinese adults: The mediating role of sleep.

OBJECTIVE: Existing evidence suggests that the natural environment can influence mental health. However, limited research has focused on the relationship between blue space and depressive symptoms in young adults. To investigate the association between blue space surroundings and depressive symptoms in young adults in China and explore the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: The study was conducted between September and November 2019, including 2,743 young adults from China. We assessed the exposure to blue space around participants' living environments during June, July, and August 2019 using the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI). Blue indexes were calculated for 300 m, 1000 m, and 3000 m circular buffer zones near residential environments. Logistic regression models were employed to explore the associations between blue space exposures (quartiles) and depressive symptoms, exploring potential mechanisms through structural equation modeling (SEM), while accounting for potential confounders. Stratification analysis was used to identify sensitive populations. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were found in 148 (5.3%) of the 2,743 young adults in the study. We observed a negative correlation between depressive symptoms and average MNDWIs at participants' addresses (OR: 0.84; 95%CI: 0.72-0.98), within 300m (OR: 0.81; 95%CI: 0.70-0.95), 1000m (OR: 0.80; 95%CI: 0.69-0.93), and 3000m (OR:0.77; 95%CI: 0.66-0.89) buffer zones. Within the 1000m buffer zone, sleep was found to mediate 21% of the relationship between the presence of blue space and depressive symptoms. The stratified analysis revealed a stronger association between low MNDWI levels within the 1000m buffer zone and depressive symptoms in females (P < 0.05). Additionally, average MNDWI levels within the 3000m buffer zone were associated with depressive symptoms in both females and males. CONCLUSIONS: Blue space could improve depressive symptoms, particularly in females, with sleep playing a mediating role. Incorporating blue spaces into environmental planning is important for improving mental health.

Rapid Indentification of Auramine O Dyeing Adulteration in Dendrobium officinale, Saffron and Curcuma by SERS Raman Spectroscopy Combined with SSA-BP Neural Networks Model.

(1) Background: Rapid and accurate determination of the content of the chemical dye Auramine O(AO) in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) is critical for controlling the quality of TCMs. (2) Methods: Firstly, various models were developed to detect AO content in Dendrobium officinale (D. officinale). Then, the detection of AO content in Saffron and Curcuma using the D. officinale training set as a calibration model. Finally, Saffron and Curcuma samples were added to the training set of D. officinale to predict the AO content in Saffron and Curcuma using secondary wavelength screening. (3) Results: The results show that the sparrow search algorithm (SSA)-backpropagation (BP) neural network (SSA-BP) model can accurately predict AO content in D. officinale, with Rp2 = 0.962, and RMSEP = 0.080 mg/mL. Some Curcuma samples and Saffron samples were added to the training set and after the secondary feature wavelength screening: The Support Vector Machines (SVM) quantitative model predicted Rp2 fluctuated in the range of 0.780 ± 0.035 for the content of AO in Saffron when 579, 781, 1195, 1363, 1440, 1553 and 1657 cm-1 were selected as characteristic wavelengths; the Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) model predicted Rp2 fluctuated in the range of 0.500 ± 0.035 for the content of AO in Curcuma when 579, 811, 1195, 1353, 1440, 1553 and 1635 cm-1 were selected as the characteristic wavelengths. The robustness and generalization performance of the model were improved. (4) Conclusion: In this study, it has been discovered that the combination of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and machine learning algorithms can effectively and promptly detect the content of AO in various types of TCMs.

Comparative study of bilateral putamen for patients with severe Parkinson's disease detected by 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Background: The diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) is challenging because the clinical symptoms overlap with other neurodegenerative diseases. The discovery of reliable biomarkers is highly expected to facilitate clinical diagnosis. Through the analysis of the 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in the putamen, the purpose of the study was to discuss the possibility of the difference in metabolite concentrations between the left and right putamen as biomarkers for patients with severe PD. Methods: We collected 1H-MRS of unilateral or bilateral putamen from 41 patients and used the independent sample t-test and paired t-test to analyze 4 metabolite concentrations, including choline (Cho), total N-acetyl aspartate (tNAA), total creatine (tCr), and combined glutamate and glutamine; Bonferroni correction was used to correct P values for multiple comparisons. We designed 4 controlled experiments as follows: (I) PD patients versus healthy controls (HCs) in the left putamen; (II) PD patients versus HCs in the right putamen; (III) the left putamen versus the right putamen for PD patients; and (IV) the left putamen versus the right putamen for HCs. Results: No statistically significant differences (P>0.05) were detected among 4 metabolites in the ipsilateral and bilateral putamen for the PD and HCs groups, except for tCr in the left putamen (PD 6.426±0.557, HCs 6.026±0.460, P=0.046) for ipsilateral comparisons. Conclusions: In the bilateral putamen of severe PD patients, there was no statistically significant difference in the 4 metabolites. The difference (P<0.05) in tCr in the left putamen might be a potential biomarker to distinguish HCs from severe patients in clinic. This might provide a reference for the clinical diagnosis and acquisition strategy of 1H-MRS in severe PD.

The relationship between cancer and biomechanics.

The onset, development, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer involve intricate interactions among various factors, spanning the realms of mechanics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Within our bodies, cells are subject to a variety of forces such as gravity, magnetism, tension, compression, shear stress, and biological static force/hydrostatic pressure. These forces are perceived by mechanoreceptors as mechanical signals, which are then transmitted to cells through a process known as mechanical transduction. During tumor development, invasion and metastasis, there are significant biomechanical influences on various aspects such as tumor angiogenesis, interactions between tumor cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), interactions between tumor cells and other cells, and interactions between tumor cells and the circulatory system and vasculature. The tumor microenvironment comprises a complex interplay of cells, ECM and vasculature, with the ECM, comprising collagen, fibronectins, integrins, laminins and matrix metalloproteinases, acting as a critical mediator of mechanical properties and a key component within the mechanical signaling pathway. The vasculature exerts appropriate shear forces on tumor cells, enabling their escape from immune surveillance, facilitating their dissemination in the bloodstream, dictating the trajectory of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and playing a pivotal role in regulating adhesion to the vessel wall. Tumor biomechanics plays a critical role in tumor progression and metastasis, as alterations in biomechanical properties throughout the malignant transformation process trigger a cascade of changes in cellular behavior and the tumor microenvironment, ultimately culminating in the malignant biological behavior of the tumor.

RichPathR: a gene set enrichment analysis and visualization tool.

Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) is an important step for disease and drug discovery. Genomic, transcriptomics, proteomics and epigenetic analysis of tissue or cells generates gene lists that need to be further investigated in the known biological context. The advent of high-throughput technologies generates the vast number of gene lists that are up or down regulated together. One way of getting meaningful insights of the relationship of these genes is utilizing existing knowledge bases linking them with biological functions or phenotypes. Multiple public databases with annotated gene sets are available for GSEA, and enrichR is the most popular web application still requiring custom tools for large-scale mining. richPathR package is a collection of R functions that helps researchers carry out exploratory analysis and visualization of gene set enrichment using EnrichR.

Enhanced disintegration mechanism of surplus activated sludge to improve dewatering by thermally activated persulfate oxidation under mild temperature.

The dewatering treatment is an essential process for the treatment and disposal of surplus activated sludge (SAS), and improving sludge dewatering performance is still a challenge and has become a research hotspot in recent years. The oxidation and disintegration of bacterial cells and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by active radicals produced by advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) were extremely promising to achieve deep sludge dewatering. This paper systematically studied the efficiency and mechanism of thermally activated persulfate (TAP) oxidation technology to the improvement of SAS dewatering performance. The results showed that the relative filterability (CST0/CST) was increased 2.52 times with 2.0 mmol/g VSS potassium peroxydisulfate (PDS) at 80 °C in 90 min. Under this condition, the Zeta potential of SAS significantly decreased from - 14.8 to - 1.44 mV, while the average particle size (dp50) decreased from 52.981 to 48.259 µm. Thermal treatment disrupted the sludge structure to release large amounts of EPS including polysaccharides and protein. Meanwhile, the results of three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) fluorescence spectra showed that the TAP treatment could expedite the disintegration of sludge, facilitating the decrease of total EPS content and conversion of tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) to loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) and soluble EPS (S-EPS). The mechanism of TAP process to improve SAS dewatering performance was revealed, which could contribute to breaking the bottleneck of sludge depth dewatering and provide a theoretical and technical basis for its practical application.

Novel substituted 4-(Arylethynyl)-Pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGlu5) Treat depressive disorder in mice.

In view of the fact that the G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) sit at the top of the signaling pathways triggering a diverse range of signaling cascades towards a cellular event, GPCRs are regarded as central drug targets. mGlu5, a type of classical GPCRs, is highly expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) and responds to the neurotransmitter glutamate. Researches show that mGlu5 is a potential drug target for the treatment of depression. Up to now, multiple mGlu5 negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) have entered clinical trials, but no small molecule mGlu5 NAM has yet to reach market. Herein, we report the structural optimization and structure-activity relationship studies of a series of novel mGlu5 NAMs. Among them, the novel compound 10b is a high-affinity mGluR5 antagonist, with an IC50 value of 11.5 nM. Besides, we evaluated the anti-depressant effect of compound 10b using the chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression model. The data showed that the mice in CUMS group were featured by decreased level of serum 5-HT and increased level of serum CORT, and the expression of synaptic proteins were reduced, including GluA1, GluA2, p-PKA, BDNF and TrkB. However, those factors for identifying sensitivity to depression-like behaviors could be improved by compound 10b treatment. The preliminary toxicology evaluations indicated that compound 10b had a good safety profile in vivo. Collectively, the compound 10b represents a promising lead compound for the treatment of depressive disorder.

A tea bud segmentation, detection and picking point localization based on the MDY7-3PTB model.

Introduction: The identification and localization of tea picking points is a prerequisite for achieving automatic picking of famous tea. However, due to the similarity in color between tea buds and young leaves and old leaves, it is difficult for the human eye to accurately identify them. Methods: To address the problem of segmentation, detection, and localization of tea picking points in the complex environment of mechanical picking of famous tea, this paper proposes a new model called the MDY7-3PTB model, which combines the high-precision segmentation capability of DeepLabv3+ and the rapid detection capability of YOLOv7. This model achieves the process of segmentation first, followed by detection and finally localization of tea buds, resulting in accurate identification of the tea bud picking point. This model replaced the DeepLabv3+ feature extraction network with the more lightweight MobileNetV2 network to improve the model computation speed. In addition, multiple attention mechanisms (CBAM) were fused into the feature extraction and ASPP modules to further optimize model performance. Moreover, to address the problem of class imbalance in the dataset, the Focal Loss function was used to correct data imbalance and improve segmentation, detection, and positioning accuracy. Results and discussion: The MDY7-3PTB model achieved a mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 86.61%, a mean pixel accuracy (mPA) of 93.01%, and a mean recall (mRecall) of 91.78% on the tea bud segmentation dataset, which performed better than usual segmentation models such as PSPNet, Unet, and DeeplabV3+. In terms of tea bud picking point recognition and positioning, the model achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 93.52%, a weighted average of precision and recall (F1 score) of 93.17%, a precision of 97.27%, and a recall of 89.41%. This model showed significant improvements in all aspects compared to existing mainstream YOLO series detection models, with strong versatility and robustness. This method eliminates the influence of the background and directly detects the tea bud picking points with almost no missed detections, providing accurate two-dimensional coordinates for the tea bud picking points, with a positioning precision of 96.41%. This provides a strong theoretical basis for future tea bud picking.

[Differences in Fungal Communities in Different Material Cellar Sediments and Their Correlation with Environmental Factors].

There are rich and diverse fungal communities in rainfall-cellar sediments. Fungi play a key role in the rainfall-cellar ecosystem as a bridge and link for material exchange between the rainfall-cellar ecosystem and the sediments. The changes in fungal community structure are usually closely related to the changes in environmental factors. The 16S rRNA gene Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology was used to study the diversity and difference of fungal communities in the cellar sediments under two different catchment environments. The results revealed that the cellar sediments under the concrete catchment environment had higher diversity and richness of fungal communities than those under the loess land catchment environment. The dominant bacteria of the fungal communities under the two catchment environments were the same, namely Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Zygomycota, which constituted more than 90% of the abundance of the bacteria; however, the former had better homogeneity and stability. The indicator species based on LEfSe analysis demonstrated that Basidiobolales had the largest contribution to the diversity in the catchment environment of the loess land, and Mycosphaerella had the smallest contribution; Saccharomycetales contributed the most to the diversity in the concrete concentration environment, whereas Periconia contributed the least. The results of the co-occurrence network of the microbial community and environmental factors demonstrated that the positive relationship between fungi and environmental factors was stronger than the negative relationship. The research results have enhanced the understanding of the diversity of fungal communities in the cellar sediments and provided a reference for ensuring the drinking safety of rainwater harvesting cellar water for humans and livestock and improving the quality of cellar water.

Impact of Insect-Resistant Transgenic Maize 2A-7 on Diversity and Dynamics of Bacterial Communities in Rhizosphere Soil.

Artificial modification of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins can effectively improve their resistance to target pests, but the effect of such modification on the diversity of rhizosphere microorganisms remains unclear. Transgenic maize 2A-7 contains two artificially modified Bt proteins, mCry1Ab and mCry2Ab. These proteins can enter soil and pose a potential threat to soil microbial diversity. To assess their impacts on rhizosphere bacteria communities, the contents of the two Bt proteins and changes in bacterial community diversity in the rhizosphere soils of transgenic maize 2A-7 and its control variety were analyzed at different growth stages in 2020. The results showed that the two Bt proteins were detected at low levels in the rhizosphere soils of 2A-7 plants. No significant differences in soil bacterial diversity were detected between 2A-7 and its control variety at any of the growth stages. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the growth stage, rather than the cultivar, was the main factor causing changes in bacterial communities. This research provides valuable data for understanding the impact of Bt crops on the soil microbiome, and establishes a theoretical basis for evaluation of their safety.