[Horizontal Variation Characteristics of Alpine Grassland Soil Function and Vertical Changes Along Soil Genetic Horizons in the Three-River Headwaters Region].

The Three-River Headwaters region is a hotspot for studying the response of soil function to climate change. To study the horizontal variation characteristics of alpine grassland soil function and vertical changes along soil genetic horizons, soil functional indicators (including respiration, nitrogen conversion rate, and enzymatic activity) of different genetic horizons in alpine grassland soil profiles and their correlations with environmental factors were analyzed. The results showed that there were no significant differences in soil functional characteristics between alpine meadows and steppes, and topsoil had higher respiration rates, nitrogen conversion rates, and enzymatic activities than those of subsoil. Total nitrogen was a key driver of soil functional characteristics in different genetic horizons, explaining 18.3%, 21.4%, and 27.5% of the horizontal variation in functional characteristics, respectively. Climate and vegetation factors mainly affected soil function indirectly by changing soil physicochemical properties in topsoil, but atmospheric nitrogen deposition still affected soil function in subsoil. These results indicate the significant nitrogen limitation of alpine grassland soil in the Three-River Headwaters region, and the findings provide a new insight into the maintenance of soil functional diversity and the response to climate change in the context of global climate change.

Environmental selection dominates over dispersal limitation in shaping bacterial biogeographical patterns across different soil horizons of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Soil microbial biogeographical patterns have been widely explored from horizontal to vertical scales. However, studies of microbial vertical distributions were still limited (e.g., how soil genetic horizons influence microbial distributions). To shed light on this question, we investigated soil bacterial communities across three soil horizons (topsoil: horizon A; midsoil: horizon B; subsoil: horizon C) of 60 soil profiles along a 3500 km transect in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. We found that bacterial diversity was highest in the topsoil and lowest in the subsoil, and community composition significantly differed across soil horizons. The network complexity decreased from topsoil to subsoil. There were significant geographical/environmental distance-decay relationships (DDR) in three soil horizons, with a lower slope from topsoil to subsoil due to the decreased environmental heterogeneity. Variation partitioning analysis (VPA) showed that bacterial community variations were explained more by environmental than spatial factors. Although environmental selection processes played a dominant role, null model analysis revealed that deterministic processes (mainly variable selection) decreased with deeper soil horizons, while stochastic processes (mainly dispersal limitation) increased from topsoil to subsoil. These results suggested that microbial biogeographical patterns and community assembly processes were soil horizon dependent. Our study provides new insights into the microbial vertical distributions in large-scale alpine regions and highlights the vital role of soil genetic horizons in affecting microbial community assembly, which has implications for understanding the pedogenetic process and microbial responses to extreme environment under climate change.

Distribution Characteristics of Soil Viruses Under Different Precipitation Gradients on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Viruses are extremely abundant in the soil environment and have potential roles in impacting on microbial population, evolution, and nutrient biogeochemical cycles. However, how environment and climate changes affect soil viruses is still poorly understood. Here, a metagenomic approach was used to investigate the distribution, diversity, and potential biogeochemical impacts of DNA viruses in 12 grassland soils under three precipitation gradients on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is one of the most sensitive areas to climate change. A total of 557 viral operational taxonomic units were obtained, spanning 152 viral families from the 30 metagenomes. Both virus-like particles (VLPs) and microbial abundance increased with average annual precipitation. A significant positive correlation of VLP counts was observed with soil water content, total carbon, total nitrogen, soil organic matter, and total phosphorus. Among these biological and abiotic factors, SWC mainly contributed to the variability in VLP abundance. The order Caudovirales (70.1% of the identified viral order) was the predominant viral type in soils from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with the Siphoviridae family being the most abundant. Remarkably, abundant auxiliary carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) genes represented by glycoside hydrolases were identified, indicating that soil viruses may play a potential role in the carbon cycle on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There were more diverse hosts and abundant CAZyme genes in soil with moderate precipitation. Our study provides a strong evidence that changes in precipitation impact not only viral abundance and virus-host interactions in soil but also the viral functional potential, especially carbon cycling.

Significant loss of soil inorganic carbon at the continental scale.

Widespread soil acidification due to atmospheric acid deposition and agricultural fertilization may greatly accelerate soil carbonate dissolution and CO2 release. However, to date, few studies have addressed these processes. Here, we use meta-analysis and nationwide-survey datasets to investigate changes in soil inorganic carbon (SIC) stocks in China. We observe an overall decrease in SIC stocks in topsoil (0-30 cm) (11.33 g C m-2 yr-1) from the 1980s to the 2010s. Total SIC stocks have decreased by ∼8.99 ± 2.24% (1.37 ± 0.37 Pg C). The average SIC losses across China (0.046 Pg C yr-1) and in cropland (0.016 Pg C yr-1) account for ∼17.6%-24.0% of the terrestrial C sink and 57.1% of the soil organic carbon sink in cropland, respectively. Nitrogen deposition and climate change have profound influences on SIC cycling. We estimate that ∼19.12%-19.47% of SIC stocks will be further lost by 2100. The consumption of SIC may offset a large portion of global efforts aimed at ecosystem carbon sequestration, which emphasizes the importance of achieving a better understanding of the indirect coupling mechanisms of nitrogen and carbon cycling and of effective countermeasures to minimize SIC loss.

Elevated Serum Complement C1q Levels After Traumatic Brain Injury and Its Association with Poor Prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: Complement C1q is implicated in neuroinflammation. We intended to discern the relationship between serum C1q levels and severity in addition to prognosis following traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: In this prospective, observational study, serum C1q levels were quantified in 188 TBI patients and 188 healthy controls. Glasgow coma scale (GCS) and Rotterdam computed tomography (CT) classification were used as clinical and radiological indicators of severity. Patients with extended Glasgow outcome scale (GOSE) score of 1-4 at 6 months after trauma were considered to have a poor outcome. Multiple logistic regression model was built to ascertain the independent association of serum C1q levels with 6-month poor outcome. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was configured for analysis of prognostic capability with respect to serum C1q levels. RESULTS: TBI patients exhibited substantially higher serum C1q levels than controls (median, 223.9 mg/l versus 75.4 mg/l). Serum C1q levels of patients were tightly correlated with GCS score (r = -0.671), Rotterdam CT classification (r = 0.604) and GOSE score (r = -0.581). An area under the ROC curve was yielded of 0.793 (95% confidence interval = 0.728-0.849), and serum C1q levels above 345.5 mg/l discriminated the risk of 6-month poor outcome with 59.6% sensitivity and 92.6% specificity. Serum C1q levels above 345.5 mg/l retained as an independent predictor for 6-month poor outcome with odds ratio of 4.922 (95% confidence interval = 1.552-15.606; P = 0.017). CONCLUSION: Elevated serum C1q levels are closely correlated with traumatic severity and independently predicted the risk of long-term poor prognosis after TBI.

Intra-horizon differentiation of the bacterial community and its co-occurrence network in a typical Plinthic horizon.

Subsurface soil bacterial community composition and the controlling factors remain largely unknown, especially the micro-zone differentiation of community composition within a horizon. We studied a plinthic horizon to determine how different micro-zones in a horizon affect the bacterial community. The plinthic horizon is a net-like horizon characterized by the segregation of iron forms as shown by contrasting red matrix and white veins, which share common macro-environmental conditions such as climate and land use but differ only in physical and chemical compositions. The studied horizon is typical of the red soils of southeastern China and is an important layer in the red soil Critical Zone. The plinthite is considered to have been formed in the Quaternary and thus is a record of the paleo-environment. We evaluated the difference in the bacterial community composition between the red matrix and white veins and explored the possible assembly mechanisms of their co-occurrence patterns. Compared to the eutrophic environments of a red matrix, higher relative abundances of Acidobacteria and Nitrospirae were observed in the white veins. Similarly, more niches led to a higher density of bacterial co-occurrence patterns in the red matrix. The differences in the bacterial community composition and association networks are due to environmental selection, including the legacy of the paleoclimate that is represented by major element contents and contemporary hydrological properties that are mainly controlled by the soil texture. Our study shows that micro-zones even within a same plinthic horizon can provide different habitats and thus select for specific bacterial communities. Furthermore, this study could improve our understanding of the differentiation of bacterial communities among microenvironments caused by both historical and contemporary processes and help to predict how these communities may respond to future environmental changes.

Optimization of supercritical phase and combined supercritical/subcritical conversion of lignocellulose for hexose production by using a flow reaction system.

A flow reaction system was utilized to investigate lignocellulose conversion using combined supercritical/subcritical conditions for hexose production. Initially, investigation of cellulose hydrolysis in supercritical water and optimization of reaction parameters were done. Oligosaccharide yields reached over 30% at cellulose concentrations of 3-5 gL(-1) and reaction times of 6-10s at 375 °C, and 2.5-4 gL(-1) and 8-10s at 380 °C. Temperatures above 380 °C were not appropriate for the supercritical phase in the combined process. Subsequently, conversion of lignocellulosic materials under combined supercritical/subcritical conditions was studied. Around 30% hexose was produced from corn stalks under the optimal parameters for supercritical (380 °C, 23-24 MPa, 9-10s) and subcritical (240 °C, 8-9 MPa, 45-50s) phases. Flow systems utilizing the combined supercritical/subcritical technology present a promising method for lignocellulosic conversion. The results of this study provide an important guide for the operational optimization and practical application of the proposed system.

Emodin potentiates the antitumor effects of gemcitabine in PANC-1 pancreatic cancer xenograft model in vivo via inhibition of inhibitors of apoptosis.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignant disease. Gemcitabine is currently the standard first-line chemotherapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer. As members of apoptosis inhibitors, Survivin and XIAP play an important role in chemotherapy resistance in pancreatic cancer. Emodin has therapeutic potential against cancers. This study was designed to investigate whether combination therapy with gemcitabine and emodin enhanced antitumor efficacy in pancreatic cancer. The application of the combination therapy triggered significantly higher frequency of pancreatic cancer cell apoptosis. Our research demonstrated that the combination of emodin and gemcitabine resulted in significantly reduced tumor volumes compared to gemcitabine or emodin treatment alone. Immunohistochemistry and western immunoblot analyses showed that Survivin and XIAP expression were downregulated in emodin and the combination groups compared to the other two groups. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses showed that Survivin and XIAP mRNA expression in emodin and the combination groups were downregulated significantly compared to the other two groups. Furthermore, the expression of the nuclear transcription factor κB (NF-κB) protein and NF-κB mRNA were downregulated in the emodin and the combination groups. DNA-binding activity of NF-κB was inhibited in emodin and combination groups compared to the other groups. This study suggests that emodin potentiates the antitumor effects of gemcitabine in PANC-1 cell xenografts via promotion of apoptosis and IAP suppression.

[Effect of spectra correction on the fluorescence characteristics of dissolved organic matter].

The Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectra of dissolved organic matter (DOM) are not only dependent on the chemical structure of DOM as well as the local chemical environment around the DOM, but also dependent on the instrument employed for the analysis. Thus, in order to get the real spectra of the DOM, spectra correction of the effect of the instrument-specific response is necessary. However, some studies corrected DOM spectra, while still some studies didn't, leading to inconformity when comparing the data and the results from different groups. The present work evaluated the effect of spectra correction on the fluorescence characteristics of DOM. The results demonstrated that DOM spectra differed significantly after correction. Fluorescence intensities showed a decrease in the range of Ex/Em = 220-450/250-500 nm, while an increase at Em < 250 nm after correction. Fluorescence intensity ratio (FI) and humification index (HIX) derived from peak picking method showed a decrease after correction, while biological index (BIX) increased slightly. P(I), n, P(II), n and P(III), n derived from FRI analysis exhibited a significant increase, while P(IV), n and P(V), n decreased. The results suggest that spectral correction should be included when analyzing the properties and trends of the DOM using EEM.