Multi-omics and gut microbiome: Unveiling the pathogenic mechanisms of early-life pesticide exposure.

The extensive application of pesticides in agricultural production has raised significant concerns about its impact on human health. Different pesticides, including fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides, cause environmental pollution and health problems for non-target organisms. Infants and young children are so vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticide exposure that early-life exposure to pesticides deserves focused attention. Recent research lays emphasis on understanding the mechanism between negative health impacts and early-life exposure to various pesticides. Studies have explored the impacts of exposure to these pesticides on model organisms (zebrafish, rats, and mice), as well as the mechanism of negative health effects, based on advanced methodologies like gut microbiota and multi-omics. These methodologies help comprehend the pathogenic mechanisms associated with early-life pesticide exposure. In addition to presenting health problems stemming from early-life exposure to pesticides and their pathogenic mechanisms, this review proposes expectations for future research. These proposals include focusing on identifying biomarkers that indicate early-life pesticide exposure, investigating transgenerational effects, and seeking effective treatments for diseases arising from such exposure. This review emphasizes how to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of early-life pesticide exposure through gut microbiota and multi-omics, as well as the adverse health effects of such exposure.

Investigation of the Mechanical Behaviors and Damage Mechanism of C/C Composites Impacted by High-Velocity Jets.

Carbon/Carbon (C/C) composites exhibit excellent mechanical properties at high temperatures, making them widely used in aerospace, such as the leading edges of spaceplane wings and the nose cones of hypersonic aircraft. However, damage caused by rain erosion to C/C composites affects their mechanical properties and poses significant challenges during operational service periods. A jet impingement test platform was employed to conduct single and multiple water-jet erosion tests on three-dimensional orthogonal C/C composite materials and to investigate the residual mechanical properties of the specimens after jet impact. The damage was characterized using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray computed tomography. The results showed that the damage types of the C/C composite materials under water-jet impingement included fiber bundle fracturing, delamination, and debonding. The extent of erosion damage was positively correlated with the jet velocity and diameter. The changes in the multi-jet damage indicated a cumulative expansion process, and z-directional fiber bundles exhibited superior resistance to jet impact damage propagation. The results of the three-point bending tests showed that the greater the initial impact damage, the lower the residual mechanical properties of the materials, and the residual strength of the specimen suddenly decreased when damage occurred at the back of the specimen.

Bifidobacterium mediate gut microbiota-remedied intestinal barrier damage caused by cyproconazole in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

The widespread use of cyproconazole (CPZ) enhances food security but may pose potential risks to non-target organisms. Therefore, we applied Multi-omics techniques to reveal the response of the intestinal barrier to CPZ exposure and explore whether the Bifidobacterium intervention experiment can repair the damage. First, we found that exposure to CPZ at environmentally relevant concentrations led to intestinal injury phenotype, significantly down-regulated intestinal protein gene expression, and up-regulated pro-inflammatory gene expression, further causing intestinal dysbacteriosis and metabolic disorders. In particular, by combining analysis of gut microbiota and metabolites, we noticed acetate, a key metabolite, which decreased sharply after exposure to high concentration of CPZ. Expectedly, after supplementing with Bifidobacterium (a core bacterium that produces acetate), we noticed that the acetate content was quickly restored. Further, we also verified that the increase in acetate content after Bifidobacterium supplementation at least partially promoted IL-22 secretion, which in turn stimulated the secretion of ß-defensins (zfbd-1, zfbd-2, zfbd-3), thereby repairing the intestinal damage. In conclusion, our work confirms the potential of Bifidobacterium to improve intestinal damage and metabolic dysbiosis caused by CPZ exposure. It provides directional recommendations for the application of probiotics to repair the toxicological risk of pesticide exposure.

Intergenerational reproductive toxicity of parental exposure to prothioconazole and its metabolite on offspring and epigenetic regulation associated with DNA methylation in zebrafish.

Prothioconazole (PTC) is a widely used agricultural fungicide, and its parent and metabolite prothioconazole-desthio (dPTC) have been detected in diverse environmental media. This study was aimed at investigating the gender-dependent effects on adult zebrafish reproduction and intergenerational effects on offspring development following parental exposure to PTC and dPTC. The results showed that after the adult zebrafish (F0) was exposed to 0.5 and 10 µg/L PTC and dPTC for 21 days, the fertility and gametogenesis of female zebrafish were decreased more significantly than that of male zebrafish. After that, three fecundity tests were conducted in the exposure period to explore the development endpoints of F1 embryos/larvae without further treatment with PTC and dPTC exposure. However, PTC and dPTC exposure did lead to abnormal development of F1 embryos, including delayed hatching, shortened body length, abnormal development and significant changes in locomotor behavior. These changes were related to the abnormal expression of sex hormones and the regulation of DNA methylation in F0 fish. In a word, the results of this study showed that parental PTC and dPTC interference have sex-dependent reproductive toxicity on F0 zebrafish, which may be passed on to the next generation through epigenetic modification involving DNA methylation, resulting in alternations in growth phenotype of offspring.

[Dynamic monitoring and evaluation of ecological environment quality in Zhouqu County, Gansu, China based on Google Earth Engine cloud platform]. / 基于Google Earth Engine云平台的甘肃舟曲县生态环境质量动态监测与评价.

Zhouqu County is located in the transition region from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Qinba Mountains, and is an important part of the ecological barrier in the upper stream of the Yangtze River. In this study, we used the Google Earth Engine cloud processing platform to perform inter-image optimal reconstruction of Landsat surface reflectance images from 1998-2019. We calculated four indicators of regional wet, green, dry, and hot. The component indicators were coupled by principal component analysis to construct remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of ecological environment quality in Zhouqu County. The results showed that the contribution of the four component indicators to the eigenvalues of the coupled RSEI were above 70%, with even distribution of the loadings, indicating that the RSEI integrated most of the features of the component indicators. From 1998 to 2019, the RSEI of Zhouqu County ranged from 0.55 to 0.63, showing an increasing trend with a growth rate of 0.04·(10 a)-1, and the area of better grade increased by 425.56 km2. The area with altitude ≤2200 m was dominated by medium and lower ecological environment quality grade, while the area of better ecological environment quality grade area increased by 16.5%. The ecological and environmental quality of the region from 2200 to 3300 m was dominated by good grades, increasing to 71.3% in 2019, with the area of medium and below ecological and environmental quality grades decreasing year by year. The area with altitude ≥3300 m was dominated by the medium ecological quality grade. The medium and below ecological quality grades showed a "U" shape trend during the study period. The trend of ecological environment quality in Zhouqu County was becoming better, but with fluctuations. It is necessary to continuously strengthen the protection and management of ecological environment in order to guarantee the continuous improvement of ecological environment quality.