Role of thrombospondin-1 in high-salt-induced mesenteric artery endothelial impairment in rats.

The matrix glycoprotein thrombospondin-1 (THBS1) modulates nitric oxide (NO) signaling in endothelial cells. A high-salt diet induces deficiencies of NO production and bioavailability, thereby leading to endothelial dysfunction. In this study we investigated the changes of THBS1 expression and its pathological role in the dysfunction of mesenteric artery endothelial cells (MAECs) induced by a high-salt diet. Wild-type rats, and wild-type and Thbs1-/- mice were fed chow containing 8% w/w NaCl for 4 weeks. We showed that a high salt diet significantly increased THBS1 expression and secretion in plasma and MAECs, and damaged endothelium-dependent vasodilation of mesenteric resistance arteries in wild-type animals, but not in Thbs1-/- mice. In rat MAECs, we demonstrated that a high salt environment (10-40 mM) dose-dependently increased THBS1 expression accompanied by suppressed endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and phospho-eNOS S1177 production as well as NO release. Blockade of transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) activity by a TGF-ß1 inhibitor SB 431542 reversed THBS1 up-regulation, rescued the eNOS decrease, enhanced phospho-eNOS S1177 expression, and inhibited Smad4 translocation to the nucleus. By conducting dual-luciferase reporter experiments in HEK293T cells, we demonstrated that Smad4, a transcription promoter, upregulated Thbs1 transcription. We conclude that THBS1 contributes to endothelial dysfunction in a high-salt environment and may be a potential target for treatment of high-salt-induced endothelium dysfunction.

Cystitis glandularis with concomitant Crohn's disease leading to a paroxysm of Crohn's disease with ulcerated external iliac vessels.

•we report the case of a 36-year-old female patient who presented to our hospital with a diagnosis of cystitis glandularis manifesting as a vesicovaginal fistula. She underwent cystoscopic biopsy at a local hospital, but anti-inflammatory treatment was ineffective, and the patient was experiencing low urination frequency and urgency, as well as pain. The patient underwent laparoscopic repair of a cystoscopy-confirmed vesicovaginal fistula. After surgery, the patient experienced a paroxysm of Crohn's disease with multiple small bowel fistulas and erosion of the external iliac vessels that ruptured to form an external iliac vessel small bowel fistula. The fistula was confirmed by surgical exploration, and the patient eventually died.

Coping strategies mediate the relationship between fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life in postoperative patients with prostate cancer: a multicentre survey.

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life in patients with prostate cancer. A model based on Lazarus' and Folkman's theory tested the specific hypothesis: fear of cancer recurrence has a direct and indirect effect on quality of life mediated by coping strategies. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 305 patients with prostate cancer who underwent radical surgery, including demographic information, FoP-Q-SF (Fear of Progression Questionnaire), MCMQ (The Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire), QLQ-C30 (Questionnaire for Quality of Life Assessment in patients with cancer, version 3.0), and a mediator model was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. RESULTS: The total FoP-Q-SF score of 305 postoperative prostate cancer patients was 34.3 ± 5.856, with approximately 41.6% of the patients scoring higher than 34. There were significant indirect effects of fear of cancer recurrence on global health status through face [a1b1; 0.0394, Boot CIs 0.0025, 0.0819] and yield [a3b3; -0.1075, Boots CIs - 0.1657, -0.0557] but not for evasive [a2b2; 0.0235; Boots CIs - 0.057, 0.0508]. CONCLUSIONS: Coping strategies are the most important mediating factors between fear of cancer recurrence and QOL among patients with prostate cancer. Our results support the proposed conceptual model, based on Lazarus' and Folkman's theory. Medical personnel need to develop corresponding intervention measures based on the different coping methods of patients, promote disease recovery, and improve postoperative quality of life.

Involvement of functional metabolism promotes the enrichment of antibiotic resistome in drinking water: Based on the PICRUSt2 functional prediction.

Biofilters are the important source and sink of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB) in the drinking water. Current studies generally ascribed the prevalence of BAR in biofilter from the perspective of gene behavior, i.e. horizontal gene transfer (HGT), little attentions have been paid on the ARGs carrier- ARB. In this study, we proposed the hypothesis that ARB participating in pollutant metabolism processes and becoming dominant is an important way for the enrichment of ARGs. To verify this, the antibiotic resistome and bacterial functional metabolic pathways of a sand filter was profiled using heterotrophic bacterial plate counting method (HPC), high-throughput qPCR, Illumina Hiseq sequencing and PICRUSt2 functional prediction. The results illustrated a significant leakage of ARB in the effluent of the sand filter with an average absolute abundance of approximately 102-103 CFU/mL. Further contribution analysis revealed that the dominant genera, such as Acinetobacter spp., Aeromonas spp., Elizabethkingia spp., and Bacillus spp., were primary ARGs hosts, conferring resistance to multiple antibiotics including sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline and ß-lactams. Notably, these ARGs hosts were involved in nitrogen metabolism, including extracellular nitrate/nitrite transport and nitrite reduction, which are crucial in nitrification and denitrification in biofilters. For example, Acinetobacter spp., the dominant bacteria in the filter (relative abundance 69.97 %), contributed the majority of ARGs and 53.79 % of nitrite reduction function. That is, ARB can predominate by participating in the nitrogen metabolism pathways, facilitating the enrichment of ARGs. These findings provide insights into the stable presence of ARGs in biofilters from a functional metabolism perspective, offering a significant supplementary to the mechanisms of the emergence, maintenance, and transmission of BARin drinking water.

Community assembly of comammox Nitrospira in coastal wetlands across southeastern China.

Complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox Nitrospira) are ubiquitous in coastal wetland sediments and play an important role in nitrification. Our study examined the impact of habitat modifications on comammox Nitrospira communities in coastal wetland sediments across tropical and subtropical regions of southeastern China. Samples were collected from 21 coastal wetlands in five provinces where native mudflats were invaded by Spartina alterniflora and subsequently converted to aquaculture ponds. The results showed that comammox Nitrospira abundances were mainly influenced by sediment grain size rather than by habitat modifications. Compared to S. alterniflora marshes and native mudflats, aquaculture pond sediments had lower comammox Nitrospira diversity, lower clade A.1 abundance, and higher clade A.2 abundance. Sulfate concentration was the most important factor controlling the diversity of comammox Nitrospira. The response of comammox Nitrospira community to habitat change varied significantly by location, and environmental variables accounted for only 11.2% of the variations in community structure across all sites. In all three habitat types, dispersal limitation largely controlled the comammox Nitrospira community assembly process, indicating the stochastic nature of these sediment communities in coastal wetlands. IMPORTANCE Comammox Nitrospira have recently gained attention for their potential role in nitrification and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in soil and sediment. However, their distribution and assembly in impacted coastal wetland are poorly understood, particularly on a large spatial scale. Our study provides novel evidence that the effects of habitat modification on comammox Nitrospira communities are dependent on the location of the wetland. We also found that the assembly of comammox Nitrospira communities in coastal wetlands was mainly governed by stochastic processes. Nevertheless, sediment grain size and sulfate concentration were identified as key variables affecting comammox Nitrospira abundance and diversity in coastal sediments. These findings are significant as they advance our understanding of the environmental adaptation of comammox Nitrospira and how future landscape modifications may impact their abundance and diversity in coastal wetlands.

Feasibility and Safety of Drug-Coated Balloon for Treatment of De Novo Coronary Artery Lesions in Large Vessel Disease: A Large-Scale Multicenter Prospective Study.

Background: Drug-coated balloons (DCB) have been evaluated to be safe and practical in treating coronary small vessel disease (SVD). However, evidence about the practicality and safety of DCB in treating coronary lesions with diameters greater than 3.0 mm is limited. Methods: 1166 patients who received DCB angioplasty were enrolled and divided into groups of SVD or large vessel disease (LVD) according to the target vessel diameters ( < 3.0 mm for SVD; ≥ 3.0 mm for LVD). All participants received a 2-year follow-up. The two main outcomes were patient-oriented composite endpoint (patient-oriented composite endpoint (POCE), all-cause mortality, all myocardial infarctions [MI], or any revascularization), and target lesion failure (target lesion failure (TLF), cardiac death, target vessel MI, or ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization). Results: In these patients, a total of 30 (2.6%) TLF and 82 (7.0%) POCE were recorded. Patients in the LVD group showed statistically greater rates of lesion success compared to the SVD group (752 [96.0%] vs. 380 [99.2%], p = 0.004) and procedural success (751 [95.9%] vs. 380 [99.2%], p = 0.003). No significant difference was found in the 2-year risk of TLF (hazard ratio (HR) 1.41, 95% CI 0.58-3.44; p = 0.455), POCE (HR 1.29, 95% CI 0.76-2.20; p = 0.354), MI (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.24-3.13; p = 0.837), revascularization (HR 1.22, 95% CI 0.68-2.21; p = 0.506), and stroke (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.03-15.26; p = 0.784) between the SVD and LVD groups. Conclusions: There was no discernible inferiority of the DCB intervention in the LVD group as compared to the SVD group. The DCB intervention is practical for coronary lesions with diameters higher than 3.0 mm.

Plant Species-Driven Distribution of Individual Clades of Comammox Nitrospira in a Subtropical Estuarine Wetland.

Plant species play a crucial role in mediating the activity and community structure of soil microbiomes through differential inputs of litter and rhizosphere exudates, but we have a poor understanding of how plant species influence comammox Nitrospira, a newly discovered ammonia oxidizer with pivotal functionality. Here, we investigate the abundance, diversity, and community structure of comammox Nitrospira underneath five plant species and a bare tidal flat at three soil depths in a subtropical estuarine wetland. Plant species played a critical role in driving the distribution of individual clades of comammox Nitrospira, explaining 59.3% of the variation of community structure. Clade A.1 was widely detected in all samples, while clades A.2.1, A.2.2, A.3 and B showed plant species-dependent distribution patterns. Compared with the native species Cyperus malaccensis, the invasion of Spartina alterniflora increased the network complexity and changed the community structure of comammox Nitrospira, while the invasive effects from Kandelia obovata and Phragmites australis were relatively weak. Soil depths significantly influenced the community structure of comammox Nitrospira, but the effect was much weaker than that from plant species. Altogether, our results highlight the previously unrecognized critical role of plant species in driving the distribution of comammox Nitrospira in a subtropical estuarine wetland.

Network meta-analysis on efficacy and safety of different biologics for ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic options for ulcerative colitis (UC) have increased since the introduction of biologics a few decades ago. Due to the wide range of biologics available, physicians have difficulty in selecting biologics and do not know how to balance the best drug between clinical efficacy and safety. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of biologics in treating ulcerative colitis. METHODS: In this study, eight electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, Sinomed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chongqing VIP Information, and WanFang Data) were searched to collect eligible studies without language restrictions. Retrieved 1 June 2023, from inception. All articles included in the mesh analysis are randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The inclusion of drugs for each outcome was ranked using a curved surface under cumulative ranking (SUCRA). Higher SUCRA scores were associated with better outcomes, whereas lower SUCRA scores were associated with better safety. This study has registered with PROSPERO, CRD42023389483. RESULTS: Induction Therapy: Among the biologic therapies evaluated for induction therapy, vedolizumab demonstrated the highest efficacy in achieving clinical remission (OR vs daclizumab, 9.09; 95% CI, 1.01-81.61; SUCRA 94.1) and clinical response. Guselkumab showed the lowest risk of recurrence of UC (SUCRA 94.9%), adverse events resulting in treatment discontinuation (SUCRA 94.8%), and serious infections (SUCRA 78.0%). Maintenance Therapy: For maintenance therapy, vedolizumab ranked highest in maintaining clinical remission (OR vs mesalazine 4.36; 95% CI, 1.65-11.49; SUCRA 89.7) and endoscopic improvement (SUCRA 92.6). Infliximab demonstrated the highest efficacy in endoscopic improvement (SUCRA 92.6%). Ustekinumab had the lowest risk of infections (SUCRA 92.9%), serious adverse events (SUCRA 91.3%), and serious infections (SUCRA 67.6%). CONCLUSION: Our network meta-analysis suggests that vedolizumab is the most effective biologic therapy for inducing and maintaining clinical remission in UC patients. Guselkumab shows promise in reducing the risk of recurrence and adverse events during induction therapy. Infliximab is effective in improving endoscopic outcomes during maintenance therapy. Ustekinumab appears to have a favorable safety profile. These findings provide valuable insights for clinicians in selecting the most appropriate biologic therapy for UC patients.

CircCHMP5 Contributes to Ox-LDL-induced Endothelial Cell Injury Through the Regulation of MiR-532-5p/ROCK2 axis.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant expression of circular RNA (circRNA) has been demonstrated to be related to atherosclerosis (AS) formation. However, the mechanism of circCHMP5 (also known as hsa_circ_0003575) in AS formation remains unclear. METHODS: Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) was used to treat human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to construct a cell injury model. The expression level of circCHMP5, miR-532-5p, and Rho-associated protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) was measured using quantitative real-time PCR. Cell cycle, apoptosis, proliferation, and angiogenesis were determined by flow cytometry, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay, and tube formation assay. In addition, the protein expression of apoptosis markers, inflammation factors, and ROCK2 was detected by western blot analysis. The interaction between miR-532-5p and circCHMP5 or ROCK2 was assessed by dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. RESULTS: Our results indicated that circCHMP5 was overexpressed in ox-LDL-induced HUVECs. CircCHMP5 knockdown promoted cell cycle, proliferation, and angiogenesis while inhibiting apoptosis and inflammation in ox-LDL-induced HUVECs. MiR-532-5p could be sponged by circCHMP5, and its inhibitor reversed the negative regulation of si-circCHMP5 on ox-LDL-induced HUVECs injury. ROCK2, a target of miR-532-5p, reversed the inhibition effect of miR-532-5p on ox-LDL-induced HUVECs injury. Furthermore, we confirmed that circCHMP5 upregulated ROCK2 by sponging miR-532-5p. CONCLUSION: To sum up, our data showed that circCHMP5 regulated the miR-532-5p/ROCK2 axis to accelerate ox-LDL-induced HUVECs injury, confirming that circCHMP5 might be a potential target for AS treatment.

Comparison of analytical sensitivity and efficiency for SARS-CoV-2 primer sets by TaqMan-based and SYBR Green-based RT-qPCR.

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to threaten public health. For developing countries where vaccines are still in shortage, cheaper alternative molecular methods for SARS-CoV-2 identification can be crucial to prevent the next wave. Therefore, 14 primer sets recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) was evaluated on testing both clinical patient and environmental samples with the gold standard diagnosis method, TaqMan-based RT-qPCR, and a cheaper alternative method, SYBR Green-based RT-qPCR. Using suitable primer sets, such as ORF1ab, 2019_nCoV_N1 and 2019_nCoV_N3, the performance of the SYBR Green approach was comparable or better than the TaqMan approach, even when considering the newly dominating or emerging variants, including Delta, Eta, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, and Omicron. ORF1ab and 2019_nCoV_N3 were the best combination for sensitive and reliable SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostics due to their high sensitivity, specificity, and broad accessibility. KEY POINTS: • With suitable primer sets, the SYBR Green method performs better than the TaqMan one. • With suitable primer sets, both methods should still detect the new variants well. • ORF1ab and 2019_nCoV_N3 were the best combination for SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Drug therapy for bone metastasis of malignant tumor: theory, progress, and potential.

Bone is a common metastatic site of malignancies, caused by the complex interaction between tumor cells and the bone microenvironment. The complicated procedure covers multiple targets for therapeutic strategies against bone metastasis. At the present, only bisphosphonates and denosumab are currently approved for the prevention of skeletal-related events. But it is still ineffective for some patients, and none of them are proven to prolong the overall survival of patients with bone metastasis. Thus, new bone-modifying agents and therapeutic strategies are required. The review aimed to generalize the basic theory of bone metastasis and major put emphasis on the development of fundamental and potential target drugs in the behavior of bone metastasis. The summary of the drug development process helps to provide ideas for finding new and effective treatments for bone metastasis.

Excessive Treadmill Training Produces different Cardiac-related MicroRNA Profiles in the Left and Right Ventricles in Mice.

High-volume training followed by inadequate recovery may cause overtraining. This process may undermine the protective effect of regular exercise on the cardiovascular system and may increase the risk of pathological cardiac remodelling. We evaluated whether chronic overtraining changes cardiac-related microRNA profiles in the left and right ventricles. C57BL/6 mice were divided into the control, normal training, and overtrained by running without inclination, uphill running or downhill running groups. After an 8-week treadmill training protocol, the incremental load test and training volume results showed that the model had been successfully established. The qRT-PCR results showed increased cardiac miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b, miR-206, miR-208b and miR-499 levels in the left ventricle of the downhill running group compared with the left ventricle of the control group. Similarly, compared with the control group, the downhill running induced increased expression of miR-21, miR-17-3p, and miR-29b in the left ventricle. Unlike the changes in the left ventricle, no difference in the expression of the tested miRNAs was observed in the right ventricle. Briefly, our results indicated that overtraining generally affects key miRNAs in the left ventricle (rather than the right ventricle) and that changes in individual miRNAs may cause either adaptive or maladaptive remodelling with overtraining.

Modified lignite and black coal reduce ammonia volatilization from cattle manure.

Modified lignite and black coal (BC) are potential amendments for animal bedding to abate ammonia (NH3) emissions due to their large adsorption capacities for ammoniacal nitrogen (N). However, the ability of modified lignite and BC in reducing NH3 volatilization from livestock manure and the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. The present study has investigated the effect of lignite, modified lignite, BC and modified BC on NH3 volatilization from cattle manure, biological immobilization of manure ammoniacal N and manure properties. Modified lignite and BC reduced the NH3 volatilization from manure by 44 and 36%, respectively, which were comparable with original lignite (43%). The biological immobilization of applied stable isotope labelled 15N in lignite, modified lignite, BC and modified BC amended manures was 15, 18, 11 and 16%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in unamended manure (4%, P < 0.001). In addition, NH4+-N concentrations of lignite, modified lignite and modified BC amended manures (7.0-7.3 mg g-1) were significantly higher than that of the unamended and original BC amended manures (3.3 and 4.8 mg g-1, respectively, P < 0.001). However, the manure pH in all treatments remained alkaline (pH > 8.2). Our results highlight that the adsorption and immobilization of manure ammoniacal N induced by amendments are the key drivers in reducing NH3 loss from manure, outweighing the pH effect. The findings of this study provide new insights into the mechanisms of coal amendments reducing NH3 loss from animal manure and their potential applications in intensive livestock systems.

Semi-solid state promotes the methane production during anaerobic co-digestion of chicken manure with corn straw comparison to wet and high-solid state.

Total solid content (TS) is an important factor for biogas production during anaerobic digestion. In this study, we explored the influence of different TS (5% wet, 15% semi-solid and 25% solid state) on the relative cumulative methane production (RCMP) during anaerobic co-digestion of chicken manure with corn straw. Results showed that total ammonium nitrogen and free ammonia nitrogen concentration increased with the increase of TS. Ammonium nitrogen in treatments at 15% TS was 2.25-2.76 times as high as that at 5% TS, which was below 3 times. The highest chemical oxygen demand removal and RCMP were obtained in the treatment of 15% TS with a ratio of 2:1 chicken manure: corn straw (based on TS). The RCMP in the treatments of 15% TS were 3.63-4.59 times higher than that of 5% TS based on the volume of substrates. The abundance of Caldicoprobacter improving the degradation of corn straw was significantly positively correlated with the RCMP, and the average abundance of Caldicoprobacter at 15% TS was 8.33 and 7.02 times higher than that at 5% and 25% TS, respectively. Structural equation models analysis suggested that TS significantly impacted the RCMP by indirectly impacting free ammonia nitrogen and microbial abundance. These findings indicated semi-solid state (15% TS) decreased ammonia nitrogen releasing and improved the abundance of Caldicoprobacter, and increased RCMP during anaerobic co-digestion of chicken manure with corn straw.

Termite mound formation reduces the abundance and diversity of soil resistomes.

Termites are pivotal ecosystem engineers in tropical and subtropical habitats, where they construct massive nests ('mounds') that substantially modify soil properties and promote nutrient cycling. Yet, little is known about the roles of termite nesting activity in regulating the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the major Global Health challenges. Here, we conducted a large-scale (> 1500 km) investigation in northern Australia and found distinct resistome profiles in termite mounds and bulk soils. By profiling a wide spectrum of ARGs, we found that the abundance and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were significantly lower in termite mounds than in bulk soils (P < 0.001). The proportion of efflux pump ARGs was significantly lower in termite mound resistome than in bulk soil resistome (P < 0.001). The differences in resistome profiles between termite mounds and bulk soils may result from the changes in microbial interactions owing to the substantial increase in pH and nutrient availability induced by termite nesting activities. These findings advance our understanding of the profile of ARGs in termite mounds, which is a crucial step to evaluate the roles of soil faunal activity in regulating soil resistome under global environmental change.

Precipitation increases the abundance of fungal plant pathogens in Eucalyptus phyllosphere.

Understanding the current and future distributions of plant pathogens is critical to predict the plant performance and related economic benefits in the changing environment. Yet, little is known about the roles of environmental drivers in shaping the profiles of fungal plant pathogens in phyllosphere, an important habitat of microbiomes on Earth. Here, using a large-scale investigation of Eucalyptus phyllospheric microbiomes in Australia and the multiple linear regression model, we show that precipitation is the most important predictor of fungal taxonomic diversity and abundance. The abundance of fungal plant pathogens in phyllosphere exhibited a positive linear relationship with precipitation. With this empirical dataset, we constructed current and future atlases of phyllosphere plant pathogens to estimate their spatial distributions under different climate change scenarios. Our atlases indicate that the abundance of fungal plant pathogens would increase especially in the coastal regions with up to 100-fold increase compared with the current abundance. These findings advance our understanding of the distributions of fungal plant pathogens in phyllospheric microbiomes under the climate change, which can improve our ability to predict and mitigate their impacts on plant productivity and economic losses.

Fertilization alters protistan consumers and parasites in crop-associated microbiomes.

Crop plants carry an enormous diversity of microbiota that provide massive benefits to hosts. Protists, as the main microbial consumers and a pivotal driver of biogeochemical cycling processes, remain largely understudied in the plant microbiome. Here, we characterized the diversity and composition of protists in sorghum leaf phyllosphere, and rhizosphere and bulk soils, collected from an 8-year field experiment with multiple fertilization regimes. Phyllosphere was an important habitat for protists, dominated by Rhizaria, Alveolata and Amoebozoa. Rhizosphere and bulk soils had a significantly higher diversity of protists than the phyllosphere, and the protistan community structure significantly differed among the three plant-soil compartments. Fertilization significantly altered specific functional groups of protistan consumers and parasites. Variation partitioning models revealed that soil properties, bacteria and fungi predicted a significant proportion of the variation in the protistan communities. Changes in protists may in turn significantly alter the compositions of bacterial and fungal communities from the top-down control in food webs. Altogether, we provide novel evidence that fertilization significantly affects the functional groups of protistan consumers and parasites in crop-associated microbiomes, which have implications for the potential changes in their ecological functions under intensive agricultural managements.

Diversity and potential biogeochemical impacts of viruses in bulk and rhizosphere soils.

Viruses can affect microbial dynamics, metabolism and biogeochemical cycles in aquatic ecosystems. However, viral diversity and functions in agricultural soils are poorly known, especially in the rhizosphere. We used virome analysis of eight rhizosphere and bulk soils to study viral diversity and potential biogeochemical impacts in an agro-ecosystem. The order Caudovirales was the predominant viral type in agricultural soils, with Siphoviridae being the most abundant family. Phylogenetic analysis of the terminase large subunit of Caudovirales identified high viral diversity and three novel groups. Viral community composition differed significantly between bulk and rhizosphere soils. Soil pH was the main environmental driver of the viral community structure. Remarkably, abundant auxiliary carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) genes were detected in viromes, including glycoside hydrolases, carbohydrate esterases and carbohydrate-binding modules. These results demonstrate that virus-encoded putative auxiliary metabolic genes or metabolic genes that may change bacterial metabolism and indirectly contribute to biogeochemical cycling, especially carbon cycling, in agricultural soil.

Termite mounds reduce soil microbial diversity by filtering rare microbial taxa.

Termites are ubiquitous insects in tropical and subtropical habitats, and some of them construct massive nests ('mounds'), which substantially promote substrate heterogeneity by altering soil properties. Yet, the role of termite nesting process in regulating the distribution and diversity of soil microbial communities remains poorly understood, which introduces uncertainty in predictions of ecosystem functions of termite mounds in a changing environment. Here, by using amplicon sequencing, we conducted a survey of 134 termite mounds across >1500 km in northern Australia and found that termite mounds significantly differed from bulk soils in the microbial diversity and community compositions. Compared with bulk soils, termite nesting process decreased the microbial diversity and the relative abundance of rare taxa. Rare taxa had a narrower habitat niche breadth than dominant taxa and might be easier to be filtered by the potential intensive microbial competition during the nesting processes. We further demonstrated that the shift in pH induced by termite nesting process was a major driver shaping the microbial community profiles in termite mounds. Together, our work provides novel evidence that termite nesting is an important process in regulating soil microbial diversity, which advances our understanding of the functioning of termite mounds.

Rare taxa maintain the stability of crop mycobiomes and ecosystem functions.

Plants harbour highly diverse mycobiomes which sustain essential functions for host health and productivity. However, ecological processes that govern the plant-mycobiome assembly, interactions and their impact on ecosystem functions remain poorly known. Here we characterized the ecological role and community assembly of both abundant and rare fungal taxa along the soil-plant continuums (rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere) in the maize-wheat/barley rotation system under different fertilization practices at two contrasting sites. Our results indicate that mycobiome assembly is shaped predominantly by compartment niche and host species rather than by environmental factors. Moreover, crop-associated fungal communities are dominated by few abundant taxa mainly belonging to Sordariomycetes and Dothideomycetes, while the majority of diversity within mycobiomes are represented by rare taxa. For plant compartments, the abundant sub-community is mainly determined by stochastic processes. In contrast, the rare sub-community is more sensitive to host selection and mainly governed by deterministic processes. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that rare taxa play an important role in fungal co-occurrence network and ecosystem functioning like crop yield and soil enzyme activities. These results significantly advance our understanding of crop mycobiome assembly and highlight the key role of rare taxa in sustaining the stability of crop mycobiomes and ecosystem functions.