First Report of Cladosporium tenuissimum causing Postharvest rot of Elaeagnus conferta Fruit in Kunming, China.

Elaeagnus conferta Roxb. is a perennial evergreen climbing shrub and is mainly native to India, Vietnam, Malaysia, and South China (Gupta & Singh, 2021). Various parts of this plant are used to treat multiple diseases(Gupta et al., 2021). Between during the months of March and April of 2021, in Kunming city of grower fields, Yunnan Province (N 25°02'; E 102°42'), southwest China. Some postharvest E. conferta fruits showed brown spots of decay with a greyish mycelium, which symptom only appears on fruit, and did not find it on this plant. The incidence of this disease in postharvest E. conferta fruits ranges from 45 % to 65 % in natural conditions. This pathogen is harmful and causes many plant diseases. Such as rice, oriental persimmon, pear, panicles of mango, and so on (Cho & Shin, 2004; Guillén-Sánchez et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2009). The infected fruit samples surface was disinfected with 75 % ethanol and 0.3 % NaClO for 30 s and 2 min respectively, then aseptic water washing three times. The fruit tissue is rich in carbohydrates and water content, which aid the growth of fungal species. Putting these diseased tissues on a potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, cultured at 25 ± 1 ℃ for 7 days. The colonies grow on the PDA medium, then separated and puried again. Three pure cultures (YNGH01, YNGH03, YNGH05) were obtained, which were stored in 15 % glycerol at -80 ℃ refrigerator in the State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resources, Yunnan Agricultural University. After 7 days of cultivation, the colonies were round and the diameter attained up to 38 mm, the surface of the colony showed tiled, fluffy, with a velvet-like texture, greyish-green to smoke-gray, slightly raised in the middle, the edges were radial hollow and wrinkle (Fig. 1A). Conidiophores were solitary, erect, unbranched or rarely branched, slightly flexuous at the apex, septate, dark brown, 254 to 680 µm long, 3.6 to 4.5 µm wide, top of the conidiophores or the rostral were slightly swollen (Fig. 1B). Conidia were light gray or grey, solitary or bispora, irregular in shape and size (Fig. 1C), nearly circular (3.21 × 3.31 µm), oval to lemon-shaped (6.59 × 3.21 µm) or elliptical (8.35 × 4.65 µm). The CTAB method extracts 3 isolates (YNGH01, YNGH03, YNGH05) genomic DNA (Aboul-Maaty & Oraby, 2019). To confirm identity with molecular identification, performed by three different genomic DNA regions, fragments of internal transcribed spacer (ITS), partial translation elongation factor-1 alpha (TEF-1α), and actin (ACT) genomic regions. These genomic DNA were amplified with primers ITS1/4, EF1-728F/986R, and ACT-512F/783R, respectively (Carbone & Kohn, 1999). The sequences of these isolates were uploaded to GenBank (YNGH01: ON753810, ON868696, ON912090 YNGH03: ON753812, ON868698, ON912092, and YNGH05: ON753814, ON868700, ON912094). NCBI's BLASTn search of those ITS sequences showed 99.81% similar to C. tenuissimum (MG873077.1), and sequences TEF-1α and ACT were 100% identical to several isolates of C. tenuissimum (OM256526.1 and MT154171.1). Combined the ITS region, TEF-1α, and actin (ACT) genomic regions of isolates YNGH01, YNGH03 and YNGH05 to construct a phylogenetic tree with MEGA11. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses further confirmed the results (Fig. 2)(Santos et al., 2020). Healthy and mature E. conferta fruits were used for pathogenicity test. Pathogens were washed with sterilized water at a final concentration of 2× 106 spores/mL (Jo et al., 2018). The test was divided into A and B groups (A: The surface of fruits was pierced with a sterilized needle that carried pathogenic fungus of final concentration at 2×106 spores/mL B: Sprayed at the concentration of 2×106 spores/mL on fruits). The control fruits were treated with sterilized water and stored at 25 ± 1 ℃ with a relative humidity of 80 %, average group with 10 fruits in this test, which was repeated three times. After 7 days, the fruits of group A were initially sesame seed size of the disease spots, nearly round, irregular, with grayish-brown spots, and slightly depressed. Later, the lesion gradually turns dark brown (Fig. 1D). And group B began with small patches of brown fungal growth on the pericarp, with the development of the disease, the necrotic spots enlarged and developed irregular and coalesced, the color of spots became gray or black gradually (Fig. 1E). The symptoms were similar to previously observed and the pathogen was reisolated and identified as C. tenuissimum. Control fruits were healthy (Fig. 1F). The pathogens test fulfilled Koch's postulates. According to morphology (Bensch et al., 2012), rDNA-ITS, TEF-1α, and ACT sequence analysis, phylogenetic analysis, and pathogenicity test, the pathogen was identified as C. tenuissimum. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. tenuissimum occurring on E. conferta fruits in China.

Manganese removal and product characteristics of a marine manganese-oxidizing bacterium Bacillus sp. FF-1.

Biogenic manganese oxides (BioMnOx) have been found all over the world, and most of them were formed by Mn(II)-oxidizing bacteria (MnOB). In this study, a MnOB designated as FF-1 was isolated from marine surface sediments in the Bohai Sea, China. This strain was identified as Bacillus sp. and can tolerate more than 5% salinity. It can grow in the presence of 0-7 mM Mn(II) and pH range from 5.0 to 7.0. When the initial Mn(II) was 5 mM, the percentage of Mn(II) oxidation reached the highest value of 16% after 10 days of incubation. The initial pH (5.0 to 7.0) affected the percentage of Mn(II) oxidation, but the ability of the strain FF-1 to self-regulate pH resulted in the final pH being almost 7.6. The removal of Mn(II) by the strain FF-1 involves extracellular and intracellular adsorption as well as Mn(II) oxidation. Intracellular Mn adsorption contributed a small part to the total Mn removal, and extracellular adsorption was dominant in the initial stage of Mn removal. The solid products after Mn removal were a mixture of MnOx and MnCO3. The layered MnOx formed in the extracellular space could be easily collected and used for adsorption and oxidation of pollutants.

Surgery and proton pump inhibitors for treatment of vocal process granulomas.

The aim of this study was to analyze the outcomes of vocal process granulomas treated with surgery and proton pump inhibitors and to specify related factors of recurrence. The medical records of patients with diagnosis of vocal process granuloma between 2000 and 2012 were reviewed. All patients were treated with surgery and proton pump inhibitors for at least 1 month. Forty-one patients were reviewed; mean follow-up time was 45 months. There was no recurrence among the patients who had a recent history of intubation. The recurrence rates of contact granuloma was 38.7 %, and significantly related to the frequency of surgery (P = 0.042), but was not significantly associated with the history of acid reflux (P = 0.676) and vocal abuse (P = 0.447), lesion size (P = 0.203) or surgical techniques (P = 0.331). Surgery combined with proton pump inhibitors was partially effective for the vocal process granulomas, especially with intubated patients. However, repeat surgery for recurrent contact granuloma should be preceded with caution due to high recurrence rates.

Global analysis of the yeast knockout phenome.

Genome-wide phenotypic screens in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, enabled by its knockout collection, have produced the largest, richest, and most systematic phenotypic description of any organism. However, integrative analyses of this rich data source have been virtually impossible because of the lack of a central data repository and consistent metadata annotations. Here, we describe the aggregation, harmonization, and analysis of ~14,500 yeast knockout screens, which we call Yeast Phenome. Using this unique dataset, we characterized two unknown genes (YHR045W and YGL117W) and showed that tryptophan starvation is a by-product of many chemical treatments. Furthermore, we uncovered an exponential relationship between phenotypic similarity and intergenic distance, which suggests that gene positions in both yeast and human genomes are optimized for function.

A Cerberus-Inspired Anti-Infective Multicomponent Gatekeeper Hydrogel against Infections with the Emerging "Superbug" Yeast Candida auris.

The pathogenic yeast Candida auris has received increasing attention due to its ability to cause fatal infections, its resistance toward important fungicides, and its ability to persist on surfaces including medical devices in hospitals. To brace health care systems for this considerable risk, alternative therapeutic approaches such as antifungal peptides are urgently needed. In clinical wound care, a significant focus has been directed toward novel surgical (wound) dressings as first defense lines against C. auris. Inspired by Cerberus the Greek mythological "hound of Hades" that prevents the living from entering and the dead from leaving hell, the preparation of a gatekeeper hybrid hydrogel is reported featuring lectin-mediated high-affinity immobilization of C. auris cells from a collagen gel as a model substratum in combination with a release of an antifungal peptide drug to kill the trapped cells. The vision is an efficient and safe two-layer medical composite hydrogel for the treatment of severe wound infections that typically occur in hospitals. Providing this new armament to the repertoire of possibilities for wound care in critical (intensive care) units may open new routes to shield and defend patients from infections and clinical facilities from spreading and invasion of C. auris and probably other fungal pathogens.

Lipopolysaccharide preconditioning reduces neuroinflammation against hypoxic ischemia and provides long-term outcome of neuroprotection in neonatal rat.

Hypoxic ischemia (HI) in newborns causes long-term neurologic abnormalities. Systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is neuroprotective in neonatal rats when injected 24 h before HI. However, the effect on HI-induced neuroinflammation and the long-term outcome of LPS preconditioning in neonatal rats have not been examined. In a rat-pup HI model, compared with normal saline (NS), 0.3 mg/kg of LPS injected 24 h before HI greatly increased microglial cell and macrophage activation and up-regulated TNF-alpha and inducible NOS expression 12-h postinjection and resulted in high mortality during HI. In contrast, 0.05 mg/kg of LPS elicited very little microglia and macrophage activation and TNF-alpha and inducible NOS expression and resulted in low mortality. Given 24 h before HI, low-dose (0.05 mg/kg) LPS greatly reduced microglia and macrophage activation, TNF-alpha expression, and reactive oxygen species production 24-h post-HI compared with NS-treated rats. Rats in the low-dose LPS group also showed significantly better learning and memory and less brain damage in adulthood. Learning and memory performance among the LPS-HI, LPS, and NS groups was not significantly different. We conclude that low-dose LPS preconditioning in neonatal rats greatly reduces HI-induced neuroinflammation and provides long-term neuroprotection against behavioral and pathologic abnormalities.

Double eyelid operation recreating the anatomic microstructure.

Upper blepharoplasty is the most popular procedures in China and East and Southeast Asia. A variety of technical methods are used because the mechanism of the formation of double eyelid in the Asians is still controversial. Sayoc's theory that double eyelid is formed by the fusion of fibers from the levator aponeurosis and the pretarsal skin gains a majority support, but has never been proved in Asian eyelid. We carried on an anatomic study about the inferior part of the upper eyelid using both electron microscope and light microscope, and found direct evidence of the existence of this connection, which confirmed Sayoc's theory. This anatomic structure and motor system is then confirmed in clinical attempting of reapproximating them in upper blepharoplasty in thousands of Chinese patients by perfect satisfied results in terms of zero postoperative blepharoptosis rate, naturally looked appearance, and significantly shortened recovery time.

The Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD): a comparative genomics analysis tool for biologists.

Many biological databases that provide comparative genomics information and tools are now available on the internet. While certainly quite useful, to our knowledge none of the existing databases combine results from multiple comparative genomics methods with manually curated information from the literature. Here we describe the Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD, http://ortholog.princeton.edu), a user-friendly database system that allows users to find and visualize the phylogenetic relationships among predicted orthologs (based on the OrthoMCL method) to a query gene from any of eight eukaryotic organisms, and to see the orthologs in a wider evolutionary context (based on the Jaccard clustering method). In addition to the phylogenetic information, the database contains experimental results manually collected from the literature that can be compared to the computational analyses, as well as links to relevant human disease and gene information via the OMIM, model organism, and sequence databases. Our aim is for the P-POD resource to be extremely useful to typical experimental biologists wanting to learn more about the evolutionary context of their favorite genes. P-POD is based on the commonly used Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD) schema and can be downloaded in its entirety for installation on one's own system. Thus, bioinformaticians and software developers may also find P-POD useful because they can use the P-POD database infrastructure when developing their own comparative genomics resources and database tools.