Exploring Aeromonas dhakensis in Aldabra giant tortoises: a debut report and genetic characterization.

Aeromonas dhakensis (A. dhakensis) is becoming an emerging pathogen worldwide, with an increasingly significant role in animals and human health. It is a ubiquitous bacteria found in terrestrial and aquatic milieus. However, there have been few reports of reptile infections. In this study, a bacterial strain isolated from a dead Aldabra giant tortoise was identified as A. dhakensis HN-1 through clinical observation, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS), and gene sequencing analysis. Subsequently, to evaluate its pathogenicity, the detection of virulence genes and mice infection experiments were performed. A. dhakensis HN-1 was found to contain seven virulence genes, including alt, ela, lip, act, aerA, fla, and hlyA. Mice infected with A. dhakensis HN-1 exhibited hemorrhage of varying degrees in multiple organs. The half-maximal lethal dose (LD50) value of A. dhakensis HN-1 for mice was estimated to be 2.05 × 107 colony forming units (CFU)/mL. The antimicrobial susceptibility test revealed that A. dhakensis HN-1 was resistant to amoxicillin, penicillin, ampicillin and erythromycin. This is the first report of A. dhakensis in Aldabra giant tortoises, expanding the currently known host spectrum. Our findings emphasize the need for One Health surveillance and extensive research to reduce the spread of A. dhakensis across the environment, humans, and animals.

ELOVL gene family plays a virtual role in response to breeding selection and lipid deposition in different tissues in chicken (Gallus gallus).

BACKGROUND: Elongases of very long chain fatty acids (ELOVLs), a family of first rate-limiting enzymes in the synthesis of long-chain fatty acids, play an essential role in the biosynthesis of complex lipids. Disrupting any of ELOVLs affects normal growth and development in mammals. Genetic variations in ELOVLs are associated with backfat or intramuscular fatty acid composition in livestock. However, the effects of ELOVL gene family on breeding selection and lipid deposition in different tissues are still unknown in chickens. RESULTS: Genetic variation patterns and genetic associations analysis showed that the genetic variations of ELOVL genes were contributed to breeding selection of commercial varieties in chicken, and 14 SNPs in ELOVL2-6 were associated with body weight, carcass or fat deposition traits. Especially, one SNP rs17631638T > C in the promoter of ELOVL3 was associated with intramuscular fat content (IMF), and its allele frequency was significantly higher in native and layer breeds compared to that in commercial broiler breeds. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) determined that the ELOVL3 expressions in pectoralis were affected by the genotypes of rs17631638T > C. In addition, the transcription levels of ELOVL genes except ELOVL5 were regulated by estrogen in chicken liver and hypothalamus with different regulatory pathways. The expression levels of ELOVL1-6 in hypothalamus, liver, abdominal fat and pectoralis were correlated with abdominal fat weight, abdominal fat percentage, liver lipid content and IMF. Noteworthily, expression of ELOVL3 in pectoralis was highly positively correlated with IMF and glycerophospholipid molecules, including phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidyl glycerol and phospholipids inositol, rich in ω-3 and ω-6 long-chain unsaturated fatty acids, suggesting ELOVL3 could contribute to intramuscular fat deposition by increasing the proportion of long-chain unsaturated glycerophospholipid molecules in pectoralis. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we demonstrated the genetic contribution of ELOVL gene family to breeding selection for specialized varieties, and revealed the expression regulation of ELOVL genes and their potential roles in regulating lipid deposition in different tissues. This study provides new insights into understanding the functions of ELOVL family on avian growth and lipid deposition in different tissues and the genetic variation in ELOVL3 may aid the marker-assisted selection of meat quality in chicken.

Genetic effect of an InDel in the promoter region of the NUDT15 and its effect on myoblast proliferation in chickens.

BACKGROUND: Molecular breeding accelerates the speed of animal breeding. Screening molecular markers that can affect economic traits through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding. At present, a large number of molecular markers have been screened in poultry research, but few reports on how molecular markers affect economic traits exist. It is particularly important to reveal the action mechanisms of molecular markers, which can provide more accurate information for molecular breeding. RESULTS: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between two indels (NUDT15-indel-2777 and NUDT15-indel-1673) in the promoter region of NUDT15 and growth and carcass traits in chickens and to explore the regulatory mechanism of NUDT15. Significant differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies among commercial broilers, commercial laying hens and dual-purpose chickens. The results of association analyses showed that these two indel loci could significantly affect growth traits, such as body weight, and carcass traits. Tissue expression profiling at E12 showed that the expression of NUDT15 was significantly higher in skeletal muscle, and time-expression profiling of leg muscle showed that the expression of NUDT15 in myoblasts was significantly higher in the E10 and E12 proliferation stages than in other stages. Promoter activity analysis showed that pro-1673-I and pro-1673-D significantly inhibited promoter activity, and the promoter activity of pro-1673-D was significantly lower than that of pro-1673-I. In addition, when NUDT15 was overexpressed or underwent interference in chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs), NUDT15 could inhibit the proliferation of CPMs. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the studied indels in the promoter region of NUDT15 may regulate the proliferation of CPMs by affecting NUDT15 expression, ultimately affecting the growth and carcass traits of chickens. These indel polymorphisms may be used together as molecular markers for improving economic traits in chickens.

Genome-wide identification evolution and expression of vestigial-like gene family in chicken.

Vestigial-like (Vgll) genes are widespread in vertebrates and play an important role in muscle development. In this study, we used bioinformatics methods to systematically identify the chicken VGLL family in the whole genome and investigated its evolutionary history and gene structure features. Tissue expression spectra combined with real-time PCR data were used to analyze the organizational expression pattern of the genes. Based on the maximum likelihood method, a phylogenetic tree of the VGLL family was constructed, and 94 VGLL genes were identified in 24 breeds, among which four VGLL family genes were identified in the chicken genome. Ten motifs were detected in the VGLL genes, and the analysis of introns combined with gene structure revealed that the family was conserved during evolution. Tissue expression analysis suggested that the expression profiles of the VGLL family genes in 16 tissues differed between LU Shi and AA broilers. In addition, a single gene (VGLL2) showed increased expression in chickens at embryonic days 10-16 and was involved in the growth and development of skeletal muscle in chickens in the embryonic stage. In summary, VGLL genes are involved in chicken muscle growth and development, which provides useful information for subsequent functional studies of VGLL genes.

[Physical fingerprint for quality control of Reduning injection].

The method of physical fingerprint spectrum for Reduning injection (RI) was proposed in this paper to improve its quality standards based on the strong correlation between physicochemical properties of drugs, their safety, effectiveness and stability. The quality of RI was studied by the thought and method of physical chemistry. The physical fingerprint spectrum was visually showed by the radar map, and consisted of eight indexes (pH, conductivity, turbidity, refractive index, osmolarity, surface tension, relative density, and kinematic viscosity). Then 12 batch of samples were verified. It was found that the physical fingerprint spectra of 3 batches of RI were in line with the standards within their validity time, with similarity above 0.999; in addition for the expired 9 batches of RI, their physical fingerprint spectra did not meet the standards. The results showed that physical fingerprint spectrum can be used for the quality control of RI, with a certain exemplary role in the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine injection.

Evaluating anti-viral effect of Ivermectin on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and analyzing the related genes and signaling pathway by RNA-seq in vitro.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has catastrophic impacts on the global pig industry. However, there remains no effective drugs for PEDV infection. Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anthelmintic drug used to treat worm infections. In this study, we reported the broad-spectrum antiviral activity of Ivermectin in vitro. Ivermectin can inhibit PEDV infections of different genotypes. Avermectin derivatives can also inhibit PEDV infections. A time of addition assay showed that Ivermectin exhibited potent anti-PEDV activity when added simultaneously with or post virus infection. Furthermore, Ivermectin significantly inhibited the late stage of viral infection by affecting viral release. RNA sequencing indicates Ivermectin induces cell cycle arrest, which may be related to its ability to inhibit viral release. Interestingly, when combined with Niclosamide, Ivermectin demonstrated an enhanced anti-PEDV effect. These findings highlight Ivermectin as a novel antiviral agent with potential for the development of drugs against PEDV infection.

Integrated LC/MS-based lipidomics and transcriptomics analyses revealed lipid composition heterogeneity between pectoralis intramuscular fat and abdominal fat and its regulatory mechanism in chicken.

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is conducive to multiple meat quality properties, while abdominal fat (AF) is treated as waste product in chicken industry. However, the heterogeneity and distinct regulatory mechanisms of lipid composition between the IMF and AF are still unclear. In this study, we carried out non-targeted lipidomics analyses of pectoralis IMF and AF, and detected a total of 423 differential lipid molecules (DLMs) between chicken IMF and AF, including 307 up-regulated and 116 down-regulated DLMs in pectoral IMF. These DLMs exhibited the definite alteration of lipid composition. The up-reglated DLMs in IMF were mainly glycerophospholipids (GPs), including the bulk of phosphatidylcholines (PC, PC (P) and PC (O)), phosphatidylethanolamines (PE, PE (P) and PE (O)), phosphatidylglycerols (PG) and phosphatidylinositol (PI), while the up-reglated DLMs in AF were mainly glycerolipids (GLs), including most of triacylglycerols (TG) and diacylglycerols (DG). We further identified 28 main DLMs contributing to the heterogeneous deposition of IMF and AF, including 11 TGs common to IMF and AF, 12 PCs/PC (P)s specific to IMF and 5 DGs specific to AF. Further integration of transcriptome with the main DLMs by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we found five key gene sets that included 386 unique genes promoting IMF deposition in pectoralis, 213 unique genes promoting AF deposition, 6 unique genes detrimental to AF deposition, 7 common genes that promote IMF deposition in pectoralis while adversely affect AF deposition, and 28 genes that only promoted IMF deposition in pectoralis but had no effect on AF deposition. In addition, we also observed the expression characteristics of key genes in vivo and in vitro, and found that transmembrane protein family gene TMEM164 might be mainly involved in the positive regulation of intramuscular fat deposition in pectoralis and zinc finger protein family gene ZNF488 had a potential unique positive regulatory function on abdominal fat deposition. These findings provide new perspectives for understanding IMF and AF heterodeposition and will serve as a valuable information resource for improving meat quality via breeding selection in chicken.

Identification of niclosamide as a novel antiviral agent against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus infection by targeting viral internalization.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), an enteropathogenic coronavirus, has catastrophic impacts on the global pig industry. However, there remain no effective drugs against PEDV infection. In this study, we utilized a recombinant PEDV expressing renilla luciferase (PEDV-Rluc) to screen potential anti-PEDV agents from an FDA-approved drug library in Vero cells. Four compounds were identified that significantly decreased luciferase activity of PEDV-Rluc. Among them, niclosamide was further characterized because it exhibited the most potent antiviral activity with the highest selectivity index. It can efficiently inhibit viral RNA synthesis, protein expression and viral progeny production of classical and variant PEDV strains in a dose-dependent manner. Time of addition assay showed that niclosamide exhibited potent anti-PEDV activity when added simultaneously with or after virus infection. Furthermore, niclosamide significantly inhibited the entry stage of PEDV infection by affecting viral internalization rather than viral attachment to cells. In addition, a combination with other small molecule inhibitors of endosomal acidification enhanced the anti-PEDV effect of niclosamide in vitro. Taken together, these findings suggested that niclosamide is a novel antiviral agent that might provide a basis for the development of novel drug therapies against PEDV and other related pathogenic coronavirus infections.

Characterization of RNA G-quadruplexes in porcine epidemic diarrhea virus genome and the antiviral activity of G-quadruplex ligands.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), an enteropathogenic coronavirus, has catastrophic impacts on the global pig industry. However, there are still no anti-PEDV drugs with accurate targets. G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non-canonical secondary structures formed within guanine-rich regions of DNA or RNA, and have attracted great attention as potential targets for antiviral strategy. In this study, we reported two putative G4-forming sequences (PQS) in S and Nsp5 genes of PEDV genome based on bioinformatic analysis, and identified that S-PQS and Nsp5-PQS were enabled to fold into G4 structure by using circular dichroism spectroscopy and fluorescence turn-on assay. Furthermore, we verified that both S-PQS and Nsp5-PQS PQS could form G4 structure in live cells by immunofluorescence microscopy. In addition, G4-specific compounds, such as TMPyP4 and PDS, could significantly inhibit transcription, translation and proliferation of PEDV in vitro. Importantly, these compounds exert antiviral activity at the post-entry step of PEDV infection cycle, by inhibiting viral genome replication and protein expression. Lastly, we demonstrated that TMPyP4 can inhibit reporter gene expression by targeting G4 structure in Nsp5. Taken together, these findings not only reinforce the presence of viral G-quadruplex sequences in PEDV genome but also provide new insights into developing novel antiviral drugs targeting PEDV RNA G-quadruplexes.

Molecular Characterization, Expression Profile, and A 21-bp Indel within the ASB9 Gene and Its Associations with Chicken Production Traits.

A growing number of studies have shown that members of the ankyrin repeat and suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) box-containing protein (ASB) family are extensively involved in biological processes such as cell growth, tissue development, insulin signaling, ubiquitination, protein degradation, and skeletal muscle membrane protein formation, while the specific biological role of ankyrin-repeat and SOCS box protein 9 (ASB9) remains unclear. In this study, a 21 bp indel in the intron of ASB9 was identified for the first time in 2641 individuals from 11 different breeds and an F2 resource population, and differences were observed among individuals with different genotypes (II, ID, and DD). An association study of a cross-designed F2 resource population revealed that the 21-bp indel was significantly related to growth and carcass traits. The significantly associated growth traits were body weight (BW) at 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks of age; sternal length (SL) at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of age; body slope length (BSL) at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of age; shank girth (SG) at 4 and 12 weeks of age; tibia length (TL) at 12 weeks of age; and pelvic width (PW) at 4 weeks of age (p < 0.05). This indel was also significantly correlated with carcass traits including semievisceration weight (SEW), evisceration weight (EW), claw weight (CLW), breast muscle weight (BMW), leg weight (LeW), leg muscle weight (LMW), claw rate (CLR), and shedding weight (ShW) (p < 0.05). In commercial broilers, the II genotype was the dominant genotype and underwent extensive selection. Interestingly, the ASB9 gene was expressed at significantly higher levels in the leg muscles of Arbor Acres broilers than those of Lushi chickens, while the opposite was true for the breast muscles. In summary, the 21-bp indel in the ASB9 gene significantly influenced the expression of the ASB9 gene in muscle tissue and was associated with multiple growth and carcass traits in the F2 resource population. These findings suggested that the 21-bp indel within the ASB9 gene could be used in marker-assisted selection breeding for traits related to chicken growth.

Metagenomic Analysis of Gut Microbiome in Gout Patients with Different Chinese Traditional Medicine Treatments.

Introduction: Changes in eating habits have made gout a metabolic disease of increasing concern. Previous studies have indicated that there are significant differences in species composition and abundance of gut microbiome in gout patients compared with average. Considering that traditional Chinese medicine has a momentous effect in treating gout, the research study aimed to explore the differences of genomic and metabolomics of gut microbiome before and after traditional Chinese medicine treatment in patients with gout. Method: 30 patients with gout and 29 matched controls were recruited of which 16 patients took H treatment and 14 patients took T treatment. Stools were collected twice for patients before and after treatment and only once for controls. A total of 89 samples were annotated with metagenomic species and functions, and the enrichment analysis of differential genes and KO pathway was carried out. Result: The results showed a decrease in the diversity of gut microbiome in gout patients and the gene abundance and metabolomics had great differences among study groups. The number of bacterial genera also had significant differences among treatment groups. Moreover, among different groups, the regulation of different species was variously correlated. The correlation between species and clinical laboratory indicators in the rising group was stronger than that in the decreasing group and the upregulation of some strain was related to the content of urea nitrogen. Conclusion: After the traditional Chinese medicine treatment, the glutathione pathway was significantly enriched and some pathogenic bacteria were significantly inhibited. The study suggests that traditional Chinese medicine treatment may exert its therapeutic effect by inhibiting relevant pathways.

Dynamic Alteration of the Gut Microbiota Associated with Obesity and Intestinal Inflammation in Ovariectomy C57BL/6 Mice.

OBJECTIVE: Estrogen is a critical hormone that is mainly produced by the ovary in females. Estrogen deficiency leads to various syndromes and diseases, partly due to gut microbiota alterations. Previous studies have shown that estrogen deficiency affects the gut microbiota at 6-8 weeks after ovariectomy, but the immediate effect of estrogen deficiency on the gut microbiota remains poorly understood. METHODS: To investigate the short time and dynamic effects of decreased estrogen levels on the gut microbiota and their potential impact on estrogen deficiency-related diseases, we performed metagenomic sequencing of 260 fecal samples from 50 ovariectomy (OVX) and 15 control C57BL/6 female mice at four time points after surgery. RESULTS: We found that seven gut microbiota species, including E. coli, Parabacteroides unclassified, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 8_1_57FAA, Bacteroides uniformis, Veillonella unclassified, Bacteroides xylanisolvens, and Firmicutes bacterium M10_2, were abundant in OVX mice. The abundance of these species increased with time after OVX surgery. The relative abundance of the opportunistic pathogen E. coli and the Crohn's disease-related Veillonella spp. was significantly correlated with mouse weight gain in the OVX group. Butyrate production and the Entner-Doudoroff pathway were significantly enriched in the control mouse group, while the degradation of glutamic acid and aspartic acid was enriched in the OVX mouse group. As the time after OVX surgery increased, the bacterial species and metabolic pathways significantly changed and tended to suggest an inflammatory environment, indicating a subhealthy state of the gut microbiota in the OVX mouse group. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results show that the dynamic gut microbiota profile alteration caused by estrogen deficiency is related to obesity and inflammation, which may lead to immune and metabolic disorders. This study provides new clues for the treatment of estrogen deficiency-related diseases.

A 104-bp Structural Variation of the ADPRHL1 Gene Is Associated With Growth Traits in Chickens.

Analyzing marker-assisted breeding is an important method utilized in modern molecular breeding. Recent studies have determined that a large number of molecular markers appear to explain the impact of "lost heritability" on human height. Therefore, it is necessary to locate molecular marker sites in poultry and investigate the possible molecular mechanisms governing their effects. In this study, we found a 104-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in the 5'UTR of the ADPRHL1 gene through resequencing. In cross-designed F2 resource groups, the indel was significantly associated with weight at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks and a number of other traits [carcass weight (CW), semi-evisceration weight (SEW), evisceration weight (EW), claw weight (CLW), wings weight (DWW), gizzard weight (GW), pancreas weight (PW), chest muscle weight (CMW), leg weight (LW), leg muscle weight (LMW), shedding Weight (SW), liver rate (LR), and leg muscle rate (LMR)] (P < 0.05). In brief, the insertion-insertion (II) genotype was significantly associated with the greatest growth traits and meat quality traits, whereas the values associated with the insertion-deletion (ID) genotype were the lowest in the F2 reciprocal cross chickens. The mutation sites were genotyped in 4,526 individuals from 12 different chicken breeds and cross-designed F2 resource groups. The II genotype is the most important genotype in commercial broilers, and the I allele frequency observed in these breeds is relatively high. Deletion mutations tend to be fixed in commercial broilers. However, there is still considerable great potential for breeding in dual-purpose chickens and commercial laying hens. A luciferase reporter assay showed that the II genotype of the ADPRHL1 gene possessed 2.49-fold higher promoter activity than the DD genotype (P < 0.05). We hypothesized that this indel might affect the transcriptional activity of ADPRHL1, thereby affecting the growth traits of chickens. These findings may help to elucidate the function of the ADPRHL1 gene and facilitate enhanced reproduction in the chicken industry.

High-Fat Diet Alters the Intestinal Microbiota in Streptozotocin-Induced Type 2 Diabetic Mice.

Intestinal microbiota is closely associated with various metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), and microbiota is definitely affected by diet. However, more work is required to gain detailed information about gut metagenome and their associated impact with diet in T2D patients. We used a streptozotocin-high-fat diet (HFD) to induce a T2D mouse model and investigated the effect of standard chow diet and HFD on the composition and function of gut microbiota. We found that a HFD could worsen the diabetes status compared with a standard diet. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that a HFD caused a large disturbance to the microbial structure and was linked to an increased ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. A HFD increased the bacteria of the Ruminococcaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae family and decreased the bacteria of S24-7 and Rikenellaceae. Meanwhile, a HFD decreased the abundance of Parabacteroides distasonis and Eubacterium dolichum, both of which have previously been reported to alleviate obesity and metabolic dysfunctions. Moreover, PICRUSt-predicted KEGG pathways related to membrane transport, lipid metabolism, and xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism were significantly elevated in HFD-fed T2D mice. Our results provide insights into dietary and nutritional approaches for improving host metabolism and ameliorating T2D.

Compositional and functional features of the female premenopausal and postmenopausal gut microbiota.

Endogenous estrogen deficiency accelerates many diseases in postmenopausal women, and gut microbes contribute to estrogen level modulation. However, the compositional alterations and influences of the gut microbiota in postmenopausal women remain uncertain. A metagenome-wide association study was performed to compare the gut microbiota of 24 premenopausal and 24 postmenopausal women. Firmicutes and Roseburia spp. are depleted, while Bacteroidetes and the toluene-producing genus Tolumonas are overrepresented in fecal samples from postmenopausal women. The pentose phosphate pathway is enriched in premenopausal women. Homocysteine synthesis-related processes are enriched in postmenopausal women. The gut microbiomes of premenopausal and postmenopausal women differ and produce different metabolites. The gut microbiome may be a therapeutic target to reduce risks and improve the quality of life in postmenopausal women.

Characterization a Novel Butyric Acid-Producing Bacterium Collinsella aerofaciens Subsp. Shenzhenensis Subsp. Nov.

Butyrate-producing bacteria can biosynthesize butyrate and alleviate inflammatory diseases. However, few studies have reported that the genus Collinsella has the ability to produce butyric acid. Here, our study depicts a Collinsella strain, which is a rod-shaped obligate anaerobe that is able to produce butyric acid. This microorganism was isolated from a human gut, and the optimal growth conditions were found to be 37 °C on PYG medium with pH 6.5. The 16S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that this microorganism shared 99.93% similarity with C. aerofaciens ATCC 25986T, which was higher than the threshold (98.65%) for differentiating two species. Digital DNA⁻DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values also supported that this microorganism belonged to the species C. aerofaciens. Distinct phenotypic characteristics between TF06-26 and the type strain of C. aerofaciens, such as the fermentation of D-lactose, D-fructose and D-maltose, positive growth under pH 5 and 0.2% (w/v) cholate, suggested this strain was a novel subspecies. Comparative genome analysis revealed that butyric acid kinase and phosphate butyryltransferase enzymes were coded exclusively by this strain, indicating a specific butyric acid-producing function of this C. aerofaciens subspecies within the genus Collinsella. Thus, Collinsella aerofaciens subsp. shenzhenensis subsp. nov. was proposed, with set strain TF06-26T (=CGMCC 1.5216T = DSM 105138T) as the type strain.

1,520 reference genomes from cultivated human gut bacteria enable functional microbiome analyses.

Reference genomes are essential for metagenomic analyses and functional characterization of the human gut microbiota. We present the Culturable Genome Reference (CGR), a collection of 1,520 nonredundant, high-quality draft genomes generated from >6,000 bacteria cultivated from fecal samples of healthy humans. Of the 1,520 genomes, which were chosen to cover all major bacterial phyla and genera in the human gut, 264 are not represented in existing reference genome catalogs. We show that this increase in the number of reference bacterial genomes improves the rate of mapping metagenomic sequencing reads from 50% to >70%, enabling higher-resolution descriptions of the human gut microbiome. We use the CGR genomes to annotate functions of 338 bacterial species, showing the utility of this resource for functional studies. We also carry out a pan-genome analysis of 38 important human gut species, which reveals the diversity and specificity of functional enrichment between their core and dispensable genomes.

ß-Galactosidase BMG without galactose and glucose inhibition: Secretory expression in Bacillus subtilis and for synthesis of oligosaccharide.

ß-Galactosidases can catalyze the hydrolysis of lactose and the synthesis of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) from lactose. The catalytic activity of ß-galactosidases is usually inhibited by galactose and glucose, which hampers the complete hydrolysis of lactose in food products. In this report, a ß-galactosidase (denoted as BMG) from Bacillus megaterium YZ08 without the inhibition by galactose and glucose is the first to our knowledge reported. Efficient secretory expression of BMG was successfully achieved in Bacillus subtilis WB800. With the increasing of galactose and glucose, the activity of BMG dramatically enhanced. With addition of 0.6 M galactose or 1 M glucose, the initial activity to oNPG hydrolysis was increased by 2.1-fold and 4.3-fold, respectively. Moreover, the synthetic rate of galacto-oligosaccharides was enhanced by 1.1-fold and 1.9-fold with the addition of 0.7 M galactose or glucose, respectively. The GOS (278 g/L) from 600 g/L lactose by BMG were efficiently produced within 12 h, and the substrate lactose was completely used up. These results suggest that BMG shows a potential application in the food industry.

Bubble-Sheet-Like Interface Design with an Ultrastable Solid Electrolyte Layer for High-Performance Dual-Ion Batteries.

In this work, a bubble-sheet-like hollow interface design on Al foil anode to improve the cycling stability and rate performance of aluminum anode based dual-ion battery is reported, in which, a carbon-coated hollow aluminum anode is used as both anode materials and current collector. This anode structure can guide the alloying position inside the hollow nanospheres, and also confine the alloy sizes within the hollow nanospheres, resulting in significantly restricted volumetric expansion and ultrastable solid electrolyte interface (SEI). As a result, the battery demonstrates an excellent long-term cycling stability within 1500 cycles with ≈99% capacity retention at 2 C. Moreover, this cell displays an energy density of 169 Wh kg-1 even at high power density of 2113 W kg-1 (10 C, charge and discharge within 6 min), which is much higher than most of conventional lithium ion batteries. The interfacial engineering strategy shown in this work to stabilize SEI layer and control the alloy forming position could be generalized to promote the research development of metal anodes based battery systems.

Enhancing the colloidal stability of detonation synthesized diamond particles in aqueous solutions by adsorbing organic mono-, bi- and tridentate molecules.

Colloidal stability of nanoparticles with particle sizes smaller than 100nm is a critical issue for various research areas, including material science, electronics and biomedicine. We propose a facile, fast and cost-efficient method to increase the colloidal stability by simply adding organic molecules as ligands, which adsorb to the nanoparticle surface subsequently. Citric acid, oxalic acid, glutamic acid and propylamine were found to stabilize the nanodiamond (ND) particles with a mean diameter of approx. 30-100nm. The charge of the particles could be controlled by the pH of the dispersions and by stabilizing with carboxylic acids or amino acids mentioned above. ND particles stabilized with citric acid and oxalic acid at a pH higher than 2.5 were negatively charged, while ND dispersions stabilized with glutamic acid were charged positively below a pH of 3.2. Furthermore, the stability of the dispersion was found to be dependent on the concentration of the stabilizing agent and the pH of the dispersion. Finally, we proposed the stabilizing mechanism of ND particles with propylamine. Glutamic acid and propylamine stabilized ND dispersions can be utilized for high seeding densities on negatively charged surfaces due to the amino-groups, which can be helpful for adsorption processes in electronics and material science. Due to the high biocompatibility, non-cytotoxicity and chemical inertness of ND particles, carboxylic acids and amino acids stabilized ND particles are envisaged to be useful in the biomedical field, i.e. bio-labels, drug delivery vehicles, and effective enterosorbent.