A Catalog of over 5,000 Metagenome-Assembled Microbial Genomes from the Caprinae Gut Microbiota

Most microbiome studies regarding the ruminant digestive tract have focused on the rumen microbiota, whereas only a few studies were performed on investigating the gut microbiota of ruminants, which limits our understanding of this important component. Herein, the gut microbiota of 30 Caprinae animals (sheep and goats) from six provinces in China was characterized using ultradeep (>100 Gbp per sample) metagenome shotgun sequencing. An inventory of Caprinae gut microbial species containing 5,046 metagenomic assembly genomes (MAGs) was constructed. Particularly, 2,530 of the genomes belonged to uncultured candidate species. These genomes largely expanded the genomic repository of the current microbes in the Caprinae gut. Several enzymes and biosynthetic gene clusters encoded by these Caprinae gut species were identified. In summary, our study extends the gut microbiota characteristics of Caprinae and provides a basis for future studies on animal production and animal health. IMPORTANCE We constructed a microbiota catalog containing 5,046 MAGs from Caprinae gut from six regions of China. Most of the MAGs do not overlap known databases and appear to be potentially new species. We also characterized the functional spectrum of these MAGs and analyzed the differences between different regions. Our study enriches the understanding of taxonomic, functional, and metabolic diversity of Caprinae gut microbiota. We are confident that the manuscript will be of utmost interest to a wide range of readers and be widely applied in future research.

Deep metagenomic characterization of gut microbial community and function in preeclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy complication characterized by severe hypertension and multiple organ damage. Gut microbiota has been linked to PE by previous amplicon sequencing studies. To resolve the PE gut microbiota in a higher taxonomy resolution, we performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing on the fecal samples from 40 early-onset PE and 37 healthy pregnant women. We recovered 1,750 metagenome-assembled genomes (representing 406 species) from the metagenomic dataset and profiled their abundances. We found that PE gut microbiota had enriched in some species belonging to Blautia, Pauljensenia, Ruminococcus, and Collinsella and microbial functions such as the bacitracin/lantibiotics transport system, maltooligosaccharide transport system, multidrug efflux pump, and rhamnose transport system. Conversely, the gut microbiome of healthy pregnant women was enriched in species of Bacteroides and Phocaeicola and microbial functions including the porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism, pyridoxal-P biosynthesis, riboflavin metabolism, and folate biosynthesis pathway. PE diagnostic potential of gut microbial biomarkers was developed using both species and function profile data. These results will help to explore the relationships between gut bacteria and PE and provide new insights into PE early warning.

Comparison of the gut microbiota of short-term and long-term medical workers and non-medical controls: a cross-sectional analysis

OBJECTIVES

The hospital environment has been implicated in the enrichment and exchange of pathogens and antibiotic resistance, but its potential in shaping the symbiotic microbial community of hospital staff is unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the alteration of the gut microbiome in medical workers compared to non-medical controls.

METHODS

A prospective cross-sectional cohort study was conducted in the intensive care unit (ICU) and other departments of a centre in north-eastern China. Faecal samples of 175 healthy medical workers-short-term (1-3 months) workers (n = 80) and long-term (>1 year) workers (n = 95)-and 80 healthy non-medical controls were analysed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The hospital environmental samples (n = 9) were also analysed.

RESULTS

The gut microbiomes of medical workers exhibited marked deviations in diversity and alteration in microbial composition and function. Short-term workers showed significantly higher abundances of taxa such as Lactobacillus, Butyrivibrio, Clostridiaceae, Clostridium, Ruminococcus, Dialister, Bifidobacterium, Odoribacter, and Desulfovibrio and lower abundances of Bacteroides and Blautia than the controls. Long-term workers showed higher abundances of taxa such as Dialister, Veillonella, Clostridiaceae, Clostridium, Bilophila, Desulfovibrio, Pseudomonas, and Akkermansia and lower abundances of Bacteroides and Coprococcus than the controls. The medical workers' department (ICU versus non-ICU) and position (resident doctor versus nursing staff) also impacted their gut microbiome. Compared with the non-ICU workers, workers in the ICU showed a significant increase in the abundances of Dialister, Enterobacteriaceae, Phascolarctobacterium, Pseudomonas, Veillonella, and Streptococcus and a marked depletion of Faecalibacterium, Blautia, and Coprococcus. In contrast with the nursing staff, the resident doctors showed a significant increase in Erysipelotrichaceae and Clostridium and a decrease in Bacteroides, Blautia, and Ruminococcus in the gut microbiome. Moreover, we found that the microbiota of hospital environments potentially correlated with the workers' gut microbiota.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated structural changes in the gut microbial community of medical workers.

Impact of individual behaviour change on the spread of emerging infectious diseases

Human behaviour plays an important role in the spread of emerging infectious diseases, and understanding the influence of behaviour changes on epidemics can be key to improving control efforts. However, how the dynamics of individual behaviour changes affects the development of emerging infectious disease is a key public health issue. To develop different formula for individual behaviour change and introduce how to embed it into a dynamic model of infectious diseases, we choose A/H1N1 and Ebola as typical examples, combined with the epidemic reported cases and media related news reports. Thus, the logistic model with the health belief model is used to determine behaviour decisions through the health belief model constructs. Furthermore, we propose 4 candidate infectious disease models without and with individual behaviour change and use approximate Bayesian computation based on sequential Monte Carlo method for model selection. The main results indicate that the classical compartment model without behaviour change and the model with average rate of behaviour change depicted by an exponential function could fit the observed data best. The results provide a new way on how to choose an infectious disease model to predict the disease prevalence trend or to evaluate the influence of intervention measures on disease control. However, sensitivity analyses indicate that the accumulated number of hospital notifications and deaths could be largely reduced as the rate of behaviour change increases. Therefore, in terms of mitigating emerging infectious diseases, both media publicity focused on how to guide people's behaviour change and positive responses of individuals are critical.

ent-Abietane and Tigliane Diterpenoids from the Roots of Euphorbia fischeriana and Their Inhibitory Effects against Mycobacterium smegmatis

An investigation on the bioactive chemical constituents of the roots of Euphorbia fischeriana has been conducted, with 21 diterpenoids obtained using various chromatographic techniques. On the basis of spectroscopic data analysis, the new compounds were elucidated as four ent-abietane-type diterpenoids (1-4) and four tigliane-type diterpenoids (13-16). Also obtained were eight known ent-abietane (5-12) and five known tigliane (17-21) diterpenoids. The potential antituberculosis effects of these diterpenoids were evaluated using a Mycobacterium smegmatis model. The most potent compound according to the in vitro bioassay used was 17-hydroxyjolkinolide B (12) (MIC 1.5 μg/mL).

Environmental impacts of the shelter forests in Horqin Sandy land, northeast China

Assessing environmental effects of shelter forests is primarily necessary for realizing their greatest protective benefits. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program (TNSFP), the largest ecological afforestation program in the world, has been operated for three decades in China but so far lacks comprehensive assessment of its environmental impacts. Horqin Sandy Land (HSL) in Northeast China is one of the key areas in the TNSFP implementation. To identify the principal contributors to environmental changes in HSL, we evaluated impacts of variations in landscape features, shelter forest areas, climatic factors, and social factors on changes in sandy land areas from 1978 to 2007, by using Gray Relational Analysis. Our analysis showed that during the period 1978 to 2007, the sandy land area decreased by 3.9% in low aeolian dunes, 14.5% in low mountains and hills, and 98.9% in high elevation alluvial flats of HSL. Factors with Gray Correlation Degrees >0.9 were identified as the patch shape index (PSI) and the landscape isolation index (LII) of grasses in low aeolian dunes, PSI of grasses in mountains and hills, and area of broadleaved forests and LII of shrubs in alluvial flats. It is concluded that establishment of the shelter forests has played a significant role in controlling the expansion of sandy land in HSL. To sustain the long-term environmental benefits of the shelter forests in the remaining period for TNSFP construction, suitable tree species should be selected and planted at appropriate densities based on the local precipitation, groundwater and landform conditions, and the system stability of the total landscape.

Effects of different levels of vitamin E on growth performance and immune responses of broilers under heat stress

This experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effect of dietary vitamin E on growth performance and immune response of broilers under heat stress (HS). Birds raised in either a thermoneutral (23.9 degrees C constant) or HS (23.9 to 38 degrees C cycling) environment were fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with vitamin E at 0, 100, or 200 mg/kg, respectively. Two hundred forty 1-d-old male broiler chicks were randomly assigned to 6 groups; each group had 4 replicates of 10 birds. Humoral immunity was assessed by i.v. injection of 7% SRBC followed by evaluation of serum for antibody titers in primary and secondary responses. Cell-mediated immunity was assessed by using a Sephadex stimulation method to recruit abdominal exudate cells (AEC) to evaluate macrophage phagocytic ability. Body weight and feed intake were not significantly influenced by dietary vitamin E (P>0.05), whereas feed conversion was significantly affected by vitamin E at 100 mg/kg (P<0.05). Heat stress significantly reduced BW, feed intake, and feed conversion (P<0.05). Numbers of AEC, percentage of macrophages in AEC, phagocytic macrophages, and internalized opsonized and unopsonized SRBC were increased by dietary vitamin E (P<0.05). Both primary and secondary antibody responses were significantly increased by dietary vitamin E when birds were exposed to HS (P<0.05). Lymphoid organ weights, antibody responses, incidence of macrophages in AEC, and phagocytic ability of macrophages were all significantly reduced under HS. These results indicated that HS severely reduced growth performance and immune response of broilers, whereas the immune response of broilers could be improved by dietary vitamin E supplementation under HS.

[The study of the peritoneal dialyzer with multipriority and its auxiliary spring brush]

This paper introduces the design, principle and clinical applications of the peritoneal dialyzer with multipriority and its auxiliary spring-brush.