A new species of the genus Cryptoxilos Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae) from China

A new species of the genus Cryptoxilos Viereck, 1911 is described from China. This is the first record of the genus from the East Palaearctic region. The new species is included in a key to the described species of the genus. The subgeneric name Cryptoxiloides Capek & Capecki, 1979 is used to accommodate the Palaearctic species in the genus Cryptoxilos Viereck

A Preliminary Study of the Microbial Resources and Their Biological Activities of the East China Sea

East China Sea is one of the four sea areas in China, which possesses peculiar ecological environment and many kinds of living creatures, especially the microorganisms. We established the East China Sea microorganism library (during 2006–2010) for the first time, which stored about 30000 strains that covered most kinds of the species. In this paper, 395 pure strains of East China Sea microorganism library which belong to 33 different genera were mainly introduced. Sulfitobacter, Halomonas, Bacillus, Pseudoalteromonas, and Idiomarina were the most dominant species. On the large-scale biological activity screening of the 395 strains, 100 strains possess different biological activities based on different screening models, of which 11.4% strains have antibacterial activities, 15.9% have cytotoxicity activities, and 6.1% have antioxidation activities. Besides, the secondary metabolites of 6 strains with strong biological activities were studied systematically; diketopiperazines and macrocyclic lactones are the active secondary metabolites. The species and the biological activity of microorganisms diversity, the abundant structure type of the secondary metabolites, and their bioactivities all indicate that East China Sea is a potent marine microorganisms-derived developing resource for drug discovery

A novel “humanized mouse” model for autoimmune hepatitis and the association of gut microbiota with liver inflammation:Association of Gut Microbiota With Liver Inflammation

BACKGROUND: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) in humans is a severe inflammatory liver disease, characterized by interface hepatitis, the presence of circulating autoantibodies and hyper-gammaglobulinemia. There are two types of AIH, type-1 (AIH-1) and type-2 (AIH-2) characterized by distinct autoimmune serology. Patients with AIH-1 are positive for anti-smooth muscle and/or anti-nuclear (SMA/ANA) autoantibodies whereas patients with AIH-2 have anti-liver kidney microsomal type 1 (anti-LKM1) and/or anti-liver cytosol type 1 (anti-LC1) autoantibodies. Cytochrome P4502D6 (CYP2D6) is the antigenic target of anti-LKM1 and formiminotransferase cyclodeaminase (FTCD) is the antigenic target of anti-LC1. It is known that AIH, both type-1 and type-2, is strongly linked to the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles -DR3, -DR4 and -DR7. However, the direct evidence of the association of HLA with AIH is lacking. METHODS: We developed a novel mouse model of AIH using the HLA-DR3 transgenic mouse on the non-obese diabetic (NOD) background (HLA-DR3 NOD) by immunization of HLA-DR3(−) and HLA-DR3(+) NOD mice with a DNA plasmid, coding for human CYP2D6/FTCD fusion protein. RESULTS: Immunization with CYP2D6/FTCD leads to a sustained elevation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), development of ANA and anti-LKM1/anti-LC1 autoantibodies, chronic immune cell infiltration and parenchymal fibrosis on liver histology in HLA-DR3(+) mice. Immunized mice also showed an enhanced Th1 immune response and paucity of the frequency of regulatory T-cell (Treg) in the liver. Moreover, HLA-DR3(+) mice with exacerbated AIH showed reduced diversity and total load of gut bacteria. CONCLUSION: Our humanized animal model has provided a novel experimental tool to further elucidate the pathogenesis of AIH and to evaluate the efficacy and safety of immunoregulatory therapeutic interventions in vivo

Development and Utilization of Introgression Lines Using Synthetic Octaploid Wheat (Aegilops tauschii × Hexaploid Wheat) as Donor

As the diploid progenitor of common wheat, Aegilops tauschii Cosson (DD, 2n = 2x = 14) is considered to be a promising genetic resource for the improvement of common wheat. In this work, we demonstrated that the efficiency of transferring A. tauschii segments to common wheat was clearly improved through the use of synthetic octaploid wheat (AABBDDDD, 2n = 8x = 56) as a “bridge.” The synthetic octaploid was obtained by chromosome doubling of hybrid F1 (A. tauschii T015 × common wheat Zhoumai 18). A set of introgression lines (BC1F8) containing 6016 A. tauschii segments was developed and displayed significant phenotype variance among lines. Twelve agronomic traits, including growth duration, panicle traits, grain traits, and plant height (PH), were evaluated. And transgressive segregation was identified in partial lines. Additionally, better agronomic traits could be observed in some lines, compared to the recurrent parent Zhoumai 18. To verify that the significant variance of those agronomic traits was supposedly controlled by A. tauschii segments, 14 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for three important agronomic traits (thousand kernel weight, spike length, and PH) were further located in the two environments (Huixian and Zhongmou), indicating the introgression of favorable alleles from A. tauschii into common wheat. This study provides an ameliorated strategy to improve common wheat utilizing a single A. tauschii genome

Genetically Engineered Strains: Application and Advances for 1,3-Propanediol Production from Glycerol

Propilen je jedan od najvažnijih kemijskih spojeva što se koriste za sintezu nekih komercijalnih proizvoda, poput kozmetičkih i prehrambenih proizvoda, maziva i lijekova. Iako se može proizvesti kemijskim procesom i biosintezom, biosinteza propilena je ekonomičnija, ekološki prihvatljivija i jednostavnija. Propilen se može sintetizirati transformacijom glicerola ili sličnog supstrata s pomoću bakterija kao što su Clostridium butyricum i Klebsiella pneumoniae. Međutim, moguće zapreke primjeni mikroorganizama su loša produktivnost i usporavanje procesa zbog nastanka međuprodukata. Da bi se ti problemi izbjegli, posljednja istraživanja fokusiraju se na razvoj novih sojeva modifikacijom genoma različitim metodama, poput mutageneze i genetičkog inženjerstva. Primjenom genetički modificiranih sojeva dobivenih različitim postupcima postignut je bolji prinos, te su izbjegnuti neki problemi prisutni u proizvodnji propilena s pomoću divljih tipova bakterija. U ovom su radu prikazana nova postignuća u razvoju tehnologija proizvodnje genetički modificiranih mikroorganizama za primjenu u biosintezi propilena.1,3-Propanediol (1,3-PD) is one of the most important chemicals widely used as monomers for synthesis of some commercially valuable products, including cosmetics, foods, lubricants and medicines. Although 1,3-PD can be synthesized both chemically and biosynthetically, the latter offers more merits over chemical approach as it is economically viable, environmentally friendly and easy to carry out. The biosynthesis of 1,3-PD can be done by transforming glycerol or other similar substrates using some bacteria, such as Clostridium butyricum and Klebsiella pneumoniae. However, these natural microorganisms pose some bottlenecks like low productivity and metabolite inhibition. To overcome these problems, recent research efforts have been focused more on the development of new strains by modifying the genome through different techniques, such as mutagenesis and genetic engineering. Genetically engineered strains obtained by various strategies cannot only gain higher yield than wild types, but also overcome some of the barriers in production by the latter. This review paper presents an overview on the recent advances in the technological approaches to develop genetically engineered microorganisms for efficient biosynthesis of 1,3-PD

Meibomian Gland Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Purpose. To investigate meibomian gland and tear film function in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods. This prospective study compared changes in meibomian gland and tear film function in type 2 diabetic patients with nondiabetic patients. Meibomian gland function was evaluated by measuring lipid layer thickness (LLT), grading of meibomian gland loss, lid margin abnormalities, and expression of meibum. Tear film function was assessed by measuring tear breakup time (TBUT), the Schirmer I test, noninvasive breakup time (NIBUT), tear meniscus height (TMH), and corneal fluorescein staining. Results. Meibography scores were significantly higher in the diabetic group compared with the nondiabetic group (p=0.004). The number of expressible glands was significantly lower in the diabetic group in temporal, central, and nasal third of the lower eyelid (nasal: p=0.002; central: p=0.040; and temporal: p=0.039). The lid margin abnormality score was significantly higher in the diabetic group than in the nondiabetic group (p=0.04). There was no statistically significant difference in the tear film function parameters between the two groups. Conclusions. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) in type 2 diabetic patients is more severe compared with nondiabetic patients. Overall, most of the diabetic patients manifest as having asymptomatic MGD

Single-cell profiling reveals distinct immune response landscapes in tuberculous pleural effusion and non-TPE

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and remains a major health threat worldwide. However, a detailed understanding of the immune cells and inflammatory mediators in Mtb-infected tissues is still lacking. Tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE), which is characterized by an influx of immune cells to the pleural space, is thus a suitable platform for dissecting complex tissue responses to Mtb infection.MethodsWe employed singe-cell RNA sequencing to 10 pleural fluid (PF) samples from 6 patients with TPE and 4 non-TPEs including 2 samples from patients with TSPE (transudative pleural effusion) and 2 samples with MPE (malignant pleural effusion).ResultCompared to TSPE and MPE, TPE displayed obvious difference in the abundance of major cell types (e.g., NK, CD4+T, Macrophages), which showed notable associations with disease type. Further analyses revealed that the CD4 lymphocyte population in TPE favored a Th1 and Th17 response. Tumor necrosis factors (TNF)-, and XIAP related factor 1 (XAF1)-pathways induced T cell apoptosis in patients with TPE. Immune exhaustion in NK cells was an important feature in TPE. Myeloid cells in TPE displayed stronger functional capacity for phagocytosis, antigen presentation and IFN-γ response, than TSPE and MPE. Systemic elevation of inflammatory response genes and pro-inflammatory cytokines were mainly driven by macrophages in patients with TPE.ConclusionWe provide a tissue immune landscape of PF immune cells, and revealed a distinct local immune response in TPE and non-TPE (TSPE and MPE). These findings will improve our understanding of local TB immunopathogenesis and provide potential targets for TB therapy

Structural and Surface Effect of MnO2 for Low Temperature Selective Catalytic Reduction of NO with NH3

Abstractα- and β-MnO2 with different phase structures were prepared by hydrothermal method and investigated for low temperature SCR. The α-MnO2 catalyst showed higher activity than the β-MnO2 catalyst at low temperature region. Characterization results revealed that the activity predominately depended on the tunnel (or layer) structure and surface chemisorbed oxygen rather than BET surface area, crystallinity, surface Mn4+/Mn3+ ratio and redox property. α-MnO2 showed the highest activity on account of [2×2] tunnel and the most surface oxygen to promote the NH3 adsorption and activation. β-MnO2 exhibited less activity because of [1×1] tunnel structure and little surface absorbed oxygen. Further, DFT calculations were used to model the clean and defect surface as well as the NH3 adsorptions on the tunnels of α- and β-MnO2 model surfaces