A Comparative Analysis of Hardiness Among Different Generations in Contemporary Russia

Introduction. Studying the characteristics of hardiness among different generations merits special attention. The comparative analysis of the levels of hardiness and its individual components among representatives of Soviet, post-Soviet, and transitional generations has not been reported before. Methods. The study of hardiness among different generations employed the Hardiness Test by D. A. Leontiev and E. I. Rasskazova and involved 540 individual participants (234 men and 306 women) aged from 16 to 84 years. Results. The variance analysis was applied to reveal differences in hardiness and its structural components among the three generational groups. The levels of hardiness and its components differed significantly in the groups of respondents of the Soviet and transitional generations. Compared to the transitional generation group, the levels of control (p ≤ 0.0001), risk taking (p ≤ 0.0001), and hardiness (p ≤ 0.0001) were higher among representatives of the post-Soviet generation; the lowest levels of these variables were observed in the group of representatives of the Soviet generation. Compared to female respondents of the transitional and Soviet generations, males had higher levels of control (p ≤ 0.0001), risk taking (p ≤ 0.05) and hardiness (p ≤ 0.05). Discussion. The level of hardiness differs among generational and gender groups. The findings of the study suggest that the characteristics of hardiness should be investigated in late adulthood. This study has great potential for practical application for developing psychological programs for improving personal potential of vulnerable generations

Microbiome Responses to an Uncontrolled Short-Term Diet Intervention in the Frame of the Citizen Science Project

Personalized nutrition is of increasing interest to individuals actively monitoring their health. The relations between the duration of diet intervention and the effects on gut microbiota have yet to be elucidated. Here we examined the associations of short-term dietary changes, long-term dietary habits and lifestyle with gut microbiota. Stool samples from 248 citizen-science volunteers were collected before and after a self-reported 2-week personalized diet intervention, then analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. Considerable correlations between long-term dietary habits and gut community structure were detected. A higher intake of vegetables and fruits was associated with increased levels of butyrate-producing Clostridiales and higher community richness. A paired comparison of the metagenomes before and after the 2-week intervention showed that even a brief, uncontrolled intervention produced profound changes in community structure: resulting in decreased levels of Bacteroidaceae, Porphyromonadaceae and Rikenellaceae families and decreased alpha-diversity coupled with an increase of Methanobrevibacter, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium and butyrate-producing Lachnospiraceae- as well as the prevalence of a permatype (a bootstrapping-based variation of enterotype) associated with a higher diversity of diet. The response of microbiota to the intervention was dependent on the initial microbiota state. These findings pave the way for the development of an individualized diet.</p

Oral vaccination with heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis activates the complement system to protect against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a pandemic affecting billions of people worldwide, thus stressing the need for new vaccines. Defining the correlates of vaccine protection is essential to achieve this goal. In this study, we used the wild boar model for mycobacterial infection and TB to characterize the protective mechanisms elicited by a new heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis vaccine (IV). Oral vaccination with the IV resulted in significantly lower culture and lesion scores, particularly in the thorax, suggesting that the IV might provide a novel vaccine for TB control with special impact on the prevention of pulmonary disease, which is one of the limitations of current vaccines. Oral vaccination with the IV induced an adaptive antibody response and activation of the innate immune response including the complement component C3 and inflammasome. Mycobacterial DNA/RNA was not involved in inflammasome activation but increased C3 production by a still unknown mechanism. The results also suggested a protective mechanism mediated by the activation of IFN-γ producing CD8+ T cells by MHC I antigen presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in response to vaccination with the IV, without a clear role for Th1 CD4+ T cells. These results support a role for DCs in triggering the immune response to the IV through a mechanism similar to the phagocyte response to PAMPs with a central role for C3 in protection against mycobacterial infection. Higher C3 levels may allow increased opsonophagocytosis and effective bacterial clearance, while interfering with CR3-mediated opsonic and nonopsonic phagocytosis of mycobacteria, a process that could be enhanced by specific antibodies against mycobacterial proteins induced by vaccination with the IV. These results suggest that the IV acts through novel mechanisms to protect against TB in wild boar

Whole-genome sequence data and analysis of type strains ‘Pusillimonas nitritireducens’ and ‘Pusillimonas subterraneus’ isolated from nitrate- and radionuclide-contaminated groundwater in Russia

Two strains, ‘Pusillimonas nitritireducens’ JR1/69-2-13T and ‘Pusillimonas subterraneus’ JR1/69-3-13T, of aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, organotrophic, psychrotolerant bacteria were isolated from a sample of nitrate- and radionuclide-contaminated groundwater in Russia. Here we describe the draft genomes of these strains. The sequenced and annotated genome of the strain JR1/69-2-13T contained 4.3 Mbp with 4108 protein-coding genes. The genome of the strain JR1/69-3-13T contained 4.5 Mbp with 4260 protein-coding genes. Genome analysis of both strains provides an insight into the genomic basis of their resistance to nitrate, heavy metals and metalloids. The draft genome sequences of strains ‘Pusillimonas nitritireducens’ JR1/69-2-13T and ‘Pusillimonas subterraneus’ JR1/69-3-13T are available at DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank under the accession nos. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/PDNV00000000 and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/PDNW00000000, respectively. Keywords: Draft genome, Gene prediction, ‘Pusillimonas nitritireducens’, ‘Pusillimonas subterraneus’, denitrification, Metal resistanc

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Kraft and Sulfite Pulps: What Is the Best Cellulosic Substrate for Industrial Saccharification?

Sulfite and kraft pulping are two principal methods of industrial delignification of wood. In recent decades, those have been considered as possibilities to pretreat recalcitrant wood lignocellulosics for the enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides and the subsequent fermentation of obtained sugars to valuable bioproducts. Current work compares chemistry and technological features of two different cooking processes in the preparation of polysaccharide substrates for deep saccharification with P. verruculosum glycosyl hydrolases. Bleached kraft and sulfite pulps were subjected to hydrolysis with enzyme mixture of high xylanase, cellobiohydrolase, and β-glucosidase activities at a dosage of 10 FPU/g of dry pulp and fiber concentration of 2.5, 5, and 10%. HPLC was used to analyze soluble sugars after hydrolysis and additional acid inversion of oligomers to monosaccharides. Kraft pulp demonstrated higher pulp conversion after 48 h (74–99%), which mostly resulted from deep xylan hydrolysis. Sulfite-pulp hydrolysates, obtained in similar conditions due to higher hexose concentration (more than 50 g/L), had higher fermentability for industrial strains producing alcohols, microbial protein, or organic acids. Along with saccharification, enzymatic modification of non-hydrolyzed residues occurred, which led to decreased degree of polymerization and composition changes in two industrial pulps. As a result, crystallinity of kraft pulp increased by 1.3%, which opens possibilities for obtaining new types of cellulosic products in the pulp and paper industry. The high adaptability and controllability of enzymatic and fermentation processes creates prospects for the modernization of existing factories

Symbiosis between nanohaloarchaeon and haloarchaeon is based on utilization of different polysaccharides

© 2020 the Author(s).Nano-sized archaeota, with their small genomes and limited metabolic capabilities, are known to associate with other microbes, thereby compensating for their own auxotrophies. These diminutive and yet ubiquitous organisms thrive in hypersaline habitats that they share with haloarchaea. Here, we reveal the genetic and physiological nature of a nanohaloarchaeon–haloarchaeon association, with both microbes obtained from a solar saltern and reproducibly cultivated together in vitro. The nanohaloarchaeon Candidatus Nanohalobium constans LC1Nh is an aerotolerant, sugar-fermenting anaerobe, lacking key anabolic machinery and respiratory complexes. The nanohaloarchaeon cells are found physically connected to the chitinolytic haloarchaeon Halomicrobium sp. LC1Hm. Our experiments revealed that this haloarchaeon can hydrolyze chitin outside the cell (to produce the monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine), using this beta-glucan to obtain carbon and energy for growth. However, LC1Hm could not metabolize either glycogen or starch (both alpha-glucans) or other polysaccharides tested. Remarkably, the nanohaloarchaeon’s ability to hydrolyze glycogen and starch to glucose enabled growth of Halomicrobium sp. LC1Hm in the absence of a chitin. These findings indicated that the nanohaloarchaeon–haloarchaeon association is both mutualistic and symbiotic; in this case, each microbe relies on its partner’s ability to degrade different polysaccharides. This suggests, in turn, that other nano-sized archaeota may also be beneficial for their hosts. Given that availability of carbon substrates can vary both spatially and temporarily, the susceptibility of Halomicrobium to colonization by Ca. Nanohalobium can be interpreted as a strategy to maximize the long-term fitness of the host.This study was partially supported by grants from the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the RITMARE Flagship Project (2012–2016) and the INMARE Project (Contract H2020-BG-2014-2634486), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Program. P.N.G. and O.V.G. acknowledge support from the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology Project, partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Assembly Government. D.Y.S. was supported by SYAM-Gravitation Program of the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science Grant 24002002 and Russian Foundation for Basic Research Grant 19-04-00401). S.V.T. acknowledges Kurchatov Centre for Genome Research, and his work was supported by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russian Federation Grant 075-15-2019-1659