The effect of caffeine mouth rinse on self-paced cycling performance

The aim of the study was to determine whether caffeine mouth rinse would improve 30 min self-paced cycling trial. Twelve healthy active males (age 20.5±0.7 years, mass 87.4±18.3 kg) volunteered for the study. They attended the laboratory on 3 separate occasions performing a 30 min self-paced cycling trial. On one occasion water was given as a mouth rinse for 5 s (PLA), on another occasion a 6.4% maltodextrin (CHO) solution was given for 5 s and finally a caffeine solution (containing 32 mg of caffeine dissolved in 125 ml water; CAF) was given for 5 s. Distance cycled, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion, cadence, speed and power output were recorded throughout all trials. Distance cycled during the CAF mouth rinse trial (16.2±2.8 km) was significantly greater compared to PLA trial (14.9±2.6 km). There was no difference between CHO and CAF trials (P=0.89). Cadence, power and velocity were significantly greater during the CAF trial compared to both PLA and CHO (P0.05). Caffeine mouth rinse improves 30 min cycling performance by allowing the participant to increase cadence, power and velocity without a concurrent increase in perceived exertion and heart rate

Improving the Feeding Value of Dryland Lucerne in Australia

Lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) is the most widely grown perennial legume species in southern Australia. Within Australian farming systems it plays an important role in the provision of high-quality feed for livestock, nitrogen fixation and dewatering soils to reduce watertable recharge and dryland salinity (Cocks 2001). The majority of lucerne varieties have been developed for the areas with high rainfall or supplementary irrigation. The new challenge is to develop lucerne cultivars specifically for dryland mixed farming systems in temperate and mediterranean climate zones (Humphries and Auricht, 2001). Persistence in these environments and feeding value to sheep are critical selection traits. In this paper we compare nutritive traits of 35 commercial and experimental accessions of lucerne, sampled during the vegetative phase, and test the hypothesis that there will be significant differences between the accessions for in vitro dry matter digestibility (DMD), crude protein (CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and hemicellulose

Chemostat culture systems support diverse bacteriophage communities from human feces

BACKGROUND: Most human microbiota studies focus on bacteria inhabiting body surfaces, but these surfaces also are home to large populations of viruses. Many are bacteriophages, and their role in driving bacterial diversity is difficult to decipher without the use of in vitro ecosystems that can reproduce human microbial communities. RESULTS: We used chemostat culture systems known to harbor diverse fecal bacteria to decipher whether these cultures also are home to phage communities. We found that there are vast viral communities inhabiting these ecosystems, with estimated concentrations similar to those found in human feces. The viral communities are composed entirely of bacteriophages and likely contain both temperate and lytic phages based on their similarities to other known phages. We examined the cultured phage communities at five separate time points over 24 days and found that they were highly individual-specific, suggesting that much of the subject-specificity found in human viromes also is captured by this culture-based system. A high proportion of the community membership is conserved over time, but the cultured communities maintain more similarity with other intra-subject cultures than they do to human feces. In four of the five subjects, estimated viral diversity between fecal and cultured communities was highly similar. CONCLUSIONS: Because the diversity of phages in these cultured fecal communities have similarities to those found in humans, we believe these communities can serve as valuable ecosystems to help uncover the role of phages in human microbial communities

isolateR: an R package for generating microbial libraries from Sanger sequencing data

Motivation: Sanger sequencing of taxonomic marker genes (e.g. 16S/18S/ITS/rpoB/cpn60) represents the leading method for identifying a wide range of microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, and fungi. However, the manual processing of sequence data and limitations associated with conventional BLAST searches impede the efficient generation of strain libraries essential for cataloging microbial diversity and discovering novel species. Results: isolateR addresses these challenges by implementing a standardized and scalable three-step pipeline that includes: (1) automated batch processing of Sanger sequence files, (2) taxonomic classification via global alignment to type strain databases in accordance with the latest international nomenclature standards, and (3) straightforward creation of strain libraries and handling of clonal isolates, with the ability to set customizable sequence dereplication thresholds and combine data from multiple sequencing runs into a single library. The tool’s user-friendly design also features interactive HTML outputs that simplify data exploration and analysis. Additionally, in silico benchmarking done on two comprehensive human gut genome catalogues (IMGG and Hadza hunter-gather populations) showcase the proficiency of isolateR in uncovering and cataloging the nuanced spectrum of microbial diversity, advocating for a more targeted and granular exploration within individual hosts to achieve the highest strain-level resolution possible when generating culture collections. Availability and implementation: isolateR is available at: https://github.com/bdaisley/isolateR

First-in-class Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic 4 (MET4) in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with advanced solid tumors (MET4-IO trial)

Background: The intestinal microbiome has been associated with response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in humans and causally implicated in ICI responsiveness in animal models. Two recent human trials demonstrated that fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) from ICI responders can rescue ICI responses in refractory melanoma, but FMT has specific limitations to scaled use.Patients and methods: We conducted an early-phase clinical trial of a cultivated, orally delivered 30-species microbial consortium (Microbial Ecosystem Therapeutic 4, MET4) designed for co-administration with ICIs as an alternative to FMT and assessed safety, tolerability and ecological responses in patients with advanced solid tumors.Results: The trial achieved its primary safety and tolerability outcomes. There were no statistically significant differences in the primary ecological outcomes; however, differences in MET4 species relative abundance were evident after randomization that varied by patient and species. Increases in the relative abundance of several MET4 taxa, including Enterococcus and Bifidobacterium, taxa previously associated with ICI responsiveness, were observed and MET4 engraftment was associated with decreases in plasma and stool primary bile acids.Conclusions: This trial is the first report of the use of a microbial consortium as an alternative to FMT in advanced cancer patients receiving ICI and the results justify the further development of microbial consortia as a therapeutic co-intervention for ICI treatment in cancer

Considerations for best practices in studies of fiber or other dietary components and the intestinal microbiome

Considerations for best practices in studies of fiber or other dietary components and the intestinal microbiome. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 315: E1087–E1097, 2018. First published August 21, 2018; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00058.2018.—A 2-day workshop organized by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Agriculture included 16 presentations focused on the role of diet in alterations of the gastrointestinal microbiome, primarily that of the colon. Although thousands of research projects have been funded by U.S. federal agencies to study the intestinal microbiome of humans and a variety of animal models, only a minority addresses dietary effects, and a small subset is described in sufficient detail to allow reproduction of a study. Whereas there are standards being developed for many aspects of microbiome studies, such as sample collection, nucleic acid extraction, data handling, etc., none has been proposed for the dietary component; thus this workshop focused on the latter specific point. It is important to foster rigor in design and reproducibility of published studies to maintain high quality and enable designs that can be compared in systematic reviews. Speakers addressed the influence of the structure of the fermentable carbohydrate on the microbiota and the variables to consider in design of studies using animals, in vitro models, and human subjects. For all types of studies, strengths and weaknesses of various designs were highlighted, and for human studies, comparisons between controlled feeding and observational designs were discussed. Because of the lack of published, best-diet formulations for specific research questions, the main recommendation is to describe dietary ingredients and treatments in as much detail as possible to allow reproduction by other scientists

Sheep Updates 2003 - Posters

This session covers eleven papers from different authors:1 Sheep production on annual stubbles/pastures vs lucerne Maxine Brown Gaye Krebs Muresk Institute, Curtin University Diana Fedorenko Kathryn Egerton-Warburton Centre for Cropping Systems, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 2. The value chain of the Lake Grace livestock industry Evan Burt Nazrul Islam Department of Agriculture Western Australia 3. Native pastures, Dorper sheep and the 2002 drought Roy Butler Department of Agriculture Western Australia 4. Commercial sheep breeders can improve their sheep breeding program using wether trials L.G. Butler, S.R. Brown, M.F. D’Antuono, J.C. Greeff Department of Agriculture 5. Western Australia Linked ewe trials to benchmark wool traits and reproductive performance of Western Australian sheep flocks Ken Hart Department of Agriculture Western Australia 6. Damara sheep - what is their potential? A case study from the North-eastern wheatbelt Tanya Kilminster Evan Burt Department of Agriculture Western Australia 7, Australian Sheep Industry CRC - nutrition sub-program Rachel Kirby Sheep CRC Research Fellow 8. Dust penetration is not genetically and phenotypically the same trait as dust content M.E. Ladyman J.C. Greeff Department of Agriculture Western Australia A.C. Schlink CSIRO Livestock Industries, Private Bag 5, Wembley WA I.H. Williams P.E. Vercoe University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 9.Developing sustainable fodder crop systems with new annual pasture legumes Anyou Lui Department of Agriculture Western Australia 10. Seasonal pricing and seasonality of supply of prime lambs in the western wheatbelt Karen Smith Martin Bent Muresk Institute, Curtin University 11. The role of alternative and exotic sheep breeds in the Western Australian sheep industry Matthew Young Department of Agriculture Western Australi

Key traits for ruminant livestock across diverse production systems in the context of climate change: perspectives from a global platform of research farms

Ruminant livestock are raised under diverse cultural and environmental production systems around the globe. Ruminant livestock can play a critical role in food security by supplying high-quality, nutrient-dense food with little or no competition for arable land while simultaneously improving soil health through vital returns of organic matter. However, in the context of climate change and limited land resources, the role of ruminant-based systems is uncertain because of their reputed low efficiency of feed conversion (kilogram of feed required per kilogram of product) and the production of methane as a by-product of enteric fermentation. A growing human population will demand more animal protein, which will put greater pressure on the Earth’s planetary boundaries and contribute further to climate change. Therefore, livestock production globally faces the dual challenges of mitigating emissions and adapting to a changing climate. This requires research-led animal and plant breeding and feeding strategies to optimise ruminant systems. This study collated information from a global network of research farms reflecting a variety of ruminant production systems in diverse regions of the globe. Using this information, key changes in the genetic and nutritional approaches relevant to each system were drawn that, if implemented, would help shape more sustainable future ruminant livestock systems

Sequence-specific antimicrobials using efficiently delivered RNA-guided nucleases

Current antibiotics tend to be broad spectrum, leading to indiscriminate killing of commensal bacteria and accelerated evolution of drug resistance. Here, we use CRISPR-Cas technology to create antimicrobials whose spectrum of activity is chosen by design. RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs) targeting specific DNA sequences are delivered efficiently to microbial populations using bacteriophage or bacteria carrying plasmids transmissible by conjugation. The DNA targets of RGNs can be undesirable genes or polymorphisms, including antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. Delivery of RGNs significantly improves survival in a Galleria mellonella infection model. We also show that RGNs enable modulation of complex bacterial populations by selective knockdown of targeted strains based on genetic signatures. RGNs constitute a class of highly discriminatory, customizable antimicrobials that enact selective pressure at the DNA level to reduce the prevalence of undesired genes, minimize off-target effects and enable programmable remodeling of microbiota.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (New Innovator Award 1DP2OD008435)National Centers for Systems Biology (U.S.) (Grant 1P50GM098792)United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA1-14-1-0007)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (W911NF13D0001)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Interdepartmental Biotechnology Training Program 5T32 GM008334)Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec (Master's Training Award

Standardizing definitions and reporting guidelines for the infertility core outcome set : an international consensus development study

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the consensus development meeting participants and colleagues at the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Funding This research was funded by the Catalyst Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand, Auckland Medical Research Fund and Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust. The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study, the collection, management, analysis or interpretation of data or manuscript preparation. Siladitya Bhattacharya was supported by the University of Auckland Foundation Seelye Travelling Fellowship. B.W.M. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellowship (GNT1082548) This article has not been externally peer reviewed. This article has been published simultaneously in Fertility and SterilityPeer reviewedPublisher PD