Effects of Xiao Chengqi Formula on Slow Transit Constipation by Assessing Gut Microbiota and Metabolomics Analysis in vitro and in vivo

The Xiao Chengqi (XCQ) formula is a newly constituted traditional Chinese medicine prescription in the treatment of intestinal motility deficiency and is effective in patients with slow transit constipation (STC). XCQ formula was reconstructed based on a “Chengqi” decoction. Astragali Radix, Angelicae Sinensis Radix, and cooked ground Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma were added to the prescription to enhance. An STC rat model was constructed and treated with the formula to understand the detailed mechanism by which XCQ promotes intestinal peristalsis. The effects of the XCQ formula on intestinal microflora and metabolic levels and the possible molecular mechanism of its regulation were explored using 16S rDNA sequencing, metabolomics sequencing, and tissue RNA sequencing. The results showed a significant decrease in the abundance of Roseburia spp. in the feces of STC rats, a significant decrease in the content of butyl aminobenzene (BAB) in feces, and an increase in the number of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in the colon of STC rats. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments revealed that BAB could activate IL-21R on the ICC surface, upregulate the phosphorylation of the downstream molecules STAT3 and ERK, and inhibit loperamide-induced ICC apoptosis. Therefore, the XCQ formula can improve the defecation status of patients with STC by protecting ICC activity, promoting the colonization of Roseburia spp. to promote peristalsis, and increasing the BAB content after metabolism

Astragaloside IV improves slow transit constipation by regulating gut microbiota and enterochromaffin cells

Purpose: Slow transit constipation (STC) is a common gastrointestinal disorder characterized by altered gut microbiota and reduced number of enterochromaffin cells (ECs). Astragaloside IV (AS-IV), a low drug permeability saponin, has showed beneficial effects on patients with STC. However, the specific mechanism by which AS-IV regulates STC remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of AS-IV on STC and its associated mechanisms involving gut microbiota.Methods: The effect of AS-IV on STC was evaluated on STC mice induced with loperamide. We measured defecation frequency, intestinal mobility, ECs loss, and colonic lesions in STC mice treated with AS-IV. We also analyzed the changes in gut microbiota and metabolites after AS-IV treatment. Moreover, we investigated the relationship between specific gut microbes and altered fecal metabolites, such as 3-bromotyrosine (3-BrY). We also conducted in vitro experiments to investigate the effect of 3-BrY on caspase-dependent apoptosis of ECs and the activation of the p38 MAPK and ERK signaling pathways induced by loperamide.Results: AS-IV treatment promoted defecation, improved intestinal mobility, suppressed ECs loss, and alleviated colonic lesions in STC mice. AS-IV treatment also affected gut microbiota and metabolites, with a significant correlation between specific gut microbes and altered fecal metabolites such as 3-BrY. Furthermore, 3-BrY may potentially reduce caspase-dependent apoptosis of ECs and protect cell survival by inhibiting the activation of the p38 MAPK and ERK signaling pathways induced by loperamide.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that changes in gut microbiota and ECs mediated the therapeutic effect of STC by AS-IV. These results provide a basis for the use of AS-IV as a prebiotic agent for treating STC. The specific mechanism by which AS-IV regulates gut microbiota and ECs warrants further investigation

Two new Geranomyia Haliday (Diptera, Limoniidae) crane flies from Mount Jiulong in China, with an updated key to Chinese species

The genus Geranomyia Haliday, 1833 is globally distributed, with 351 known species, of which 26 occur in China. Herein, an overview of the genus Geranomyia from Mount Jiulong, Zhejiang, China, is presented. Two new species are described and illustrated. Geranomyia jiulongensis sp. nov. and G. subablusa sp. nov. are distinguished from other Geranomyia species by the characters of the thorax and male genitalia. An updated key to the Geranomyia of China is presented

The genus Hercostomus Loew (Diptera, Dolichopodidae, Dolichopodinae) from Inner Mongolia, China, with the description of two new species

Previously, only two species of Hercostomus Loew were known to occur in Inner Mongolia. Here two species from Inner Mongolia are described as new to science, namely Hercostomus chifengensis sp. nov. and Hercostomus triangulatus sp. nov. Three new records of Hercostomus in Inner Mongolia are added. A key to the species of Hercostomus in Inner Mongolia is provided

FASFLNet: feature adaptive selection and fusion lightweight network for RGB-D indoor scene parsing

RGB-D indoor scene parsing is a challenging task in computer vision. Conventional scene-parsing approaches based on manual feature extraction have proved inadequate in this area because indoor scenes are both unordered and complex. This study proposes a feature adaptive selection, and fusion lightweight network (FASFLNet) for RGB-D indoor scene parsing that is both efficient and accurate. The proposed FASFLNet utilizes a lightweight classification network (MobileNetV2), constituting the backbone of the feature extraction. This lightweight backbone model guarantees that FASFLNet is not only highly efficient but also provides good performance in terms of feature extraction. The additional information provided by depth images (specifically, spatial information such as the shape and scale of objects) is used in FASFLNet as supplemental information for feature-level adaptive fusion between the RGB and depth streams. Furthermore, during decoding, the features of different layers are fused from top-bottom and integrated at different layers for final pixel-level classification, resulting in an effect similar to that of pyramid supervision. Experimental results obtained on the NYU V2 and SUN RGB-D datasets indicate that the proposed FASFLNet outperforms existing state-of-the-art models and is both highly efficient and accurate.Published versionThis work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (61502429)

The complete mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis of Tipula (Yamatotipula) nova Walker, 1848 (Diptera, Tipulidae) from Qingdao, Shandong, China

The genus Tipula Linnaeus, is a large group of crane flies with more than 2400 known species from 41 subgenera. In this study, we report the first complete mitochondrial (mt) genome sequence of the subgenus Tipula (Yamatotipula), which is a circular molecule of 15,668 bp with an AT content of 77.2%. The mt genome contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a long non-coding region. Three conserved overlapping regions, 8 bp between tRNATrp and tRNACys, 7 bp between ATP8 and ATP6, and 7 bp between ND4 and ND4L, are found. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that the Tipulomorpha includes the family Trichoceridae and the Trichoceridae is sister-group to the remaining Tipulomorpha

Effects of Partial Replacement of Chemical Fertilizer by Bio-organic Fertilizer Kunyijian on Yield and Quality of Tobacco Leaves

To explore the application effect of bio-organic fertilizer Kunyijian in flue-cured tobacco and provide scientific basis for its application in production, a plot trial was conducted with K326, a flue-cured tobacco variety, in the Science and Technology Test Base of Xundian County, Yunnan. Taking local fertilizer consumption (control 1) and 70% local fertilizer consumption (control 2) as controls, the following replacement groups were designed: under uniformly replacement 70% local fertilizer consumption, (1) organic fertilizer: microbial agent = 80 : 1（kg）, + 600 kg/ha, + 900 kg/ha, + 1 200 kg/ha, + 1 500 kg/ha Kunyijian; (2) organic fertilizer: microbial agent = 40 : 1（kg）, + 900 kg/ha Kunyijian. The results show that in the treatment of 70% local fertilizer consumption + 1 200 kg/ha Kunyijian [organic fertilizer: microbial agent = 80 : 1（kg）], the comprehensive performance of flue-cured tobacco was significantly better than that in the control groups, the yield of tobacco leaves reached 2 237.1 kg/ha, the output value was 45 505.2 yuan/ha, and the average price of the tobacco leaves was 20.53 yuan/kg. The performance of flue-cured tobacco in the treatment of 70% local fertilizer consumption + 1 500 kg/ha Kunyijian ranked second. The performance of other fertilization treatments was not good, but it did not differ significantly from that of control 1. In terms of chemical composition of tobacco leaves, partial replacement of chemical fertilizer by bio-organic fertilizer Kunyijian, was beneficial to increase the sugar content and reduce the nicotine and total nitrogen contents in tobacco leaves, especially the treatment of 70% local fertilizer consumption + 900 kg/ha Kunyijian (organic fertilizer : microbial agent = 80 kg: 1 kg), and it was also beneficial to increase the chlorine content in tobacco leaves, especially the treatment of 70% local fertilizer consumption + 1 500 kg/ha Kunyijian [organic fertilizer: microbial agent = 80 : 1（kg）]. Therefore, it is feasible to use the bio-organic fertilizer Kunyijian to replace 30% of chemical fertilizer in tobacco production. The rate is recommended to be 900- 1 500 kg/ha [organic fertilizer: microbial agent = 80 : 1（kg）]. It is suggested to further strengthen the demonstration and promotion of Kunyijian

A Novel Motif in the 3′-UTR of PRRSV-2 Is Critical for Viral Multiplication and Contributes to Enhanced Replication Ability of Highly Pathogenic or L1 PRRSV

Highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (HP-PRRSV) with enhanced replication capability emerged in China and has become dominant epidemic strain since 2006. Up to now, the replication-regulated genes of PRRSV have not been fully clarified. Here, by swapping the genes or elements between HP-PRRSV and classical PRRSV based on infectious clones, NSP1, NSP2, NSP7, NSP9 and 3′-UTR are found to contribute to the high replication efficiency of HP-PRRSV. Further study revealed that mutations at positions 117th or 119th in the 3′-UTR are significantly related to replication efficiency, and the nucleotide at position 120th is critical for viral rescue. The motif composed by 117–120th nucleotides was quite conservative within each lineage of PRRSV; mutations in the motif of HP-PRRSV and currently epidemic lineage 1 (L1) PRRSV showed higher synthesis ability of viral negative genomic RNA, suggesting that those mutations were beneficial for viral replication. RNA structure analysis revealed that this motif maybe involved into a pseudoknot in the 3′-UTR. The results discovered a novel motif, 117–120th nucleotide in the 3′-UTR, that is critical for replication of PRRSV-2, and mutations in the motif contribute to the enhanced replicative ability of HP-PRRSV or L1 PRRSV. Our findings will help to understand the molecular basis of PRRSV replication and find the potential factors resulting in an epidemic strain of PRRSV