Knowledge sharing and team culture have been found to have an important influence on service innovation performance. However, there has been relatively little substantive research focusing on these ...issues. This study's results support team culture's role in maintaining and moderating the relationship between knowledge sharing and service innovation performance. The research framework developed in this study was tested by 621 employees of international tourist hotels. The survey responses indicated that the relationships between and among knowledge sharing, team culture and service innovation performance are significant and strong. The main overall practical implication that can be drawn from these findings is that to achieve high service innovation performance, organizations first need to develop knowledge sharing behaviors plus a better team culture.
Preterm birth (PTB) is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested that the maternal vaginal microbiota contributes to the pathophysiology of PTB, but ...conflicting results in recent years have raised doubts. We conducted a study of PTB compared with term birth in two cohorts of pregnant women: one predominantly Caucasian (n = 39) at low risk for PTB, the second predominantly African American and at high-risk (n = 96). We profiled the taxonomic composition of 2,179 vaginal swabs collected prospectively and weekly during gestation using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Previously proposed associations between PTB and lower Lactobacillus and higher Gardnerella abundances replicated in the low-risk cohort, but not in the high-risk cohort. High-resolution bioinformatics enabled taxonomic assignment to the species and subspecies levels, revealing that Lactobacillus crispatus was associated with low risk of PTB in both cohorts, while Lactobacillus iners was not, and that a subspecies clade of Gardnerella vaginalis explained the genus association with PTB. Patterns of cooccurrence between L. crispatus and Gardnerella were highly exclusive, while Gardnerella and L. iners often coexisted at high frequencies. We argue that the vaginal microbiota is better represented by the quantitative frequencies of these key taxa than by classifying communities into five community state types. Our findings extend and corroborate the association between the vaginal microbiota and PTB, demonstrate the benefits of high-resolution statistical bioinformatics in clinical microbiome studies, and suggest that previous conflicting results may reflect the different risk profile of women of black race.
Despite the critical role of the human microbiota in health, our understanding of microbiota compositional dynamics during and after pregnancy is incomplete. We conducted a case-control study of 49 ...pregnant women, 15 of whom delivered preterm. From 40 of thesewomen, we analyzed bacterial taxonomic composition of 3,767 specimens collected prospectively and weekly during gestation and monthly after delivery from the vagina, distal gut, saliva, and tooth/gum. Linear mixed-effects modeling, medoid-based clustering, and Markov chain modeling were used to analyze community temporal trends, community structure, and vaginal community state transitions. Microbiota community taxonomic composition and diversity remained remarkably stable at all four body sites during pregnancy (P> 0.05 for trends over time). Prevalence of aLactobacillus-poor vaginal community state type (CST 4) was inversely correlated with gestational age at delivery (P= 0.0039). Risk for preterm birth was more pronounced for subjects with CST 4 accompanied by elevatedGardnerellaorUreaplasmaabundances. This finding was validated with a set of 246 vaginal specimens from nine women (four of whom delivered preterm). Most women experienced a postdelivery disturbance in the vaginal community characterized by a decrease in Lactobacillus species and an increase in diverse anaerobes such asPeptoniphilus, Prevotella, andAnaerococcusspecies. This disturbance was unrelated to gestational age at delivery and persisted for up to 1 y. These findings have important implications for predicting premature labor, a major global health problem, and for understanding the potential impact of a persistent, altered postpartum microbiota on maternal health, including outcomes of pregnancies following short interpregnancy intervals.
Current understanding of microorganism-virus interactions, which shape the evolution and functioning of Earth's ecosystems, is based primarily on cultivated organisms. Here we investigate thousands ...of viral and microbial genomes recovered using a cultivation-independent approach to study the frequency, variety and taxonomic distribution of viral defence mechanisms. CRISPR-Cas systems that confer microorganisms with immunity to viruses are present in only 10% of 1,724 sampled microorganisms, compared with previous reports of 40% occurrence in bacteria and 81% in archaea. We attribute this large difference to the lack of CRISPR-Cas systems across major bacterial lineages that have no cultivated representatives. We correlate absence of CRISPR-Cas with lack of nucleotide biosynthesis capacity and a symbiotic lifestyle. Restriction systems are well represented in these lineages and might provide both non-specific viral defence and access to nucleotides.
The vast majority of bacterial diversity lies within phylum-level lineages called “candidate phyla,” which lack isolated representatives and are poorly understood. These bacteria are surprisingly ...abundant in the oral cavity of marine mammals. We employed a genome-resolved metagenomic approach to recover and characterize genomes and functional potential from microbes in the oral gingival sulcus of two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We detected organisms from 24 known bacterial phyla and one archaeal phylum. We also recovered genomes from two deep-branching, previously uncharacterized phylum-level lineages (here named “Candidatus Delphibacteria” and “Candidatus Fertabacteria”). The Delphibacteria lineage is found in both managed and wild dolphins; its metabolic profile suggests a capacity for denitrification and a possible role in dolphin health. We uncovered a rich diversity of predicted Cas9 proteins, including the two longest predicted Cas9 proteins to date. Notably, we identified the first type II CRISPR-Cas systems encoded by members of the Candidate Phyla Radiation. Using their spacer sequences, we subsequently identified and assembled a complete Saccharibacteria phage genome. These findings underscore the immense microbial diversity and functional potential that await discovery in previously unexplored environments.
•Genomes were recovered from dolphin-associated candidate phyla bacteria•Two new bacterial phyla were defined (C. Delphibacteria and C. Fertabacteria)•C. Delphibacteria is common in the dolphin mouth and may affect host physiology•Novel functional diversity was identified, including unusual CRISPR-Cas9 systems
Dudek et al. reconstruct genomes from previously uncharacterized microbes living in the dolphin mouth. Three of these genomes represent two new phyla, and 22 come from members of nine relatively unexplored candidate phyla. Novel taxonomic diversity in the community is accompanied by novel functional diversity, such as unusual CRISPR-Cas9 systems.
Well-studied innate immune systems exist throughout bacteria and archaea, but a more recently discovered genomic locus may offer prokaryotes surprising immunological adaptability. Mediated by a ...cassette-like genomic locus termed Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), the microbial adaptive immune system differs from its eukaryotic immune analogues by incorporating new immunities unidirectionally. CRISPR thus stores genomically recoverable timelines of virus-host coevolution in natural organisms refractory to laboratory cultivation. Here we combined a population genetic mathematical model of CRISPR-virus coevolution with six years of metagenomic sequencing to link the recoverable genomic dynamics of CRISPR loci to the unknown population dynamics of virus and host in natural communities. Metagenomic reconstructions in an acid-mine drainage system document CRISPR loci conserving ancestral immune elements to the base-pair across thousands of microbial generations. This 'trailer-end conservation' occurs despite rapid viral mutation and despite rapid prokaryotic genomic deletion. The trailer-ends of many reconstructed CRISPR loci are also largely identical across a population. 'Trailer-end clonality' occurs despite predictions of host immunological diversity due to negative frequency dependent selection (kill the winner dynamics). Statistical clustering and model simulations explain this lack of diversity by capturing rapid selective sweeps by highly immune CRISPR lineages. Potentially explaining 'trailer-end conservation,' we record the first example of a viral bloom overwhelming a CRISPR system. The polyclonal viruses bloom even though they share sequences previously targeted by host CRISPR loci. Simulations show how increasing random genomic deletions in CRISPR loci purges immunological controls on long-lived viral sequences, allowing polyclonal viruses to bloom and depressing host fitness. Our results thus link documented patterns of genomic conservation in CRISPR loci to an evolutionary advantage against persistent viruses. By maintaining old immunities, selection may be tuning CRISPR-mediated immunity against viruses reemerging from lysogeny or migration.
Bacterial CRISPR-Cas systems provide insight into recent population history because they rapidly incorporate, in a unidirectional manner, short fragments (spacers) from coexisting infective virus ...populations into host chromosomes. Immunity is achieved by sequence identity between transcripts of spacers and their targets. Here, we used metagenomics to study the stability and dynamics of the type I-E CRISPR-Cas locus of Leptospirillum group II bacteria in biofilms sampled over 5 years from an acid mine drainage (AMD) system. Despite recovery of 452,686 spacers from CRISPR amplicons and metagenomic data, rarefaction curves of spacers show no saturation. The vast repertoire of spacers is attributed to phage/plasmid population diversity and retention of old spacers, despite rapid evolution of the targeted phage/plasmid genome regions (proto-spacers). The oldest spacers (spacers found at the trailer end) are conserved for at least 5 years, and 12% of these retain perfect or near-perfect matches to proto-spacer targets. The majority of proto-spacer regions contain an AAG proto-spacer adjacent motif (PAM). Spacers throughout the locus target the same phage population (AMDV1), but there are blocks of consecutive spacers without AMDV1 target sequences. Results suggest long-term coexistence of Leptospirillum with AMDV1 and periods when AMDV1 was less dominant. Metagenomics can be applied to millions of cells in a single sample to provide an extremely large spacer inventory, allow identification of phage/plasmids and enable analysis of previous phage/plasmid exposure. Thus, this approach can provide insights into prior bacterial environment and genetic interplay between hosts and their viruses.
Recent studies suggest that the microbiome has an impact on gestational health and outcome. However, characterization of the pregnancy-associated microbiome has largely relied on 16S rRNA gene ...amplicon-based surveys. Here, we describe an assembly-driven, metagenomics-based, longitudinal study of the vaginal, gut, and oral microbiomes in 292 samples from 10 subjects sampled every three weeks throughout pregnancy. Nonhuman sequences in the amount of 1.53 Gb were assembled into scaffolds, and functional genes were predicted for gene- and pathway-based analyses. Vaginal assemblies were binned into 97 draft quality genomes. Redundancy analysis (RDA) of microbial community composition at all three body sites revealed gestational age to be a significant source of variation in patterns of gene abundance. In addition, health complications were associated with variation in community functional gene composition in the mouth and gut. The diversity of
-dominated communities in the vagina, unlike most other vaginal community types, significantly increased with gestational age. The genomes of co-occurring
strains with predicted distinct functions were recovered in samples from two subjects. In seven subjects, gut samples contained strains of the same
species that dominated the vaginal community of that same subject and not other
species; however, these within-host strains were divergent. CRISPR spacer analysis suggested shared phage and plasmid populations across body sites and individuals. This work underscores the dynamic behavior of the microbiome during pregnancy and suggests the potential importance of understanding the sources of this behavior for fetal development and gestational outcome.
This study addresses how various health concerns might influence not only consumers’ food choice motives but also consumers’ subsequent attitudes toward healthy eating. This study expects that those ...consumers with greater health concerns would have different food choice motives and better attitudes toward healthy eating. A self-completion questionnaire was used to gather information. Participants, a random sample of 500 undergraduate students from a national university in Taipei, Taiwan, provided a total of 456 usable questionnaires, representing a valid response rate of 91%. The average age of the respondents at the time of the survey was 21 years and 63% of respondents were females. The relationship between health concern and healthy eating attitudes was confirmed. The relationship between health concern of developing diseases and attitudes toward healthy eating was fully mediated by food choice motives. However, the relationship between calorie consumption health concern and healthy eating attitudes was only partially mediated by food choice motives. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas systems provide adaptive immunity against phage via spacer-encoded CRISPR RNAs that are complementary to invasive nucleic acids. ...Here, we challenge Streptococcus thermophilus with a bacteriophage, and used PCR-based metagenomics to monitor phage-derived spacers daily for 15 days in two experiments. Spacers that target the host chromosome are infrequent and strongly selected against, suggesting autoimmunity is lethal. In experiments that recover over half a million spacers, we observe early dominance by a few spacer sub-populations and rapid oscillations in sub-population abundances. In two CRISPR systems and in replicate experiments, a few spacers account for the majority of spacer sequences. Nearly all phage locations targeted by the acquired spacers have a proto-spacer adjacent motif (PAM), indicating PAMs are involved in spacer acquisition. We detect a strong and reproducible bias in the phage genome locations from which spacers derive. This may reflect selection for specific spacers based on location and effectiveness.
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