Considering the fact that biopesticides are increasingly used to replace synthetic pesticides in pest control, it is necessary to assess their ecotoxicity and especially their non-target effects on ...soil microorganisms, which is largely unknown. In this study, the effects of the synthetic pesticide carbendazim and the biopesticides (cantharidin and norcantharidin) on soil microbial parameters in a silt loam soil were evaluated. By using commercial formulations at the recommended and higher rates, both cantharidin and norcantharidin induced adverse effects on soil invertase, phosphatase activities and fungal gene structure, but these changes were transient. After about two weeks, the harmful effects owing to the application of pesticides phased out and eventually became comparable with non-treated samples. The degradation of cantharidin and norcantharidin was rapid and can be completed within a few days in the soil. None of the three pesticides caused significant shifts in urease activity. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the soil microbial toxicity of these biopesticides for reasonable and efficient usage.
The bacterial communities of salami, Chinese dry-cured sausage and Chinese smoked-cured sausage were compared by high-throughput sequencing technology. The bacterial communities of Chinese dry-cured ...sausage and Chinese smoked-cured sausage were very different from that of salami, and the bacterial distribution was more abundant than that of salami. The highest number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was found in salami for the genus Staphylococcus spp., accounting for 97.45%. Accordingly, Staphylococcus spp. and, and Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including Lactobacillus spp., Weissella spp., Pediococcus spp., and Lactococcus spp. were the main bacteria both in Chinese dry-cured sausage and Chinese smoked-cured sausage. Moreover, the salami has a microbial safety with trace Enterococcus spp. (0.03%) population. In contrast, a larger Enterococcus spp. population with relative abundance of 1.16% and 2.99% was observed in Chinese dry-cured sausage and Chinese smoked-cured sausage, respectively. Apart from Enterococcus spp., several meat spoilage bacteria, namely, Photobacterium spp., Brochothrix spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were checked in Chinese-style sausages. The results revealed that the Chinese-style sausages have a poor hygienic quality, probably due to spontaneous fermentation. This study presents that high-throughput sequencing is a useful tool to evaluate bacterial diversity and monitor microbial quality in fermented sausages.
•Bacterial diversity of sausages was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing.•Staphylococcus was the most abundant bacterial taxonomy in salami.•Staphylococcus and Weissella were dominant bacteria in Chinese dry-cured sausage.•Weissella, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus were dominant in Chinese smoke-cured sausage.•High-throughput sequencing is useful to monitor food-borne pathogens in sausages.
Indoor airborne microplastics fibers (MPFs) are emerging contaminants of growing concern. Nowadays, air conditioners (ACs) are widely used in indoor environments. However, little is known about their ...impact on the distribution of indoor MPFs. In this study, we first disclosed the prevalence of MPF contamination in filters for indoor split ACs used in living rooms, dormitories, and offices. The average density of microfibers was 1.47–21.4 × 102 items/cm2, and a total 27.7–35.0% of fibers were MPFs. Of these fibers, the majority were polyester (45.3%), rayon (27.8%), and cellophane (20.1%). We further tracked the long-term accumulation of MPFs on AC filters in three types of rooms, and demonstrated that dormitories showed relatively heavy accumulation especially after running for 35–42 days. Furthermore, we found that simulative AC filters which had been lined with PET MPFs could effectively release those MPFs into indoor air, propelling them away from the ACs at varying distances. Statistical analysis showed that the estimated daily intake of MPFs (5–5000 μm length) from AC filters would increase gradually with their usage, with the intake volume reaching up to 11.2 ± 2.2–44.0 ± 8.9 items/kg-BW/day by the 70th day, although this number varied among people of different ages. Altogether, these findings suggest that AC filters can act as both a sink and a source of microplastics fibers. Therefore, AC filters should be evaluated not only for their substantial impact on the distribution of indoor airborne MPFs, but also for their role in the prevalence of the related health risks.
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•Microplastic fibers (MPFs) were widely detected on AC filters in multiple types of room.•MPFs including polyester, rayon and cellophane account for 28–35% fibers on AC filters.•MPFs accumulate on AC filters gradually, heavily after usage of 35–42 days.•Simulative PET MPFs can effectively release from AC filters, and into indoor air.•Estimated daily intake of MPFs increase with AC usage, vary among different age people.
Noninvasive differentiation between the squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC) subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) could benefit patients who are unsuitable for invasive ...diagnostic procedures. Therefore, this study evaluates the predictive performance of a PET/CT-based radiomics model. It aims to distinguish between the histological subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, employing four different machine learning techniques. A total of 255 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients were retrospectively analyzed and randomly divided into the training (n = 177) and validation (n = 78) sets, respectively. Radiomics features were extracted, and the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) method was employed for feature selection. Subsequently, models were constructed using four distinct machine learning techniques, with the top-performing algorithm determined by evaluating metrics such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the curve (AUC). The efficacy of the various models was appraised and compared using the DeLong test. A nomogram was developed based on the model with the best predictive efficiency and clinical utility, and it was validated using calibration curves. Results indicated that the logistic regression classifier had better predictive power in the validation cohort of the radiomic model. The combined model (AUC 0.870) exhibited superior predictive power compared to the clinical model (AUC 0.848) and the radiomics model (AUC 0.774). In this study, we discovered that the combined model, refined by the logistic regression classifier, exhibited the most effective performance in classifying the histological subtypes of NSCLC.
Genomic dissection of genetic effects on desirable traits and the subsequent use of genomic selection hold great promise for accelerating the rate of genetic improvement of forest tree species. In ...this study, a total of 661 offspring trees from 66 open-pollinated families of Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi (Lam.) Carrière) were sampled at a test site. The contributions of additive and non-additive effects (dominance, imprinting and epistasis) were evaluated for nine valuable traits related to growth, wood physical and chemical properties, and competitive ability using three pedigree-based and four Genomics-based Best Linear Unbiased Predictions (GBLUP) models and used to determine the genetic model. The predictive ability (PA) of two genomic prediction methods, GBLUP and Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces (RKHS), was compared. The traits could be classified into two types based on different quantitative genetic architectures: for type I, including wood chemical properties and Pilodyn penetration, additive effect is the main source of variation (38.20-67.46%); for type II, including growth, competitive ability and acoustic velocity, epistasis plays a significant role (50.76-91.26%). Dominance and imprinting showed low to moderate contributions (< 36.26%). GBLUP was more suitable for traits of type I (PAs = 0.37-0.39 vs. 0.14-0.25), and RKHS was more suitable for traits of type II (PAs = 0.23-0.37 vs. 0.07-0.23). Non-additive effects make no meaningful contribution to the enhancement of PA of GBLUP method for all traits. These findings enhance our current understanding of the architecture of quantitative traits and lay the foundation for the development of genomic selection strategies in Japanese larch.
Pancreatic cancer, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs), is a malignant tumor with characteristics of tumor-stroma interactions. Patients often have a poor prognosis and a poor ...long-term survival rate. In recent years, rapidly-developing single-cell sequencing techniques have been used to analyze cell populations at a single-cell resolution, so that it is now possible to have a more in-depth and clearer understanding of the genetic composition of pancreatic cancer. In this review, we provide an overview of the current single-cell sequencing techniques and their applications in the exploration of intratumoral heterogeneity, the tumor microenvironment, therapy resistance, and novel treatments. Our hope is to provide new insight into the potential of precision therapy, which will perhaps one day lead to significant advances in PDAC treatment.
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•Single-cell sequencing can reveal the pancreatic cancer heterogeneous landscape.•Single-cell sequencing can identify distinct stromal cells and their diverse cell phenotypes and molecular characteristics.•Single-cell sequencing can provide novel insights into resistance mechanism and predict treatment outcomes.
Abstract
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are an important component of the tumor microenvironment that are involved in multiple aspects of cancer progression and considered contributors to tumor ...immune escape. CAFs exhibit a unique radiation resistance phenotype, and can survive clinical radiation doses; however, ionizing radiation can induce changes in their secretions and influence tumor progression by acting on tumor and immune cells. In this review, we describe current knowledge of the effects of radiation therapies on CAFs, as well as summarizing understanding of crosstalk among CAFs, tumor cells, and immune cells. We highlight the important role of CAFs in radiotherapy resistance, and discuss current and future radiotherapy strategies for targeting CAFs.
More studies are using mitochondrial genomes of insects to explore the sequence variability, evolutionary traits, monophyly of groups and phylogenetic relationships. Controversies remain on the ...classification of the Mileewinae and the phylogenetic relationships between Mileewinae and other subfamilies remain ambiguous. In this study, we present two newly completed mitogenomes of Mileewinae (Mileewa rufivena Cai and Kuoh 1997 and Ujna puerana Yang and Meng 2010) and conduct comparative mitogenomic analyses based on several different factors. These species have quite similar features, including their nucleotide content, codon usage of protein genes and the secondary structure of tRNA. Gene arrangement is identical and conserved, the same as the putative ancestral pattern of insects. All protein-coding genes of U. puerana began with the start codon ATN, while 5 Mileewa species had the abnormal initiation codon TTG in ND5 and ATP8. Moreover, M. rufivena had an intergenic spacer of 17 bp that could not be found in other mileewine species. Phylogenetic analysis based on three datasets (PCG123, PCG12 and AA) with two methods (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) recovered the Mileewinae as a monophyletic group with strong support values. All results in our study indicate that Mileewinae has a closer phylogenetic relationship to Typhlocybinae compared to Cicadellinae. Additionally, six species within Mileewini revealed the relationship (U. puerana + (M. ponta + (M. rufivena + M. alara) + (M. albovittata + M. margheritae))) in most of our phylogenetic trees. These results contribute to the study of the taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships of Mileewinae.
Mitochondrial genomes are widely used for investigations into phylogeny, phylogeography, and population genetics. More than 70 mitogenomes have been sequenced for the diverse hemipteran superfamily ...Membracoidea, but only one partial and two complete mtgenomes mitochondrial genomes have been sequenced for the included subfamily Ledrinae. Here, the complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of two additional Ledrinae species are newly sequenced and comparatively analyzed. Results show both mitogenomes are circular, double-stranded molecules, with lengths of 14,927 bp (Tituria sagittata) and 14,918 bp (Petalocephala chlorophana). The gene order of these two newly sequenced Ledrinae is highly conserved and typical of members of Membracoidea. Similar tandem repeats in the control region were discovered in Ledrinae. Among 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) of reported Ledrinae mitogenomes, analyses of the sliding window, nucleotide diversity, and nonsynonymous substitution (Ka)/synonymous substitution (Ks) indicate atp8 is a comparatively fast-evolving gene, while cox1 is the slowest. Phylogenetic relationships were also reconstructed for the superfamily Membracoidea based on expanded sampling and gene data from GenBank. This study shows that all subfamilies (sensu lato) are recovered as monophyletic. In agreement with previous studies, these results indicate that leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) are paraphyletic with respect to the two recognized families of treehoppers (Aetalionidae and Membracidae). Relationships within Ledrinae were recovered as (Ledra + (Petalocephala + Tituria)).
Although sequences of mitogenomes have been widely used for investigating phylogenetic relationship, population genetics, and biogeography in many members of Fulgoroidea, only one complete mitogenome ...of a member of Flatidae has been sequenced. Here, the complete mitogenomes of Cerynia lineola, Cromna sinensis, and Zecheuna tonkinensis are sequenced. The gene arrangements of the three new mitogenomes are consistent with ancestral insect mitogenomes. The strategy of using mitogenomes in phylogenetics remains in dispute due to the heterogeneity in base composition and the possible variation in evolutionary rates. In this study, we found compositional heterogeneity and variable evolutionary rates among planthopper mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analysis based on site-homogeneous models showed that the families (Delphacidae and Derbidae) with high values of Ka/Ks and A + T content tended to fall together at a basal position on the trees. Using a site-heterogeneous mixture CAT + GTR model implemented in PhyloBayes yielded almost the same topology. Our results recovered the monophyly of Fulgoroidea. In this study, we apply the heterogeneous mixture model to the planthoppers’ phylogenetic analysis for the first time. Our study is based on a large sample and provides a methodological reference for future phylogenetic studies of Fulgoroidea.
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