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In this study, three distinct low-temperature glass fillers for vacuum-assisted joining of reaction-bonded silicon carbide (RB-SiC) were designed. Additionally, the physical properties, microscopic morphologies and joints strength of these glass fillers were investigated. The results indicate that Zinc Borosilicate (ZBS) glass filler is the most effective for joining RB-SiC under the specified conditions. ZBS demonstrates optimal glass skeleton for joining, a compatible coefficient of thermal expansion, and superior wettability compared to the other tested powders. Notably, the shear strength of the RB-SiC joints with ZBS reached 80 MPa, markedly surpassing that of Lead zinc borate (PZB) and Lead borosilicate (PBS) by 381 % and 400 %, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although oxaliplatin (OXA) is widely used in the frontline treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), CRC recurrence is commonly observed due to OXA resistance. OXA resistance is associated with a number of factors, including abnormal regulation of pyroptosis. It is therefore important to elucidate the abnormal regulatory mechanism underlying pyroptosis. Here, we identified that the circular RNA circPDIA3 played an important role in chemoresistance in CRC. CircPDIA3 could induce chemoresistance in CRC by inhibiting pyroptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, RIP, RNA pull-down and co-IP assays revealed that circPDIA3 directly bonded to the GSDME-C domain, subsequently enhanced the autoinhibitory effect of the GSDME-C domain through blocking the GSDME-C domain palmitoylation by ZDHHC3 and ZDHHC17, thereby restraining pyroptosis. Additionally, it was found that the circPDIA3/miR-449a/XBP1 positive feedback loop increased the expression of circPDIA3 to induce chemoresistance. Furthermore, our clinical data and patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) models supported the positive association of circPDIA3 with development of chemoresistance in CRC patients. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that circPDIA3 could promote chemoresistance by amplifying the autoinhibitory effect of the GSDME-C domain through inhibition of the GSDME-C domain palmitoylation in CRC. This study provides novel insights into the mechanism of circRNA in regulating pyroptosis and providing a potential therapeutic target for reversing chemoresistance of CRC. [Display omitted] • A novel circRNA circPDIA3 was identified to induce chemoresistance in colorectal cancer patients. • CircPDIA3 amplified the autoinhibitory effect of the GSDME-C domain through inhibiting the GSDME-C domain palmitoylation to restrain pyroptosis. • The circPDIA3/miR-449a/XBP1 positive feedback loop was found to induce chemoresistance in CRC cells. • CircPDIA3 may represent a novel target to overcome chemoresistance in CRC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and robust localization is one of the most basic functional modules of mobile robots. A recent promising approach is to employ a camera that captures ground textures to achieve high-precision localization. However, low robustness and real-time performance are disadvantages of the system due to the time-consuming front-end feature extraction and search methods. To solve these problems, a comprehensive system that has high robustness and real-time performance is proposed, including offline mapping, global localization, local localization and map update. This paper summarizes a method for selecting the optimal front-end for different textures. A fast global localization method based on bag of words is proposed, which can quickly and effectively determine the local positioning area. Experiments are carried out on public datasets and actual indoor scenes to verify the practicability of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ZnO–Al 2 O 3 –B 2 O 3 –SiO 2 (ZABS) glass powder was designed and innovatively employed to join AlN ceramics. The crystallization, thermal expansion and wettability behavior of the ZABS glass and glass-ceramic were investigated. The results shows that Zn 3 B 2 O 6 , ZnSiO 4 and Zn 4 B 6 O 13 were precipitated after heat treatments at different temperature, respectively, resulting in a variation in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the ZABS glass ceramic. Then guided by the wetting behavior on the AlN ceramic substrate, the joining of the AlN ceramics by ZABS glass at various temperatures and holding times were conducted. Notably, Zn 3 B 2 O 6 was identified to be the primary product in the joints bonded at temperature of 700–800 °C due to the crystallization within the glass and no discernible reaction was observed between the substrate and the interlayer, while ZnSiO 4 was observed at the periphery of Zn 3 B 2 O 6 after 750 °C. Moreover, the crystalline phase Zn 3 B 2 O 6 gradually grew with the temperature and holding time increasing as the glassy phase gradually diminished, resulting in a reduction of the strength and reliability of the joints. The optimal flexural strength of the joints was 156 ± 11 MPa at 700 °C for 30min. The reason for the high strength can be attributed to the interactions between the glass precipitated crystalline phase interlocking each other and the glass phase tightly bonded with the crystalline phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Treating colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to be a clinical challenge. Studies have shown that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical step in tumor progression and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) signaling has been shown to play a crucial role in EMT. Here, we investigate the inhibition effect of Ginsenoside Rb2, main bioactive component of ginseng, in human colorectal cancer cells via TGF-β1.Purpose: The current study aims to study the inhibitory effect of Ginsenoside Rb2 on HCT116 and SW620 cells and its anti-tumor mechanism.Methods: Histomorphological analysis and western blot analysis were performed to evaluate expression of TGF-β1 in human cancerous colon samples and the adjacent normal samples. The docking simulation assay were performed to explore the potential mode of binding of Ginsenoside Rb2 to the TGF-β1 protein. CCK8, adhesion and invasion assay were used to assess the effects of Ginsenoside Rb2 in HCT116 and SW620 cells. RT-PCR, Western blot and Immunohistochemical staining were employed to detect the TGF-β1-related signaling pathways in the colon cancer cells and/or xenograft mice.Results: The expression of TGF-β1 in human cancerous colon samples was significantly increased compared with the adjacent normal samples. Ginsenoside Rb2 inhibit the growth, adhesion, EMT and metastasis of human colorectal cancer cells. The docking simulation assay confirmed that Ginsenoside Rb2 bound to the hydrophobic pocket of TGF-β1, which partially overlaps with the binding sites on TGF-β1, and thus disrupted TGF-β1 dimerization. Western Blot analysis further confirmed that Ginsenoside Rb2 could inhibit the expression of TGF-β1 in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, Ginsenoside Rb2 could inhibit the expression of Smad4 and phosphorylated Smad2/3.Conclusion: Ginsenoside Rb2 could inhibit EMT of colorectal cancer cells through the TGF-β1/Smad signaling, and might be a potential candidate for the treatment of colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A novel integrating conjugative element was identified to locate in the strain CZ130302, which is a new serotype (Chz) of Streptococcus suis. • ICE Ssu CZ130302 carries multiple antibiotic resistance genes and could be excised from donor cell chromosome, cyclized, and transferred. • S. suis virulent strain P1/7 showed obvious changes in multi-drug resistance after captured ICE Ssu CZ130302. Abstract Streptococcus suis represents a key antibiotic resistance gene reservoir and an important pathogen for humans and animals. Resistance can be spread through horizontal gene transfer of chromosome-borne mobile genetic elements; however, the exact mechanism by which this occurs remains poorly understood. In the present study, we identified and characterized a novel 82-kb integrative conjugative element (ICE) named ICE Ssu CZ130302 from the virulent S. suis strain CZ130302. It carries genes that provide resistance to multiple antibiotics, such as tetracycline, doxycycline, erythromycin, lincomycin, neomycin, and kanamycin. It also contains a nisin biosynthesis gene cluster, a toxin-antitoxin system, a type IV secretion system, and an integrase and excisase system. The mobile element can be excised from the chromosome, circulized, and transferred via conjugation from serotype Chz strain CZ130302 to serotype 2 strain P1/7, where it confers resistance to the aforementioned antimicrobial agents. The full length ICE, where multiple antimicrobial resistance genes accumulated, was further identified to be naturally transferred between different serotypes strains of S. suis. This finding illustrates how such elements represent a potential means by which antimicrobial resistance is introduced to a wide range of bacteria of veterinary and medical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a major foodborne pathogen with a wide distribution in the world that causes economic and public health problems. Here, we isolated 152 V. parahaemolyticus strains from shellfish, shrimp, crab, and snails from 5 provinces in East China, and analyzed the genetic diversity, population structure, and virulence profiles of these isolates. Our results showed that the 152 V. parahaemolyticus strains belong to 84 different sequence types (STs), of which 69 (82.14 %) STs and 60 alleles were newly identified. The thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and the TDH-related hemolysin (TRH) were present in 4 V. parahaemolyticus isolates (2.63 %) respectively, while toxRS /new, a distinctive toxRS sequence that was associated with pandemic V. parahaemolyticus strains, is present in 52 isolates (34.21 %). Thereinto, both the ZJ11 and ZJ12 strains measure up to the standard of toxRS /new+, tdh +, and trh -, which was widely used marker for the rapid screening of pandemic strains, and thus these strains may have the risk of infectious outbreaks. In addition, we observed that all the 152 V. parahaemolyticus isolates encode type III secretion systems 1 and type VI secretion system (T6SS) 2, while 119 isolates (78.29 %) of them also contain T6SS1. The genetic relatedness of our isolates to the human V. parahaemolyticus collection was explored, which showed that ST6, ST79, ST162, ST1060, and ST1061 were all identified in both human isolates (7 isolates) uploaded in the PubMLST database and our marine products isolates (7 isolates). Our findings expand the views of the genetic diversity of V. parahaemolyticus and will contribute to understanding the potential risk of the transboundary spread of this bacterium. • 69 (82.14 %) STs of the 152 V. parahaemolyticus strains were newly identified. • Virulence genes tdh and trh were detected in 4 isolates (2.63 %) respectively. • The pandemic strains related gene toxRS /new is present in 52 isolates (34.21 %). • Some of the V. parahaemolyticus STs have a risk of transboundary spread to humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the characteristics of prevalent bacterial pathogens causing bovine mastitis have become increasingly complicated, and many commensal or unusual bacterial species have been isolated from milk samples of cows with mastitis. Strain JS20170427COW was isolated dominantly from the milk of Holstein Friesian cows with mastitis in Jiangsu province in China. Colonies of this strain showed a hillock-like protrusion, with a pale-yellow color at the protrusion and a transparent edge, 4–5 mm in diameter after cultivation at 37 °C for 24 h on 5% sheep blood-enriched agar. Although 16 s rRNA analysis showed the closest relationship with the family Flavobacteriaceae containing Elizabethkingia spp., Riemerella sp. and Soonwooa buanensis , the bacterial species of strain JS20170427COW could not be identified adequately because it had a sequence identity of less than 95 % in 16 s rRNA when compared with all the known species of the family Flavobacteriaceae. Unexpectedly, both the first and re-sequencing data determined the whole genome size of strain JS20170427COW to be 2.69 Mb, which is different from the above three closest bacterial species. Therefore, we hypothesized that strain JS20170427COW is a novel taxon of Flavobacteriaceae. Further identification using conserved genes, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), phylogenetic and average nucleotide identity analyses based on whole genome data suggested that JS20170427COW was more likely to be an Elizabethkingia -like strain, but that it does not belong to the Elizabethkingia genus. Comparison of the predicted open reading frames (ORFs) revealed that strain JS20170427COW encodes more special genes than Elizabethkingia species. In summary, we identified a novel Flavobacteriaceae taxon showing a close relationship with Elizabethkingia subspecies, which has potential pathogenicity in bovine mastitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the value of brachytherapy (BT) in metastatic cervical cancer, as it has not been well evaluated before. We analyzed 2391 patients with Stage IVB cervical cancer from 2004 to 2015 by using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry. The parameters were analyzed by Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression models to evaluate cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival. In general, both univariate and multivariate analysis showed that age, histologic type, tumor size, and chemotherapy were associated with CSS and overall survival (p < 0.05). Further subgroup analysis showed BT alone or BT combined with external beam radiotherapy improved CSS despite the tumor size. In addition, chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy prolonged CSS compared with external beam radiotherapy alone or no chemotherapy or radiotherapy independently of tumor size (p < 0.05). For newly diagnosed metastatic cervical cancers, BT with or without external beam radiotherapy is associated with improved survival. As an aggressive option, chemoradiotherapy is also a potential treatment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is considered as one of the key competition strategies by injecting toxic effectors for intestinal pathogens to acquire optimal colonization in host gut, a microenviroment with high-density polymicrobial community where bacteria compete for niches and resources. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), a major cause of infectious diarrhea in human and animals, widely encode T6SS clusters in their genomes. In this report, we first identified VT1, a novel amidase effector in ETEC, significantly hydrolyzed D-lactyl-L-Ala crosslinks between N -acetylmuramoyl and L-Ala in peptidoglycan. Further study showed that the VT1/VTI1 effector/immunity pair is encoded within a typical vgrG island, and plays a critical role for the successful establishment of ETEC in host gut. Numerous putative effectors with diverse toxin domains were found by retrieving vgrG islands in pathogenic E. coli , and designated as VT modules. Therein, VT5, a lysozyme-like effector widely encoded in ETEC, was confirmed to effectively kill adjacent cells, suggesting that VT toxin modules may be critical for pathogenic E. coli to seize a significantly competitive advantage for optimal intestinal colonization. To expand our analyses for large-scale search of VT antibacterial effectors based on vgrG island, >200 predicted effectors from 20 bacterial species were found and classified into 11 predicted toxins. This work reports a new retrieval strategy for screening T6SS effectors, and provides an example how pathogenic bacteria antagonize and displace commensal microbiome to successfully colonize in the host niches through a T6SS-dependent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The increase in carbon sinks is limited compared to the increase in carbon emissions. • The carbon sequestration ratio remains deficient and generally maintained around 10%. • The Hu Line spatial pattern of carbon emission and sink showed an unbalanced state. • The Hu Line's southeast side contributed the most GDP and terrestrial carbon sink. China's commitment to achieving the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality (CPCN) has attracted worldwide attention, and the efforts made by China are critical to realization of the 1.5 °C temperature control objective of the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, it is unclear whether long-term spatiotemporal changes in China's carbon emissions and carbon sinks exhibit specific spatial patterns, such as the Hu Line, which might affect China's future policymaking. Based on the emission factor, inventory, and eddy covariance methods, this study calculated China's carbon emissions (2003–2018) and terrestrial carbon sinks (2003–2020). Results showed that the increase in carbon sinks is limited in comparison with the increase in carbon emissions, and that the carbon sequestration ratio remains deficient and generally maintained at around 10 %. The spatial pattern of carbon emissions and carbon sinks showed an unbalanced state across the Hu Line, mainly reflected in accelerated increase in both the carbon emission rankings and the proportion of emissions to China's total carbon emissions of provinces on the northwestern side of the Hu Line. Despite this, the gross domestic product (GDP) rankings of those provinces have not improved substantially, whereas provinces on the southeastern side of the Hu Line have contributed most to China's GDP and terrestrial carbon sinks. The findings of this study improve understanding of the spatiotemporal relationship between carbon emissions and terrestrial carbon sinks in China, and represent alternative insights that could support adjustment of carbon-related policies and promote realization of CPCN in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus agalactiae is a contagious pathogen that causes bovine mastitis worldwide, resulting in considerable economic losses. In this study, we isolated 42 S. agalactiae strains in 379 milk samples from cows with subclinical mastitis on 15 dairy farms in 12 Chinese provinces. Analysis based on capsular typing and multilocus sequence typing, combined with patterns of virulence gene scanning and antimicrobial resistance, identified the lineages and populations of the isolates. We grouped the 42 isolates into 7 sequence types belonging to 6 clonal complexes, mainly CC103 (31/42 isolates; 73.8%). We identified an ST-23 strain named Sa 129 for the first time on Chinese dairy farms—this strain is usually associated with human isolates. Capsular types Ia and II were predominant in capsular typing. The prevalence of virulence profile 1 (bibA , cfb , cspA , cylE , fbsA , fbsB , hylB , and pavA) was 64.3%, and represented the main trend in China. With respect to antimicrobial resistance, most isolates were susceptible to β-lactams, rifamycin, glycopeptides, and oxazolidone; resistance to several antimicrobial agents, including lincomycin, clindamycin, and doxycycline, varied in 4 different regions. Our research provides a profile for the molecular epidemiology, multilocus sequence typing, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence gene clustering of S. agalactiae, and may be beneficial for the clinical monitoring, prevention, and control of mastitis in dairy cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhibition of the oxidative stress induced by hypoxia and ischemia would be beneficial for reducing neuroinflammation and promoting nerve cell survival. We had previously reported a kind of anthocyanin (pentunidin-3-O-rutinoside (p-coumaroyl)-5-O-glucoside) to reduce the damage to neurovascular unit in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats. However, the neuroprotective mechanism of anthocyanin remains to be elucidated. Neuronal autophagy, after ischemic hypoxia, seems to be part of the pro-survival signal. In the current study, we used oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) to stimulate SH-SY5Y cells, and observed whether anthocyanin could reduce the inflammatory response and apoptosis, and explored the role of autophagy in this process. Anthocyanin significantly increased the autophagic flux, inhibited oxidative stress, and reduced inflammatory response and neuronal apoptosis in OGD exposed SH-SY5Y cells. The autophagy agonist rapamycin enhanced the anti-inflammatory effect of anthocyanin, while the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) forbade its protective effect. Our finding, therefore, suggested the reduction of hypoxia and ischemia induced oxidative stress, along with inflammation and apoptosis, by anthocyanin, to occur via increase of autophagic flux in SH-SY5Y cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence indicates that CCL18 and the long non-coding RNA, HOTAIR, have critical roles in cancer progression and metastasis, but the correlation between CCL18 and HOTAIR in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and their downstream molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Overexpression of CCL18 in ESCC tissues was associated with a worse survival in patients with ESCC. CCL18 enhanced the invasiveness of ESCC cells in a dose-dependent manner, whereas CCL18 knockdown inhibited their invasiveness. In particular, CCL18 expression was positively associated with HOTAIR expression in ESCC tissues. Furthermore, CCL18 upregulated the expression of HOTAIR, and knockdown of HOTAIR alleviated the CCL18-induced invasiveness of ESCC cells. HOTAIR may act as a competing endogenous RNA and could effectively becoming a sponge for miR-130a-5p, thereby modulating the derepression of ZEB1 and promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition in ESCC. Our study suggests that CCL18 contributes to the malignant progression of esophageal cancer by upregulating HOTAIR expression. HOTAIR overexpression may promote tumor invasiveness and progression in ESCC, given that HOTAIR functions as a miR-130a-5p sponge, positively regulating ZEB1. This provides new therapeutic targets for early diagnosis and treatment of ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This is the first research to evaluate the biological functions of AtlA SS autolysin in SS. • AtlA SS was instrumental in cell separation and stress-induced autolysis. • AtlA SS contributes to biofilm formation, and also interacts specifically with fibrinogen and fibronectin. • Our results provide interesting insights into the role of AtlA SS in the pathogenesis of SS. Streptococcus suis (SS) is a major pathogen in the swine industry, and also an important zoonotic agent for humans. The novel SS cell surface protein, AtlA SS , comprising the special GW module and N -acetylmuramidases domain, was designated as a putative autolysin. Indeed, the atlA SS deletion mutant almost completely lost its activity in Triton X-100 induced bacterial autolysis, while the wild-type and CΔ atlA SS strains showed significant decrease, to less than 20% of the initial OD 600 values. Unexpectedly, both immunofluorescence and immunogold electron microscopy confirmed that AtlA SS is mainly located in the cell division septum, suggesting autolytic activity in peptidoglycan hydrolysis may be required for cell separation, thus modulating and truncating bacterial chain length. The biofilm capacity of the AtlA SS mutation was reduced ˜ 40%, as compared to the wild-type strain. The Δ atlA SS strain also attenuated bacterial adherence in human brain microvessel endothelial cells (HBMECs). Furthermore, we confirmed that AtlA SS has fibrinogen/fibronectin binding capacities. In mouse infection model, the AtlA SS inactivation also significantly attenuated bacterial virulence and proliferation in vivo. In conclusion, these results indicate that AtlA SS autolysin modulates bacterial chain length, and contributes to the full virulence of SS during infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis has received increasing attention for its involvement in severe infections in pigs and humans; however, their pathogenesis remains unclear. ClpX and ClpP, two subunits of the ATP-dependent caseinolytic protease Clp, play key roles in bacterial adaptation to various environmental stresses. In this study, a virulent S. suis serotype 2 strain, ZY05719, was employed to construct clpX and clpP deletion mutants (Δ clpX and Δ clpP , respectively) and their complementation strains. Both Δ clpX and Δ clpP displayed significantly reduced adaptability compared with the wild-type strain, evident through several altered phenotypes: formation of long cell chains, tendency to aggregate in culture, and reduced growth under acidic pH and H 2 O 2 -induced oxidative stress. ClpP and ClpX were required for the optimal growth during heat and cold stress, respectively. An in vitro experiment on RAW264.7 macrophage cells showed significantly increased sensitivity of Δ clpX and Δ clpP to phagocytosis compared with the wild-type strain. Mouse infection assays verified the deletion of clpX and clpP led to not only fewer clinical symptoms and lower mortality but also to a marked attenuation in bacterial colonization. These virulence-related phenotypes were restored by genetic complementation. Furthermore, the deletion of clpX or clpP caused a significant decrease in the expression of sodA , tpx , and apuA compared with the wild-type strain, suggesting that these genes may be regulated by ClpX and ClpP as downstream response factors to facilitate the bacterial tolerance against various environmental stresses. Taken together, these results suggest that ClpX and ClpP play important roles in stress tolerance for achieving the full virulence of S. suis serotype 2 during infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) is now recognized as an urgent threat to public health since the emergence of multidrug-resistant and hypervirulent isolates. We identified a hypervirulent K2 isolate from the milk samples possibly associated with an infection incident in children, which raised the alarm to the zoonotic potential of bovine mastitis Kp as a foodborne pathogen. Subsequently, numerous K1, K2, K3, K5, K54 and K57 strains were identified from mastitis milk samples, and showed high pathogenicity in infected mouse. Further analysis based on complete genomes found that these isolates showed closely evolutionary relationships with the human hypervirulent strains in diverse phylogenetic lineages, suggesting their potential risk to public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), is the etiological agent of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED), causes high mortality with severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration in swine farms. In this study, the PEDV strain 85-7 could be proliferated effectively in MARC-145 cells, and caused a distinct inhibition of the expression of interferon-β (IFN-β, encoded by IFNB1 ), which suggested that a full understanding how this virus manipulates the host immune responses is critical in the fight against the spread of PEDV. We found that, the infection of PEDV strain 85-7 significantly downregulated HSP27 production in MARC-145 cells, and overexpression of HSP27 (encoded by HSPB1 ) decreased the virus titer by about 28-fold. Further study revealed that HSP27 could significantly activate the NF-κB phosphorylation, and thus increase the mRNA level of IFNB1 and downstream interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in MARC-145 cells. Indeed, treatment with IFN-β and the ISGs, including murine myxovirus resistance 1 and 2 (Mx1 and Mx2), showed direct anti-PEDV activity. Notably, the antiviral activity and transcription of the antiviral effectors induced by overexpression of HSP27 could be counteracted by the knockdown of IFNB1 via RNA interference, indicating that HSP27 was an upstream regulator of the intracellular antiviral effect against PEDV infection. This study is the first to link HSP27 to PEDV replication via the innate immunity response, which contributed to further clarify the mechanism of PEDV infection and the development of novel antiviral therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis is one of the most important swine pathogens worldwide. In this study, a total of 22 virulence-related genes in 101 strains of S. suis serotype 2 (SS2) were detected by PCR, namely, mrp , epf , sly , fbps , rgg , ofs , srtA , pgdA , gapdh , iga , endoD , ciaRH , salKR , manN , purD , rgg , DppIV , neuB , dltA , SMU_61-like, SpyM3_0908 (Permease) and the SspA gene. The distribution of virulence-related genes among isolates was visualized using BioNumerics software to study similarities among the isolates. Two clusters of SS2 were apparent on the phylogenetic tree, namely, Clusters A and B. Both mouse and zebrafish infection models revealed that strains in Cluster B were more virulent than those in Cluster A. Statistical comparison between the two clusters was performed, and structure analysis demonstrated that epf , sly , rgg , endoD , SMU_61-like and SpyM3_0908 were possible predictive markers for SS2 virulence. The transcription levels of highly prevalent genes in both clusters were detected by qRT-PCR in representative strains. For Cluster A isolates, the transcription levels of neuB , dltA , fbps and pgdA were significantly lower, but the transcription level of iga was significantly higher than that in Cluster B isolates. Although encoded in the genomes of the selected Cluster A isolates, DppIV and mrp genes were not expressed. These results revealed the genetic differences between virulent and low-virulence SS2 isolates from China and provide a better understanding of the SS2 pathogenic mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Intensified urban development threatened forest and riparian plant diversity. • Socioeconomic and water conservancy development deteriorated plant diversity. • Riparian plants were more susceptible to artificial development than forest plants. • Human dominance destroys ecosystem services provision in meta-watershed ecosystems. Plant diversity is essential to maintain terrestrial ecosystem stability and balance, but it is highly susceptible to environmental changes that are generally dominated by human activities. In the natural habitat, plant growth and distribution patterns are known to be regulated by abiotic environments such as water, temperature, and nutrient. However, how growing human dominance impacts plant diversity at the watershed scale remains unclear. From the view of the meta-watershed ecosystem, this study constructed indicators to examine the plant diversity responses in karst watersheds of different urban development intensities. The results revealed that the growing urban development intensity deteriorated plant diversity and riparian plant diversity in the meta-watershed ecosystem. Both socioeconomic and water conservancy development had noticeable adverse effects on plant diversity. The riparian plants were more susceptible to artificial development than forest plants. The predicted results of various development scenarios suggest that, by the middle of the 21st century, plant diversity and food production in the watershed will meet a crisis unless forest protection policies are applied, and large-scale urban expansion is curbed. In the meta-watershed ecosystem, growing human dominance increasingly destroys plant diversity and the ecosystem supply. Policies and measures are urgently needed to reverse the potential deteriorating trend of the ecosystem, maintain the stability of the ecosystem, and promote the sustainable development of human society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We provide the first evidence of three distinguishable T6SS loci in APEC genomes. [•] Results display multipurpose T6SS1, single-minded T6SS2 and unserviceable T6SS3. [•] The properties difference of T6SS may be supervised and managed by VgrG. [•] A possible receptor-banding protein, VgrG may responsible for cell recognition. [•] Similar to the phage, the host specificity may also present in different T6SS loci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a major bacterial pathogen in the swine industry and an emerging zoonotic agent. S. suis produces an important extracellular component, capsular polysaccharide (CPS), based on which dozens of serotypes have been identified. Through virulence genotyping, we revealed the relatedness between subpopulations of S. suis serotype 2 (SS2), S. suis serotype 3 (SS3) and S. suis serotype 7 (SS7) strains despite their serotype differences. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to characterize the whole S. suis population and revealed capsule switching between S. suis strains. Importantly, capsule switching occurred in the SS2, SS3 and SS7 strains belonging to CC28 and CC29, which are phylogenetically distinct from the main CC1 SS2 lineage. To further explore capsule switching in S. suis , comparative genomic analyses were performed using available complete S. suis genomes. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that the SS2 strains could be divided into two clades (1 and 2), and those classified into clade 2 colocalized with SS3 and SS7 strains, in accordance with the above virulence genotyping and MLST analyses. Clade 2 SS2 strains presented high genetic similarity to SS3 and SS7 and shared common competence and defensive elements with them but were significantly different from Clade 1 SS2 strains. Notably, although the cps loci shared by Clade 1 and 2 SS2 strains were almost identical, a specific region of the cps locus of strain NSUI002 (Clade 2 SS2) could be found in the SS3 cps locus but not in the Clade 1 SS2 strain. These data indicated that the SS2 strains in CC28 and CC29 might have acquired the cps locus through capsule switching, which could explain the distinct genetic lineages within the SS2 population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]