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Introduction: Fusarium-induced root rot of Carya cathayensis (C. cathayensis) is a typical soil-borne disease that has severely damaged the Carya cathayensis industry in China. Understanding the interaction among soil microbial communities, soil characteristics, and pathogenic bacteria is very important for the ecological prevention and control of Carya cathayensis root rot. Methods: We used Miseq Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology to study the microbial community in the rhizosphere soil of healthy and diseased C. cathayensis, quantified the abundance of bacteria, fungi, and pathogenic fungi, and combined these with soil chemistry and enzyme activity indicators to analyze the characteristics of healthy and diseased rhizosphere soils. Results: We found that the pH, soil organic carbon(SOC), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK),N-acetyl- β -D-glucosaminidase (NAG) β-glucosidase (BG), fungal gene copy number, bacterial community diversity and network complexity of the diseased soil were significantly lower (p < 0.05), while Fusarium graminearum copies number levels increased (p < 0.05). Additionally, the study found that healthy soils were enriched with beneficial bacteria such as Subgroup_7 (0.08%), MND1 (0.29%), SWB02 (0.08%), and Bradyrhizobium (0.09%), as well as potential pathogen-suppressing fungi such as Mortierella (0.13%), Preussia (0.03%), and Humicol (0.37%), were found to be associated with the growth and development of C. cathayensis. Discussion: In summary, this research comprehensively reveals the differences in environmental and biological factors between healthy and diseased soils, as well as their correlations. It provides a theoretical basis for optimal soil environmental regulation and the construction of healthy microbial communities. This foundation facilitates the development of multifaceted strategies for the prevention and control of C. cathayensis root rot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) has been widely acknowledged to play critical roles in fetal-maternal maintenance. However, the significance of using maternal serum sHLA-G to detect prenatal chromosomal abnormality has not been investigated. In China, prenatal screening using maternal α-fetoprotein (AFP), unconjugated estriol (uE3), and free β subunit human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) in the second trimester has been widely applied. In this study, we evaluated the use of sHLA-G as a screening marker, compared with traditional second trimester prenatal screening. Serum samples from 1,019 singleton women in their second trimester were assessed. Among them, 139 infants were confirmed with trisomy 21 (T21) by karyotyping, 83 were confirmed with trisomy 18 (T18), and the remaining 797 infants had no abnormalities. The sHLA-G levels in maternal sera were significantly lower in pregnant women with T18 fetuses (median: 47.8 U/ml, range: 9.8–234.2 U/ml) and significantly higher in those with T21 fetuses (median: 125.7 U/ml, range: 28.7–831.7 U/ml), compared with the normal controls (median: 106.3 U/ml, range: 50.5–1136.4 U/ml) (p < 0.001). The risk values of the screening of T21 or T18 fetuses were assessed using mean and standard deviation log10 analyte multiples of median (MoM) which showed that the predictive values of sHLA-G were the same as free β-hCG, and superior to AFP and uE3 for T18 screening. Logistic regression analysis revealed that sHLA-G MoM was the highest risk factor associated with pregnant women carrying T18 fetuses [Exp(B): 171.26, 95% CI: 36.30–807.97, p < 0.001]. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that the area under ROC curve for sHLA-G MoM was 0.915 (95% CI, 0.871–0.959, p < 0.001), for AFP MoM was 0.796 (95% CI, 0.730–0.861, p < 0.001), for free β-hCG MoM was 0.881 (95% CI, 0.829–0.934, p < 0.001), and for uE3 MoM was 0.876 (95% CI, 0.828–0.923, p < 0.001) in the T18 group. sHLA-G MoM demonstrated the best sensitivity and negative predictive value. For the first time, our findings reveal that sHLA-G is a better second trimester screening marker for the detection of T18 fetuses and the combined application of sHLA-G with AFP, free β-hCG, and uE3 could improve clinical screening for T18 fetuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aimed to compare the efficiency of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), karyotyping, and chromosomal micro-array (CMA) for the diagnosis of fetal chromosomal anomalies in the second and third trimesters. Pregnant women, who underwent amniocenteses for prenatal genetic diagnoses during their middle and late trimesters, were recruited at the Prenatal Diagnosis Center of Taizhou City. Maternal blood was separated for NIPT, and amniotic fluid cells were cultured for karyotyping and CMA. The diagnostic efficiency of NIPT for detecting fetal imbalanced anomalies was compared with karyotyping and CMA. A total of 69 fetal chromosomal imbalances were confirmed by CMA, 37 were diagnosed by NIPT and 35 were found by karyotyping. The sensitivities of NIPT and karyotyping for diagnosing aneuploidy were 96.3% and 100% respectively. Only one mosaic sexual chromosome monosomy was misdiagnosed by NIPT, whereas the sensitivity of NIPT and karyotyping was 70% and 30%, respectively, for detecting pathogenic deletions and duplications sized from 5–20 Mb. Taken together, our results suggest that the efficiency of NIPT was similar to the formula karyotyping for detecting chromosome imbalance in the second and third trimesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]