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Background: The skin microbiome is essential in guarding against harmful pathogens and responding to environmental changes by generating substances useful in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Among these microorganisms, Streptococcus is a bacterial species identified in various isolation sources. In 2021, a strain of Streptococcus infantis, CX-4, was identified from facial skin and found to be linked to skin structure and elasticity. As the skin-derived strain differs from other S. infantis strains, which are usually of oral origin, it emphasizes the significance of bacterial variation by the environment. Objective: This study aims to explore the unique characteristics of the CX-4 compared to seven oral-derived Streptococcus strains based on the Whole-Genome Sequencing data, focusing on its potential role in skin health and its possible application in cosmetic strategies. Methods: The genome of the CX-4 strain was constructed using PacBio Sequencing, with the assembly performed using the SMRT protocol. Comparative whole-genome analysis was then performed with seven closely related strains, utilizing web-based tools like PATRIC, OrthoVenn3, and EggNOG-mapper, for various analyses, including protein association analysis using STRING. Results: Our analysis unveiled a substantial number of Clusters of Orthologous Groups in diverse functional categories in CX-4, among which sphingosine kinase (SphK) emerged as a unique product, exclusively present in the CX-4 strain. SphK is a critical enzyme in the sphingolipid metabolic pathway, generating sphingosine-1-phosphate. The study also brought potential associations with isoprene formation and retinoic acid synthesis, the latter being a metabolite of vitamin A, renowned for its crucial function in promoting skin cell growth, differentiation, and maintaining of skin barrier integrity. These findings collectively suggest the potential of the CX-4 strain in enhancing of skin barrier functionality. Conclusion: Our research underscores the potential of the skin-derived S. infantis CX-4 strain by revealing unique bacterial compounds and their potential roles on human skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The skin microbiome, a diverse community of microorganisms, plays a crucial role in maintaining skin health. Among these microorganisms, the gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus luteus exhibits potential for promoting skin health. This study focuses on postbiotics derived from M. luteus YM-4, a strain isolated from human skin. Objective: Our objective is to explore the beneficial effects of YM-4 culture filtrate on dermatological health, including enhancing barrier function, modulating immune response, and aiding recovery from environmental damage. Methods: The effects of the YM-4 culture filtrate were tested on human keratinocytes and fibroblasts under various conditions using real-time PCR for gene expression analysis and fibroblast migration assays. A dehydration-simulated model was employed to prepare RNA-Seq samples from HaCaT cells treated with the YM-4 culture filtrate. Differentially expressed genes were identified and functionally classified through k-means clustering, gene ontology terms enrichment analyses, and protein-protein interactions mapping. Results: The YM-4 culture filtrate enhanced the expression of genes involved in skin hydration, hyaluronic acid synthesis, barrier function, and cell proliferation. It also reduced inflammation markers in keratinocytes and fibroblasts under stress conditions. It mitigated UVB-induced collagen degradation while promoted collagen synthesis, suggesting anti-aging properties, and accelerated wound healing processes by promoting cell proliferation and migration. RNA sequencing analysis revealed that the YM-4 culture filtrate could reverse dehydration-induced transcriptional changes towards a state similar to untreated cells. Conclusion: M. luteus YM-4 culture filtrate exhibits significant therapeutic potential for dermatological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A non-motile, novel actinobacterial strain, Kera-3T, which is a gram-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, was isolated from human keratinocytes on 1/10 diluted R2A agar. Whole-cell hydrolysis of amino acids revealed the presence of meso-DAP, alanine, and glutamic acid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9 (H8), whereas the primary fatty acids were C16:0 and C18:1ω9c. The major phospholipids included diphosphatidylglycerol and aminophospholipids, along with an unidentified phosphoglycolipid and an aminophosphoglycolipid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 73.2%, based on the complete genome sequence. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequence and phylogenomic analysis of 91 core genes showed that strain Kera-3T formed a new lineage in the family Iamiaceae, with the closest neighbour Rhabdothermincola sediminis SYSU G02662T having 91.19% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity. A comparative genomic study of the predicted general metabolism and carbohydrate-active enzymes supported the phylogenetic and phylogenomic data. Based on the analysis of physiological, biochemical, and genomic characteristics, strain Kera-3T can be distinguished from known genera in the family Iamiaceae and represents a novel genus and species. Therefore, the name Dermatobacter hominis gen. nov., sp. nov. was proposed, with the type strain Kera-3T (= KACC 22415T = LMG 32493T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a Task and Motion Planning algorithm for a robot manipulator to rearrange objects in a narrow and highly-dense workspace. In such a workspace, there may not be enough space to rearrange the objects that obstructs the way for a robot manipulator to access a target object. The present work aims to relocate as few objects (so called obstacles) as possible for the robot manipulator to grasp the target object successfully. The proposed algorithm seeks both the sequence of obstacles to be rearranged and the corresponding places to move them. A heuristic search is employed to find a rearrangement sequence and places. Especially, in the proposed algorithm, stacking an object on the top of other objects is allowed, while searching a place to rearrange obstacles. Virtual simulations and real robot experiments show that the proposed algorithm works reasonably for dense real-world environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skin microbiome, especially the axillary microbiome, consists of odor-causing bacteria that decompose odorless sweat into malodor compounds, which contributes to the formation of body odor. Plant-derived products are a cheap source of bioactive compounds that are common ingredients in cosmetics. Microbial bioconversion of natural products is an ecofriendly and economical method for production of new or improved biologically active compounds. Therefore, in this study, we tested the potential of a Lactobacillus acidophilus KNU-02-mediated bioconverted product (BLC) of Lotus corniculatus seed to reduce axillary malodor and its effect on the associated axillary microbiota. A chemical profile analysis revealed that benzoic acid was the most abundant chemical compound in BLC, which increased following bioconversion. Moreover, BLC treatment was found to reduce the intensity of axillary malodor. We tested the axillary microbiome of 18 study participants, divided equally into BLC and placebo groups, and revealed through 16S rRNA gene sequencing that Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Anaerococcus were the dominant taxa, and some of these taxa were significantly associated with axillary malodor. After one week of BLC treatment, the abundance of Corynebacterium and Anaerococcus, which are associated with well-known odor-related genes that produce volatile fatty acids, had significantly reduced. Likewise, the identified odor-related genes decreased after the application of BLC. BLC treatment enhanced the richness and network density of the axillary microbial community. The placebo group, on the other hand, showed no difference in the microbial richness, odor associated taxa, and predicted functional genes after a week. The results demonstrated that BLC has the potential to reduce the axillary malodor and the associated odor-causing bacteria, which makes BLC a viable deodorant material in cosmetic products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove the equivalence of two different types of capacities in abstract Wiener spaces. This yields a criterion for the Lp-uniqueness of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator and its integer powers defined on suitable algebras of functions vanishing in a neighborhood of a given closed set Σ of zero Gaussian measure. To prove the equivalence we show the Wr,p(B,μ)-boundedness of certain smooth nonlinear truncation operators acting on potentials of nonnegative functions. We discuss connections to Gaussian Hausdorff measures. Roughly speaking, if Lp-uniqueness holds then the 'removed' set Σ must have sufficiently large codimension, in the case of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator for instance at least 2p. For p = 2 we obtain parallel results on truncations, capacities and essential self-adjointness for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operators with linear drift. These results apply to the time zero Gaussian free field as a prototype example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unbalanced microbial ecosystem on the human skin is closely related to skin diseases and has been associated with inflammation and immune responses. However, little is known about the role of the skin microbiome on skin aging. Here, we report that the Streptococcus species improved the skin structure and barrier function, thereby contributing to anti-aging. Metagenomic analyses showed the abundance of Streptococcus in younger individuals or those having more elastic skin. Particularly, we isolated Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus infantis, and Streptococcus thermophilus from face of young individuals. Treatment with secretions of S. pneumoniae and S. infantis induced the expression of genes associated with the formation of skin structure and the skin barrier function in human skin cells. The application of culture supernatant including Streptococcal secretions on human skin showed marked improvements on skin phenotypes such as elasticity, hydration, and desquamation. Gene Ontology analysis revealed overlaps in spermidine biosynthetic and glycogen biosynthetic processes. Streptococcus-secreted spermidine contributed to the recovery of skin structure and barrier function through the upregulation of collagen and lipid synthesis in aged cells. Overall, our data suggest the role of skin microbiome into anti-aging and clinical applications. Kim et al. show that several Streptococcus species improve the structure and barrier function of human skin. They find that Streptococcus-secreted spermidine accelerates the recovery of skin structure and barrier function by increasing collagen and lipid synthesis in aged cells. This study suggests the role of skin microbiome for anti-aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to identify metabolite change during barley (Hordeum vulgare) germination and reveal active principles for the anti-wrinkle activity. Barley was germinated with deionized water (DW) and mineral-rich water (MRW) for the comparison of the effect of mineral contents on the metabolites changes during germination. The effects of germinated barley extracts (GBEs) on collagen production and collagenase inhibition were evaluated in vitro using human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). A pronounced anti-wrinkle activity was observed in the test group treated with the MRW-GBEs. In order to find out the active components related to the anti-wrinkle activity, an orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was performed, using the data from secondary metabolites profiling conducted by UPLC–PDA–ESI–MS. The anti-wrinkle activity of MRW-GBEs was revealed to be associated with the increase of oligomeric compounds of procyanidin and prodelphinidin, indicating that it can be used as an active ingredient for anti-wrinkle agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina is the largest member of the phocid seals and is a highly sexually dimorphic predator at circumpolar regions. In this study, we generated the first high-quality de novo assembly of the blood transcriptome of M. leonina using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 40.5 million raw reads were obtained and assembled using the Oases assembly platform, resulting in 46,445 contigs with an N50 value of 634 bp. We performed functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology (GO), Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. Ortholog comparison revealed that a high proportion of the M. leonina blood transcriptome had significant sequence homology within pinnipeds. M. leonine, a deep and long-diving seal, is routinely exposed to progressive hypoxia during dives. KEGG analyses detected an intact hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) signaling pathway, which is a key metabolism pathway in the adaptive homeostatic responses to hypoxia. In the blood transcriptome, many essential genes involved in innate immunity were detected, which suggests that the blood serves as a host defense modulator against exogenous infections in M. leonina. This genomic resource will be useful for understanding adaptive metabolism upon repeated breath-hold dives and determining the health status of southern elephant seals without the need to sacrifice them in experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Temperature is an important abiotic factor that directly influences the physiology of marine fish. The Antarctic bullhead notothen Notothenia coriiceps inhabits water with temperatures ranging from — 1.9 to 2°C at circumpolar regions. Thus, N. coriiceps is useful as a model animal for understanding the effects of temperature stress. Methods: To assess the transcriptional response of skin tissue to temperature changes, Antarctic bullhead notothen were exposed to two temperature stresses, 4°C and — 2°C, following acclimatization at 2°C. Twenty-four hours after the temperature change, skin transcriptomes were sequenced using the Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform and analyzed using a series of bioinformatics tools. Functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases revealed commonly or distinctively modulated transcriptional changes in skin. Results: Both temperature stressors significantly upregulated the actin cytoskeleton regulation pathway and the skin's water barrier function, while the stressors downregulated the metabolism involved in muscle contraction, choline receptor regulation, collagen regulation, and immunity. Cold stress caused significant downregulation of the mRNA expression of genes involved in vasopressin-regulated water reabsorption. Neither the heat- nor cold-stressed skin transcriptomes exhibited significant heat shock protein expression. Conclusion: Our results suggest that, as a first barrier for fish, the skin has complex metabolisms with high transcriptional sensitivity against environmental temperature stress. These results will be useful for understanding the skin-specific molecular mechanisms that Antarctic fish use to adapt to temperature fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is a primary cause of premature skin aging that is closely associated with the degradation of collagens caused by up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) or a decrease in collagen synthesis. The phenolic veratric acid (VA, 3,4-dimethoxybenzoic acid) is one of the major benzoic acid derivatives from fruits, vegetables and medicinal mushrooms. VA has been reported to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and photo-protective effects. In this study, anti-photoaging effects were investigated through the photo-protective mechanisms of VA against UV irradiation in human dermal fibroblasts and the reconstructed human epidermal model. We used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot analysis, hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E) and immunohistochemistry assays. Finally, we further investigated the clinical effects of VA on facial wrinkle improvements in humans. Our results demonstrate that VA attenuated the expression of MMPs, increased cell proliferation, type Ι procollagen, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases, and filaggrin against UV radiation; however, has no effect on improvement expressions of elastic fiber. In addition, treatment with cream containing VA improved facial wrinkles in a clinical trial. These findings indicate that VA improves wrinkle formation by modulating MMPs, collagens and epidermal layer integrity, suggesting its potential use in UV-induced premature skin aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for the chinstrap penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to nine. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.136 to 0.864 and from 0.208 to 0.831, respectively. Cross-species amplification was successful in other penguin species, including Pygoscelis papua, Pygoscelis adelie, and Eudyptes chrysolophus. The microsatellite markers developed in this study can be used in future conservation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sesarmops intermedius, which is designated as an endangered species in Korea, has been severely threatened by habitat destruction and pollution. From this species, we isolated 9 polymorphic microsatellites, which are independent of each other and represent allele frequencies under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, except for 1 locus. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 7 to 20. The expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.77 to 0.96 and from 0.63 to 0.95, respectively. We also examined cross-species amplification of the 9 developed microsatellite loci in 2 other crabs designated as endangered species in Korea and 6 sesarmid crabs, which live in habitats similar to that of S. intermedius. These markers have the potential to contribute to establishing conservation plans for this endangered crab species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]