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Abstract Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have been regarded as promising next‐generation energy‐storage devices owing to their inherently high theoretical energy density. Unfortunately, the poor capacity and cycling life caused by severe polysulfide shuttle effect and sluggish redox kinetics in sulfur cathodes greatly impede the practical application of Li–S batteries. Herein, a new class of nanonetwork‐structured carbon decorated with oxygen‐vacancy‐containing cerium oxide nanoparticles (NSC–CeO2−x), in which carbon skeleton is composed of highly conductive carbon nanotube core welded by hybrid carbon shell, has been developed via one‐step heating treatment of hybrid molecular brush and further employed as functional interlayer to modify separator of Li–S battery. Owing to the synergistic effect of the highly active CeO2−x nanoparticles and the three‐dimensional carbon nanonetwork in enhancing the preservation of the soluble polysulfides and boosting the redox kinetics of sulfur species, the NSC–CeO2−x significantly promotes the electrochemical performance of sulfur cathode. As a result, the as‐constructed Li–S batteries exhibit an ultrahigh initial sulfur utilization of 92.9% and an extremely large capacity of 751 mA h g−1 at a high rate of 5 C. Remarkably, a stable capacity of 728 mA h g−1 over 300 cycles at 1 C is also achieved.

The authors use polyacrylamide grafted graphene oxide as a molecular brush to coat the commercial polypropylene separator. The bilayer design combines lithiophilicity chemistry and high mechanical strength, rendering high performance Li metal anodes and offering a strategy for the design of separators.

In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, influenza virus infections continuously lead to a global disease burden. Evaluating vaccine effectiveness against influenza infection is crucial to inform vaccine design and vaccination strategy. In this study, we recruited 1120 patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) who attended fever clinics of 4 sentinel hospitals in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, from January 1 to April 7, 2024. Using a test-negative design, we estimated influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 54.7% (95% CrI: 23.7, 73.1) against medical-attended influenza infection, with 62.3% (95% CrI: 29.3, 79.8) against influenza A, and 51.2% (95% CrI: 28.7, 83.0) against influenza B. Despite the moderate VE estimated in this study, influenza vaccination remains the most important approach to prevent influenza at the community level.

As the most widely distributed scavenger birds on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Himalayan vultures (Gyps himalayensis) feed on the carcasses of various wild and domestic animals, facing the dual selection pressure of pathogens and antibiotics and are suitable biological sentinel species for monitoring antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This study used metagenomic sequencing to comparatively investigate the ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) of wild and captive Himalayan vultures. Overall, the resistome of Himalayan vultures contained 414 ARG subtypes resistant to 20 ARG types, with abundances ranging from 0.01 to 1,493.60 ppm. The most abundant resistance type was beta-lactam (175 subtypes), followed by multidrug resistance genes with 68 subtypes. Decreases in the abundance of macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLS) resistance genes were observed in the wild group compared with the zoo group. A total of 75 genera (five phyla) of bacteria were predicted to be the hosts of ARGs in Himalayan vultures, and the clinical (102 ARGs) and high-risk ARGs (35 Rank I and 56 Rank II ARGs) were also analyzed. Among these ARGs, twenty-two clinical ARGs, nine Rank I ARG subtypes, sixteen Rank II ARG subtypes were found to differ significantly between the two groups. Five types of MGEs (128 subtypes) were found in Himalayan vultures. Plasmids (62 subtypes) and transposases (44 subtypes) were found to be the main MGE types. Efflux pump and antibiotic deactivation were the main resistance mechanisms of ARGs in Himalayan vultures. Decreases in the abundance of cellular protection were identified in wild Himalayan vultures compared with the captive Himalayan vultures. Procrustes analysis and the co-occurrence networks analysis revealed different patterns of correlations among gut microbes, ARGs, and MGEs in wild and captive Himalayan vultures. This study is the first step in describing the characterization of the ARGs in the gut of Himalayan vultures and highlights the need to pay more attention to scavenging birds.

IntroductionHimalayan vultures (Gyps hinalayensis) are widely distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and play a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance by feeding on decayed corpses of wild and domestic animals. Large-scale culture and metagenomics studies have broadened our understanding of viral diversity in animals’ gastrointestinal tracts. However, despite the importance of gut viral communities in regulating bacterial diversity and performing symbiotic functions, no gut viral study has been conducted on Himalayan vultures. Furthermore, the impact of captivity on the gut virome of these vultures remains unknown.MethodsIn this study, metagenomic sequencing methods targeting DNA of virus-like particles enriched from feces were used to characterize the gut DNA viromes of wild and captive Himalayan vultures.ResultsIn total, 22,938 unique viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) were identified and assigned to 140 viral genera in 41 viral families. These families included viruses associated with bacteria, animals, plants, insects, and archaea. Phage communities, including Siphoviridae, Microviridae, Myoviridae, Inoviridae, and Herelleviridae, dominated the gut virome of Himalayan vultures. Wild vultures exhibited higher viral richness and diversity compared with those in captivity. The functional capacity of the gut virome was characterized by identifying 93 KEGG pathways, which were significantly enriched in metabolism and genetic information processing. Abundant auxiliary metabolic genes, such as carbohydrate-active enzyme, and antibiotic resistance genes, were also found in the vultures’ gut virome.DiscussionOur findings reveal the complex and diverse viral community present in the gut virome of Himalayan vultures, which varies between wild, and captive states. The DNA virome dataset establishes a baseline for the vultures’ gut virome and will serve as a reference for future virus isolation and cultivation. Understanding the impact of captivity on the gut virome contributes to our knowledge of vultures’ response to captivity and aids in optimizing their rehabilitation and implementing protective measures.

Summary The previous studies have reported that the mammalian gut microbiota is a physiological consequence; nonetheless, the factors influencing its composition and function remain unclear. In this study, to evaluate the contributions of the host and environment to the gut microbiota, we conducted a sequencing analysis of 16S rDNA and shotgun metagenomic DNA from plateau pikas and yaks, two sympatric herbivorous mammals, and further compared the sequences in summer and winter. The results revealed that both pikas and yaks harboured considerably more distinct communities between summer and winter. We detected the over‐representation of Verrucomicrobia and Proteobacteria in pikas, and Archaea and Bacteroidetes in yaks. Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, associated with energy‐efficient acquisition, significantly enriched in winter. The diversity of the microbial community was determined by the interactive effects between the host and season. Metagenomic analysis revealed that methane‐metabolism‐related pathway of yaks was significantly enriched in summer, while some pathogenic pathways were more abundant in pikas. Both pikas and yaks had a higher capacity for lipid degradation in winter. Pika and yak shared more OTUs when food shortage occurred in winter, and this caused a convergence in gut microbial composition and function. From winter to summer, the network module number increased from one to five in pikas, which was different in yaks. Our study demonstrates that the host is a dominant factor in shaping the microbial communities and that seasonality promotes divergence or convergence based on dietary quality across host species identity.

STT3 is a catalytic subunit of hetero‐oligomeric oligosaccharyltransferase (OST), which is important for asparagine‐linked glycosylation. In mammals and plants, OSTs with different STT3 isoforms exhibit distinct levels of enzymatic efficiency or different responses to stressors. Although two different STT3 isoforms have been identified in both plants and animals, it remains unclear whether these isoforms result from gene duplication in an ancestral eukaryote. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms underlying the functional divergences between the two STT3 isoforms in plant have not been well elucidated. Here, we conducted phylogenetic analysis of the major evolutionary node species and suggested that gene duplications of STT3 may have occurred independently in animals and plants. Across land plants, the exon–intron structure differed between the two STT3 isoforms, but was highly conserved for each isoform. Most angiosperm STT3a genes had 23 exons with intron phase 0, while STT3b genes had 6 exons with intron phase 2. Characteristic motifs (motif 18 and 19) of STT3s were mapped to different structure domains in the plant STT3 proteins. These two motifs overlap with regions of high nonsynonymous‐to‐synonymous substitution rates, suggesting the regions may be related to functional difference between STT3a and STT3b. In addition, promoter elements and gene expression profiles were different between the two isoforms, indicating expression pattern divergence of the two genes. Collectively, the identified differences may result in the functional divergence of plant STT3s.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths and continuously increases new cancer cases globally. Accumulating evidence links risks of CRC to antibiotic use. Long-term use and abuse of antibiotics increase the resistance of the gut microbiota; however, whether CRC is associated with antibiotic resistance in gut microbiota is still unclear. In this study, we performed a de novo assembly to metagenomic sequences in 382 CRC patients and 387 healthy controls to obtain representative species-level genome bins (rSGBs) and plasmids and analyzed the abundance variation of species and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Twenty-five species and 65 ARGs were significantly enriched in the CRC patients, and among these ARGs, 12 were multidrug-resistant genes (MRGs), which mainly included acrB, TolC, marA, H-NS, Escherichia coli acrR mutation, and AcrS. These MRGs could confer resistance to fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, cephalosporins, and rifamycin antibiotics by antibiotic efflux and inactivation. A classification model was built using the abundance of species and ARGs and achieved areas under the curve of 0.831 and 0.715, respectively. Our investigation has identified the antibiotic resistance types of ARGs and suggested that E. coli is the primary antibiotic resistance reservoir of ARGs in CRC patients, providing valuable evidence for selecting appropriate antibiotics in the CRC treatment.

Many pieces of evidence show that the adaptive response of plants to salt stress requires the maturation of N-glycan on associated proteins. However, it is still little known about the salt-responsive glycoproteins that function in this process. In the present study, we identified salt-responsive glycoproteins in wild-type (WT) Arabidopsis and two mutants defective in N-glycan maturation, mns1 mns2 and cgl1. A total of 97 proteins with abundance changes of >1.5‐ or

Domestication is a key factor of genetic variation; however, the mechanism by which domestication alters gut microbiota is poorly understood. Here, to explore the variation in the structure, function, rapidly evolved genes (REGs), and enzyme profiles of cellulase and hemicellulose in fecal microbiota, we studied the fecal microbiota in wild, half-blood, and domestic yaks based on 16S rDNA sequencing, shotgun-metagenomic sequencing, and the measurement of short-chain-fatty-acids (SCFAs) concentration. Results indicated that wild and half-blood yaks harbored an increased abundance of the phylum Firmicutes and reduced abundance of the genus Akkermansia, which are both associated with efficient energy harvesting. The gut microbial diversity decreased in domestic yaks. The results of the shotgun-metagenomic sequencing showed that the wild yak harbored an increased abundance of microbial pathways that play crucial roles in digestion and growth of the host, whereas the domestic yak harbored an increased abundance of methane-metabolism-related pathways. Wild yaks had enriched amounts of REGs in energy and carbohydrate metabolism pathways, and possessed a significantly increased abundance of cellulases and endohemicellulases in the glycoside hydrolase family compared to domestic yaks. The concentrations of acetic, propionic, n-butyric, i-butyric, n-valeric, and i-valeric acid were highest in wild yaks. Our study displayed the domestic effect on the phenotype of composition, function in gut microbiota, and SCFAs associated with gut microbiota, which had a closely association with the growth performance of the livestock. These findings may enlighten the researchers to construct more links between economic characteristics and gut microbiota, and develop new commercial strains in livestock based on the biotechnology of gut microbiota.

Interactions between species provide the basis for understanding coexisting mechanisms. The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) and the yak (Bos grunniens) are considered competitors because they have shared habitats and consumed similar food on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau for more than 1 million years. Interestingly, the population density of plateau pikas increases with yak population expansion and subsequent overgrazing. To reveal the underlying mechanism, we sequenced the fecal microbial 16S rDNA from both sympatric and allopatric pikas and yaks. Our results indicated that sympatry increased both gut microbial diversity and similarity between pikas and yaks. The abundance of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Tenericutes decreased, while that of Verrucomicrobia increased in sympatric pikas. As for sympatric yaks, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes significantly increased, while Cyanobacteria, Euryarchaeota, and Verrucomicrobia significantly decreased. In sympatry, plateau pikas acquired 2692 OTUs from yaks, and yaks obtained 453 OTUs from pikas. The predominant horizontally transmitted bacteria were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Proteobacteria. These bacteria enhanced the enrichment of pathways related to prebiotics and immunity for pikas, such as heparin sulfate, heparin, chitin disaccharide, chondroitin-sulfate-ABC, and chondroitin-AC degradation pathways. In yaks, the horizontally transmitted bacteria enhanced pathways related to hepatoprotection, xenobiotic biodegradation, and detoxification. Our results suggest that horizontal transmission is a process of selection, and pikas and yaks tend to develop reciprocity through the horizontal transmission of gut microbiota.

Animal gut microbiomes can be clustered into “enterotypes” characterized by an abundance of signature genera. The characteristic determinants, stability, and resilience of these community clusters remain poorly understood. We used plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) as a model and identified three enterotypes by 16S rDNA sequencing. Among the top 15 genera, 13 showed significantly different levels of abundance between the enterotypes combined with different microbial functions and distinct fecal short-chain fatty acids. We monitored changes in the microbial community associated with the transfer of plateau pikas from field to laboratory and observed that feeding them a single diet reduced microbial diversity, resulting in a single enterotype with an altered composition of the dominant bacteria. However, microbial diversity, an abundance of some changed dominant genera, and enterotypes were partially restored after adding swainsonine (a plant secondary compound found in the natural diet of plateau pikas) to the feed. These results provide strong evidence that gut microbial diversity and enterotypes are directly related to specific diet, thereby indicating that the formation of different enterotypes can help animals adapt to complex food conditions. Additionally, natural plant secondary compounds can maintain dominant bacteria and inter-individual differences of gut microbiota and promote the resilience of enterotypes in small herbivorous mammals.

Sequential peptide ligation strategy becomes more and more important in large protein or long peptides chemical synthesis due to the limited peptide/protein size obtained by solid phase synthesis of individual peptides or even one-step peptide ligation. Herein, we developed an alternative method which could perform the sequential peptide ligation of several segments from N to C direction based on the combined use of thioacid capture ligation and native chemical ligation. The sweet protein monellin was produced through this strategy on a scale of multi-milligrams.