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Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2021Postmenopausal women often suffer from vaginal symptoms associated with atrophic vaginitis. Additionally, gynecologic cancer survivors may live for decades with...
Postmenopausal women often suffer from vaginal symptoms associated with atrophic vaginitis. Additionally, gynecologic cancer survivors may live for decades with additional, clinically significant, persistent vaginal toxicities caused by cancer therapies, including pain, dyspareunia, and sexual dysfunction. The vaginal microbiome (VM) has been previously linked with vaginal symptoms related to menopause ( dryness). Our previous work showed that gynecologic cancer patients exhibit distinct VM profiles from healthy women, with low abundance of lactobacilli and prevalence of multiple opportunistic pathogenic bacteria. Here we explore the association between the dynamics and structure of the vaginal microbiome with the manifestation and persistence of vaginal symptoms, during one year after completion of cancer therapies, while controlling for clinical and sociodemographic factors. We compared cross-sectionally the vaginal microbiome in 134 women, 64 gynecologic patients treated with radiotherapy and 68 healthy controls, and we longitudinally followed a subset of 52 women quarterly (4 times in a year: pre-radiation therapy, 2, 6 and 12 months post-therapy). Differences among the VM profiles of cancer and healthy women were more pronounced with the progression of time. Cancer patients had higher diversity VMs and a variety of vaginal community types (CTs) that are not dominated by , with extensive VM variation between individuals. Additionally, cancer patients exhibit highly unstable VMs (based on Bray-Curtis distances) compared to healthy controls. Vaginal symptoms prevalent in cancer patients included vaginal pain (40%), hemorrhage (35%), vaginismus (28%) and inflammation (20%), while symptoms such as dryness (45%), lack of lubrication (33%) and dyspareunia (32%) were equally or more prominent in healthy women at baseline. However, 24% of cancer patients experienced persistent symptoms at all time points, as opposed to 12% of healthy women. Symptom persistence was strongly inversely correlated with VM stability; for example, patients with persistent dryness or abnormally high pH have the most unstable microbiomes. Associations were identified between vaginal symptoms and individual bacterial taxa, including: with vaginal dryness, with pain following vaginal intercourse, and with low levels of lubrication during intercourse. Taken together our results indicate that gynecologic cancer therapy is associated with reduced vaginal microbiome stability and vaginal symptom persistence.
Topics: Dyspareunia; Female; Humans; Lactobacillus; Menopause; Microbiota; Neoplasms; Vagina
PubMed: 34778097
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.680038 -
Biochemical Genetics Jun 2023Delftia acidovorans is distributed widely in the environment and has the potential to promote the growth of plants and degrade organic pollutants. However, it is also an...
BACKGROUND
Delftia acidovorans is distributed widely in the environment and has the potential to promote the growth of plants and degrade organic pollutants. However, it is also an opportunistic pathogen for human and many reports demonstrated that D. acidovorans has strong resistance to aminoglycosides and polymyxins.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this work was to reveal the antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenic genes in a novel conditional pathogenic strain-D. acidovorans B804, which was isolated from the radiation-polluted soil from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.
METHODS
The antibiotic resistance test was performed according to the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and evaluated by the standards of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The genome of D. acidovorans B804 was sequenced by a PacBio RS II and Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform in Shanghai Majorbio Biopharm Technology Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China).
RESULTS
The multidrug resistance phenotypes of D. acidovorans B804 was experimentally confirmed and its genome was sequenced. The total size of D. acidovorans B804 genome was 6,661,314 bp with a GC content of 66.73%. 403 genes associated with antibiotic resistances were predicted. Meanwhile, 89 pathogenic genes were also predicted and 17 of these genes might be capable of causing diseases to human, such as infections and salmonellosis.
CONCLUSIONS
This genomic information can be used as a reference sequence for comparative genomic studies. The results provided more insights regarding the pathogenesis and drug resistance mechanism of D. acidovorans, which will be meaningful for developing more effective therapies toward D. acidovorans-related diseases.
Topics: Humans; Delftia acidovorans; China; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Whole Genome Sequencing; Base Sequence
PubMed: 36451050
DOI: 10.1007/s10528-022-10306-4 -
Bioresource Technology Sep 2023Removing erythromycin from the environment is a major challenge. In this study, a dual microbial consortium (Delftia acidovorans ERY-6A and Chryseobacterium indologenes...
Removing erythromycin from the environment is a major challenge. In this study, a dual microbial consortium (Delftia acidovorans ERY-6A and Chryseobacterium indologenes ERY-6B) capable of degrading erythromycin was isolated, and the erythromycin biodegradation products were studied. Coconut shell activated carbon was modified and its adsorption characteristics and erythromycin removal efficiency of the immobilized cells were studied. It was indicated that alkali-modified and water-modified coconut shell activated carbon and the dual bacterial system had excellent erythromycin removal ability. The dual bacterial system follows a new biodegradation pathway to degrade erythromycin. The immobilized cells removed 95% of erythromycin at a concentration of 100 mg L within 24 h through pore adsorption, surface complexation, hydrogen bonding, and biodegradation. This study provides a new erythromycin removal agent and for the first time describes the genomic information of erythromycin-degrading bacteria, providing new clues regarding bacterial cooperation and efficient erythromycin removal.
Topics: Erythromycin; Charcoal; Bacteria; Biodegradation, Environmental; Adsorption
PubMed: 37315621
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129288 -
Microorganisms Sep 2023Phenanthrene (PHE) is one of the model compounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, a natural PHE-degrading microbial consortium, named HJ-SH,...
Phenanthrene (PHE) is one of the model compounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, a natural PHE-degrading microbial consortium, named HJ-SH, with very high degradation efficiency was isolated from soil exposed to long-term PHE contamination. The results of GC analysis showed that the consortium HJ-SH degraded 98% of 100 mg/L PHE in 3 days and 93% of 1000 mg/L PHE in 5 days, an efficiency higher than that of any other natural consortia, and even most of the engineered strains and consortia reported so far. Seven dominating strains were isolated from the microbial consortium HJ-SH, named SH-1 to SH-7, which were identified according to morphological observation and 16S rDNA sequencing as sp., sp., sp., sp., sp., sp., and sp., respectively. Among all the seven single strains, SH-4 showed the strongest PHE degradation ability, and had the biggest degradation contribution. However, it is very interesting that the microbial consortium can hold its high degradation ability only with the co-existence of all these seven single strains. Moreover, HJ-SH exhibited a very high tolerance for PHE, up to 4.5 g/L, and it can degrade some other typical organic pollutants such as biphenyl, anthracene, and n-hexadecane with the degradation ratios of 93%, 92% and 70%, respectively, under 100 mg/L initial concentration in 5 days. Then, we constructed an artificial consortium HJ-7 consisting of the seven single strains, SH-1 to SH-7. After comparing the degradation ratios, cell growth, and relative degradation rates, it was concluded that the artificial consortium HJ-7 with easier reproducibility, better application stability, and larger room for modification can largely replace the natural consortium HJ-SH. In conclusion, this research provided novel tools and new insights for the bioremediation of PHE and other typical organic pollutants using microbial consortia.
PubMed: 37894041
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11102383 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2024Tuta absoluta (the tomato pinworm) is an invasive insect pest with a highly damaging effect on tomatoes causing between 80 and 100% yield losses if left uncontrolled....
Tuta absoluta (the tomato pinworm) is an invasive insect pest with a highly damaging effect on tomatoes causing between 80 and 100% yield losses if left uncontrolled. Resistance to chemical pesticides have been reported in some T. absoluta populations. Insect microbiome plays an important role in the behavior, physiology, and survivability of their host. In a bid to explore and develop an alternative control method, the associated microbiome of this insect was studied. In this study, we unraveled the bacterial biota of T. absoluta larvae and adults by sequencing and analyzing the 16S rRNA V3-V4 gene regions using Illumina NovaSeq PE250. Out of 2,092,015 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) recovered from 30 samples (15 larvae and 15 adults), 1,268,810 and 823,205 ASVs were obtained from the larvae and adults, respectively. A total of 433 bacterial genera were shared between the adults and larval samples while 264 and 139 genera were unique to the larvae and adults, respectively. Amplicon metagenomic analyses of the sequences showed the dominance of the phylum Proteobacteria in the adult samples while Firmicutes and Proteobacteria dominated in the larval samples. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) comparison revealed the genera Pseudomonas, Delftia and Ralstonia to be differentially enriched in the adult samples while Enterococcus, Enterobacter, Lactococcus, Klebsiella and Wiessella were differentially abundant in the larvae. The diversity indices showed that the bacterial communities were not different between the insect samples collected from different geographical regions. However, the bacterial communities significantly differed based on the sample type between larvae and adults. A co-occurrence network of significantly correlated taxa revealed a strong interaction between the microbial communities. The functional analysis of the microbiome using FAPROTAX showed that denitrification, arsenite oxidation, methylotrophy and methanotrophy as the active functional groups of the adult and larvae microbiomes. Our results have revealed the core taxonomic, functional, and interacting microbiota of T. absoluta and these indicate that the larvae and adults harbor a similar but transitory set of bacteria. The results provide a novel insight and a basis for exploring microbiome-based biocontrol strategy for this invasive insect pest as well as the ecological significance of some of the identified microbiota is discussed.
Topics: Animals; Moths; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Insecta; Larva; Microbiota; Solanum lycopersicum; Bacteria
PubMed: 38594362
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58753-w -
Current Microbiology Dec 2021Despite root microecology playing critical role in plant growth and fidelity, relatively few studies have focused on the link between the microbial communities and root...
Despite root microecology playing critical role in plant growth and fidelity, relatively few studies have focused on the link between the microbial communities and root metabolome in the aquatic macrophytes under heavy metal (HM) pollution. Using high-throughput metagenomic sequencing, targeted metabolomics and community-level physiological profile analyses, we investigated the symbiotic associations between Phragmites australis with rhizospheric bacterial communities under differing acid mine drainage (AMD) pollution. Results indicated that AMD pollution and root localization significantly affected root metabolome profiles. Higher accumulation of adenosine monophosphate, inosine, methionine, carnitine and dimethylglycine were observed in the rhizosphere under AMD than non-AMD habitat. Overall, the bacterial diversity and richness, and functional (metabolic) diversity were lower under high-AMD pollution. While non-AMD site was enriched with members of phylum Firmicutes, Proteobacteria were the most abundant taxa in the rhizosphere and endosphere under AMD-polluted sites. Further, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (Rhizobium, Delftia, Bradyrhizobium, and Mesorhizobium) and metal-tolerant bacteria (Bacillus, Arthrobacter, Massilia and Methylocystis) were most abundant in AMD-polluted than non-AMD habitat. Finally, pH, TDS (total dissolved solids), Cu, Cr, Fe, and Zn content were the key environmental factors that strongly contributed to the spatial perturbation of rhizospheric metabolites, proteobacterial and acidobacterial taxa. Overall, the study linked the differential endospheric and rhizospheric bacterial community and metabolite profiles in P. australis under AMD environment and provided insights into HM adaptability and phytoremediation potential.
Topics: Bacteria; Biodegradation, Environmental; Ecosystem; Metabolomics; Metals, Heavy; Microbiota; Rhizosphere; Wetlands
PubMed: 34962589
DOI: 10.1007/s00284-021-02748-7 -
Frontiers in Microbiology 2021The response of plant endophytes to disease within infected tissues has been well demonstrated, but the corresponding response of endophytes in non-lesion tissues...
The response of plant endophytes to disease within infected tissues has been well demonstrated, but the corresponding response of endophytes in non-lesion tissues remains unclear. Here, we studied the composition and distribution of bacterial endophytes in potato roots (RE), stems (SE), and tubers (TE), and explored the response of endophytes in non-lesion tissues to potato common scab (PCS), which is a soil-borne disease caused by pathogenic and results in serious losses to the global economy every year. Via high-throughput sequencing, it was seen that the composition of endophytes in roots, stems, and tubers had significant differences ( 0.05) and the distribution of the bacterial communities illustrated a gradient from soil to root to tuber/stem. PCS significantly reduced bacterial endophytes α-diversity indexes, including ACE and the number of observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs), of RE without significantly reducing the indexes of SE and TE. No significant effect on the composition of endophytes were caused by PCS in roots, tubers, or stems between high PCS severity (H) and low PCS severity (L) infections at the community level, but PCS did have a substantial impact on the relative abundance of several specific endophytes. and were significantly enriched in root endophytes with low PCS severity (REL); and were significantly enriched in stem endophytes with low PCS severity (SEL); , , and were significantly enriched in tuber endophytes with high PCS severity (TEH). OTU62, a potential PCS pathogen in this study, was capable of colonizing potato tubers, roots, and stems with few or no symptoms present. Co-occurrence networks showed that the number of correlations to OTU62 was higher than average in these three tissue types, suggesting the importance of OTU62 in endophytic communities. This study clarified the distribution and composition of potato endophytes in tubers, roots, and stems, and demonstrated the response of endophytes in non-lesion tissues to PCS.
PubMed: 33633704
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.616013 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jan 2023Carbamazepine (CBZ) in the aquatic environment is recognized as a potential threat to aquatic organisms and public health. However, the response of organism intestinal...
Carbamazepine (CBZ) in the aquatic environment is recognized as a potential threat to aquatic organisms and public health. However, the response of organism intestinal health, resistome, microbiota, and their relationship after CBZ exposure has been rarely reported. This study aimed to explore the impacts of CBZ on gut microbiota, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and the expression of intestinal health related genes as well as their interaction using the zebrafish model. 16 S ribosomal RNA sequencing indicated CBZ altered the composition of gut microbiota. Using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR), we found the number and abundance of ARGs were impacted by CBZ levels and exposure duration. We also observed the upregulated expression of the pro-inflammatory gene IL6 and downregulated expression of toll-like receptor gene TLR2 and intestinal barrier gene TJP2a at different exposure times. Correlation analyses revealed that Geobacillus, Rhodococcus, Ralstonia, Delftia, Luteolibacter and Escherichia-Shigella might be the main bacterial genera carrying ARGs. Meanwhile, Cetobacterium and Aeromonas could be the dominant bacteria affecting intestinal health related genes. Our results could contribute to understanding the health risks of CBZ to the intestinal microecology of aquatic animals.
Topics: Animals; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Zebrafish; Genes, Bacterial; Drug Resistance, Microbial; Bacteria; Carbamazepine
PubMed: 38321688
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114473 -
The Science of the Total Environment Jun 2021Chironomids are aquatic insects that are known to be pollution tolerant. We have recently demonstrated that endogenous chironomid microbiota protects its host from toxic...
Chironomids are aquatic insects that are known to be pollution tolerant. We have recently demonstrated that endogenous chironomid microbiota protects its host from toxic metals. Following these findings, we hypothesized that under different environmental conditions, a different bacterial consortium will evolve. Our aim was to explore the change in chironomid larval microbiota composition triggered by exposure to toxic copper and hexavalent chromium. Chironomid larvae were collected from the environment and treated in the laboratory with copper, hexavalent chromium, and no metal (control). After six days, the microbial composition of the surviving larvae was examined. We found a significant change in larval microbiota composition between the three treatments and for different copper concentrations. The abundance of specific taxa varied significantly between the treatments. At the genus level, the abundance of some genera (e.g. Yersinia, Acinetobacter) increased in the presence of copper, and some genera (e.g. Yersinia, Dysgonomonas, Delftia, Enterococcus) increased in the presence of hexavalent chromium, compared to the control. The change in the larval microbiota composition was rapid and metal-specific. We suggest that each larva hosts a consortium of bacterial species that can proliferate under a specific environmental change and thus, protect the insect under unstable environmental conditions.
Topics: Animals; Chironomidae; Chromium; Copper; Larva; Microbiota
PubMed: 33545485
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145330 -
Environmental Pollution (Barking, Essex... May 2023In rural China, the release of bioaerosols containing pathogens from solid waste dumps poses a potential health risk to the local population. Here, we sampled...
In rural China, the release of bioaerosols containing pathogens from solid waste dumps poses a potential health risk to the local population. Here, we sampled bioaerosols from rural solid waste-treatment in four provinces of northwest China to investigate their emission and dispersion characteristics in order to provide a scientific basis for control and risk reduction of bioaerosols released from rural sanitation facilities. The airborne bioaerosol concentrations and particle size distributions were calculated using an Anderson six-stage airborne microbial sampler and counting with its internal Petri dish culture. High-throughput sequencing was used to characterize the microbial composition at different sampling sites and to explore possible influencing factors, while the health risk associated with exposure was estimated based on average daily dose-rate. The highest concentration point values of bacteria and fungi in bioaerosols near the solid waste were 63,617 ± 15,007 and 8044 ± 893 CFU/m³, respectively. Furthermore, the highest concentration point values of Enterobacteriaceae was 502 ± 35 CFU/m³. Most bioaerosols were coarse particles larger than 3.3 μm. Potentially pathogenic genera of winter-indicator species detected in the air were primarily Delftia, Rhodococcus and Aspergillus. The composition of solid waste and environmental conditions are important factors in determining the characteristics of bioaerosols. Local residents are exposed to bioaerosols mainly through inhalation. Children are at a particularly high risk of exposure through both inhalation and skin contact. The results of this study show that bioaerosols in the vicinity of rural solid waste dumps pose a health risk to the surrounding population. More suitable risk assessment criteria for rural areas should be established, and corresponding control and protection measures should be taken from three aspects: generation source and transmission pathway, as well as the recipient.
Topics: Child; Humans; Air Microbiology; Solid Waste; Aerosols; Bacteria; Fungi; China; Environmental Monitoring
PubMed: 36842620
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121338