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IntroductionMicrobiota in the human body are closely related to human diseases. Female urogenital tract and rectal microbes have been considered as important factors affecting female pregnancy, but the mechanism is unknown.MethodsCervical, vaginal, urethral, and rectal swabs were collected from 22 infertile patients and 10 controls, and follicular fluid was extracted from 22 infertile patients. The microbial composition of different sampling sites of infertile patients was examined. By comparing the microbial composition difference between infertile patients and controls and combining bioinformatics methods to analyze the potential impact of the female urogenital tract (cervical, vaginal and urethral) and rectal microbial diversity on female infertility and pregnancy outcomes.ResultsLactobacillus predominated in the female urogenital tract, but its abundance decreased in infertile patients, whereas the abundance of Gardnerella and Atopobium increased. The microbial changes in the urethra had the same trend as that in the vagina. Compared with healthy controls, the cervical and rectal microbial diversity of infertile patients were significantly increased and decreased, respectively. There might be interactions between microbes in different parts of female. Geobacillus thermogeniticans was enriched in the urogenital tract and rectum of infertile patients, and has a good predictive effect on infertility. Compared with infertile patients, L. johnsonii was enriched in the vagina, urethra, and intestine of the control group. L. acidophilus in follicular fluid might be associated with Non-pregnancy.ConclusionThis study found that the microbial composition of infertile patients was changed compared with that of healthy people. The translocation of Lactobacillus between the rectum and urogenital tract might play a protective barrier role. The changes of Lactobacillus and Geobacillus might be related to female infertility or pregnancy outcome. The study provided a theoretical basis for the future treatment of female infertility from the perspective of microorganisms by detecting the microbial changes associated with female infertility.

In recent years, the incidence of female infertility has risen sharply, which is affected by many factors. It was recognized that female reproductive tract microbes play a role in the process of female conception. If the reproductive tract microbes could solve a certain proportion of infertility, it would certainly reduce the pain and economic burden of many patients. The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial community composition of follicular fluid in infertile patients and its potential impact on infertility.Follicular fluid from 49 primary infertility and 52 secondary infertility patients was collected by a negative pressure needle, and the microbiota was analyzed by 16S rDNA sequencing.It was found that Lactobacillus, especially L. crispatus, might have a positive effect on female pregnancy. Considering the presence or absence of male factors and different body mass indices, L. iners might inhibit female pregnancy. However, L. iners seemed to play a positive role in egg maturation, while Gardnerella and Cutibacterium acnes might have a negative effect on female pregnancy.This study suggested the potential role of Lactobacillus in follicular fluid in improving female infertility and provided a theoretical basis for the future microbiological treatment of female infertility.

Allocation dynamics of stored starch plays essential roles in the development and growth of trees. Previous studies focused on the dynamics and the characteristics of starch in autotrophic trees. However, although starch granules have been detected in the organs or tissues of some parasitic plants, studies on the allocation dynamics and roles of storage starch in them are limited. Therefore, we determined and estimated the allocation dynamics and roles of starch in Santalum album Linn., a hemiparasitic tree, using morphological and physiological methods. Our findings showed abundant starch in the stem and root of S. album at the early seedling stage. Although S. album seedlings attached to the host showed no significant changes in starch levels throughout the experiment, unattached and host-removed seedlings exhibited a gradual decrease in the starch content over time. When the starch content of unattached seedlings was less than 1%, they started to die. Starch accumulated to high levels in developing and active haustoria; however, starch levels were low in the inactive haustoria. The present study suggests that starch may provide energy to seedlings that have no host, allowing them to survive during the unattached phase, thus increasing their chance to attach to host roots by extending their survival duration. In addition, we speculate that storage starch is potentially involved in the development of haustoria and in the physiological processes of S. album related to the absorption and transportation of water and nutrients from its host.

Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen (Fabaceae), indigenous to Hainan Island, is a precious rosewood (Hainan hualimu) in China. However, only limited genomic information is available which has resulted in a lack of molecular markers, limiting the development and utilization of the germplasm resources. In this study, we aim to enrich genomic information of D. odorifera, and develop a series of transferable simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for Dalbergia species. Therefore, we performed transcriptome sequencing for D. odorifera by pooling leaf tissues from three trees. A dataset of 138,516,418 reads was identified and assembled into 115,292 unigenes. Moreover, 35,774 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified as potential SSR markers. A set of 19 SSR markers was successfully transferred across species of Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen, Dalbergia tonkinensis Prain, and Dalbergia cochinchinensis Pierre ex Laness. In total, 112 alleles (3⁻13 alleles/locus) were presented among 60 Dalbergia trees, and polymorphic information content ranged from 0.38 to 0.75. The mean observed and mean expected heterozygosity was 0.34 and 0.40 in D. odorifera, 0.27 and 0.32 in D. tonkinensis, and 0.29 and 0.33 in D. cochinchinensis, respectively. The cluster analysis classified these 60 trees into three major groups according to the three Dalbergia species based on the genetic similarity coefficients, indicating these newly developed transferable markers can be used to explore the relationships among Dalbergia species and assist genetic research. All these unigenes and SSR markers will be useful for breeding programs in the future.

We studied the effects of different culture media on the growth of India sandalwood (Santalum album L.) seedlings in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province in southern China. Five different growth substrates, lateritic subsoil, burnt soil, agricultural soil, peaty soil and coconut dust, were used as the basic culture materials and seven different treatments of composition were used as potting media. Kuhnia rosmarinifolia Vent. was used as a primary host plant for all treatments. Statistically significant differences were found between treatments in respects of survival rate (p < 0.001), height (p < 0.001), ground diameter (p < 0.001) and biomass (p = 0.002), as well as for quality index (p = 0.001) of S. album seedlings after 6-month growth in containers with different culture media. Among all treatments, the treatment combining burnt soil, peat and coconut dust in a weight ratio of 1:1:1 plus 2% calcium super-phosphate as basal manure achieved the best performance for most of the seedling growth parameters, including survival rate (98%), height (35.81 cm), ground diameter (0.56 cm), biomass (4.46 g) and quality index (0.65), followed by the treatment using only burnt soil plus 2% calcium super-phosphate as the culture medium (survival rate 86%, height 29.23 cm, ground diameter 0.48 cm, biomass 3.36 g and quality index 0.52), while the treatment using only lateritic subsoil plus the basal manure as the medium obtained the poorest results in survival rate (38%), height (12.04 cm), ground diameter (0.19 cm), biomass (0.26 g) and quality index (0.043). Increasing the proportion of lateritic subsoil in the medium when mixed with peat and coconut dust did not show statistically significant differences in survival, height, ground diameter, biomass nor in quality index. In consideration of cost, using burnt soil plus 2% calcium super-phosphate as basal manure may be the optimum culture medium for large-scale production of Indian sandalwood seedlings in Guangdong, southern China.

As the most expensive wood tree, Santalum album has been planted more than 2000 mu in South China now. A mass of Santalum album leaves was naturally abandoned and degradable so that the resources were wasted. Therefore, in order to overcome the negative effects, Py-GC/MS was used to analyze the extractives of autumn Santalum album leaves. Relative content of each component was determined by area normalization. The benzene/ethanol extractives contain 36 compounds namely 1,2,4- benzenetricarboxylic acid, 1,2-dimethyl nonyl ester, 1,3- bis(trimethylsiloxy)benzene, 1,4-benzenediol, 2-methoxy-, 1- octadecanethiol, 1-phenanthrenecarboxylic acid, 1,2,3,4,4a,9,10,10a-octahydro-1,4a-dimethyl-7-(1-methylethyl)-1- phenanthrenecarboxylic acid, tetradecahydro-1,4a,8-trimethyl-7- [2-[2-(methylamino)ethoxy]-2-oxoethylidene]-9-oxo-, methyl ester, 2(lh)-quinolinone, 1-methyl-, 2-butenoic acid, butyl ester, 2-methyl-6-hydroxyquinoline, 2-phenanthrylamine, 9,10- dihydro-3,7-dinitro-, 3-heptanol, 2,2-dimethyl-, 4,6-cholestadiene-3-one, 8-quinolinemethanol, 8-quinolinol, 2-methyl-, 9,12-octadecadienoic acid (z,z)-, abietic acid, benz[c]acridine, 9,11- diethyl-, benzeneacetic acid, 3,4-dihydroxy-, brucine, butane, 1-bromo-4-iodo, cyclohexane, 1-(1,5-dimethylhexyl)-4-(4-methylpentyl)-, di-n-octyl phthalate, docosane, emorfazone, ergosta-4,6,22-trien-3.beta.-ol, germanicol, hexadecanoic acid, kaura-9(11),16-dien-18-oic acid, (4.alpha.)-, naphthalene, 1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,8a-octahydro-4a,8-dimethyl-2-(1-methylethenyl)-, n-cyano-n',n',n",n"-tetramethyl-, norcodeine, phenol, 3-(2- hydroxyethoxy)-, pyrene, hexadecahydro-, rishitin, squalene, vitamin e. So the rare medicinal materials and rare spice is riched in the extractives of autumn Santalum album leaves. The byproducts can be used as not only top grade cosmetics and skin care, but also bioenergy.

As one of the most expensive wood trees, Ormosia henryi has been planted more than 1000 mu in South China now. A mass of Ormosia henryi leaves was naturally abandoned and degradable so that the resources were wasted. Therefore, in order to overcome the negative effects, Py-GC/MS was used to analyze the extractives of Ormosia henryi leaves. Relative content of each component was determined by area normalization. The benzene/ethanol extractives contain 57 compounds namely thiophene, 2,5-dibutyl-, tetradecanal, rishitin, pyrrole, pyridine, 5-hexyl-2-methyl-, pyrene, hexadecahydro-, p-menth-8(10)-en-9-ol, cis-, pentadecane, oleic acid, octane, octadecanoic acid, nonanal, naphthalene, decahydro-, naphthalene, 1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,8a-octahydro-4a,8-dimethyl-2- (1-methylethenyl)-, hexanoic acid, 3-hexenyl ester, (z)-, hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, hexadecanoic acid, 2-hydroxy-l-(hydroxymethyl)ethyl ester, hexadecanoic acid, heneicosane, glycerin, and so on. So the rare medicinal materials and rare spice is rich in the extractives of Ormosia henryi leaves. The byproducts can be used as not only top grade cosmetics and skin care, but also bio- energy.