Search

Introduction: Panax notoginseng, a medicinal herb in China, is attacked by several pathogens during its cultivation. Dazomet (DZ) is a soil fumigant that is effective in controlling soil-borne pathogens, but its long-term effects on P. notoginseng growth and soil properties are unknown., Methods: We conducted field experiments over two consecutive years to assess the impact of three concentrations of DZ fumigation (35 kg/666.7 m 2 , 40 kg/666.7 m 2 , and 45 kg/666.7 m 2 ) on soil physicochemical properties, microbial diversity, and P. notoginseng growth. Correlation analyses were performed between microbial community changes and soil properties, and functional predictions for soil microorganisms were conducted., Results: DZ fumigation increased total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, available phosphorus, available potassium, and ammonia nitrogen levels in the soil. DZ fumigation promoted the nutrient accumulation and improvement of agronomic traits of P. notoginseng , resulted in a 2.83-3.81X yield increase, with the highest total saponin content increasing by 24.06%. And the 40 kg/666.7 m 2 treatment had the most favorable impact on P. notoginseng growth and saponin accumulation. After DZ fumigation, there was a decrease in the relative abundance of pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium , Plectosphaerella , and Ilyonectria , while beneficial bacteria such as Ramlibacter , Burkholderia , and Rhodanobacteria increased. The effects of fumigation on soil microorganisms and soil physicochemical properties persisted for 18 months post-fumigation. DZ fumigation enhanced the relative abundance of bacteria involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, reduced the relative abundance of plant-animal pathogenic fungi, reduced the occurrence of soil-borne diseases., Conclusion: In conclusion, DZ fumigation enhanced soil physicochemical properties, increased the proportion of beneficial bacteria in the soil, and rebalanced soil microorganism populations, consequently improving the growth environment of P. notoginseng and enhancing its growth, yield, and quality. This study offers a theoretical foundation for DZ fumigation as a potential solution to the continuous cropping issue in perennial medicinal plants such as P. notoginseng ., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Lin, Li, Dai, Liu, Zhang, Yang, Cui and Yang.)

Background and Aims: Previous studies showed that inflammation affects depressive symptoms. Dietary fiber may be associated with inflammation and depressive symptoms. We aimed to investigate the relationship between inflammation and depressive symptoms at different levels of dietary fiber intake and to explore whether dietary fiber affects depression through inflammation., Methods: A total of 8,430 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) samples were collected between 2015 and 2018. Factor analysis was used to determine dietary patterns. Linear regression and logistic regression analysis were used to explore the relationship between nutrients, inflammation, and depressive symptoms, and the mediation analysis was conducted using the bootstrap method., Results: Factor 3 (dietary fiber and vitamins) was inversely associated with depressive symptoms and inflammation. The upper quartile scores of the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were associated with depressive symptoms compared with controls (DII: OR = 1.851, 95% CI: 1.267-2.705; CRP: OR = 1.737, 95% CI: 1.136-2.656). The DII score and CRP were associated with depressive symptoms in the group with low dietary fiber intake (DII: OR = 2.736, 95% CI: 1.628-4.598; CRP: OR = 2.092, 95% CI: 1.196-3.658) but not in the high dietary fiber intake group. Mediating analysis showed that CRP partially mediated the effect of dietary fiber intake on depressive symptoms (β indirect = -0.0025, 95% CI: -0.0038 to -0.0013), and the mediated proportion was 10.5%., Conclusion: In this study, we found that DII scores and CRP were not associated with depressive symptoms in participants with high dietary fiber intake, and inflammation partially mediates the effect of dietary fiber on depressive symptoms., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhang, Cui, Zhang, Xie, Deng, Guo, Wang, Wu, Dong and Luo.)

Root size is a key trait in plant cultivation and can be influenced by the cultivation environment. However, physical evidence of root size change in a secular context is scarce due to the difficulty in preserving ancient root samples, and how they were modified during the domestication and cultivation stays unclear. About 100 ancient root samples of Panax notoginseng , preserved as tribute in the Palace Museum (A.D. 1636 to 1912, Qing dynasty), provided an opportunity to investigate the root size changes during the last 100 years of cultivation. The dry weight of ancient root samples (~120 tou samples, tou represents number of roots per 500 g dry weight) is 0.22-fold of the modern samples with the biggest size (20 tou samples). Transcriptome analysis revealed that PnGAP and PnEXPA4 were highly expressed in 20 tou samples, compared with the 120 tou samples, which might contribute to the thicker cell wall and a higher content of lignin, cellulose, and callose in 20 tou samples. A relatively lower content of dencichine and higher content of ginsenoside Rb 1 in 20 tou samples are also consistent with higher expression of ginsenoside biosynthesis-related genes. PnPHL8 was filtrated through transcriptome analysis, which could specifically bind the promoters of PnGAP, PnCYP716A47 , and PnGGPPS3 , respectively. The results in this study represent the first physical evidence of root size changes in P. notoginseng in the last 100 years of cultivation and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how the cultivation environment affected root size, chemical composition, and clinical application., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Yu, Hua, Liao, Zheng, Jin, Peng, Cui, Huang and Yuan.)

The long-lasting co-evolution of ticks with pathogens results in mutual adaptation. Blood-feeding is one of the critical physiological behaviors that have been associated with the tick microbiome; however, most knowledge was gained through the study of laboratory-reared ticks. Here we detached Ixodes persulcatus ticks at different stages of blood-feeding from human patients and performed high-throughput transcriptomic analysis on them to identify their virome and genes differentially expressed between flat and fully fed ticks. We also traced bloodmeal sources of those ticks and identified bats and three other potential mammalian hosts, highlighting the public health significance. We found Jingmen tick virus and 13 putative new viruses belonging to 11 viral families, three of which even exhibited high genetic divergence from viruses previously reported in the same tick species from the same geographic region. Furthermore, differential expression analysis suggested a downregulation of antioxidant genes in the fully fed I. persulcatus ticks, which might be related to bloodmeal-related redox homeostasis. Our work highlights the significance of active surveillance of tick viromes and suggests a role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in modulating changes in the microbiome during blood-feeding., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Ning, Zheng, Chu, Cui, Zhang, Guo, Wei, Liu, Sun, Ye, Jiang, Yuan, Li, Bian, Bell-Sakyi, Wang, Jiang, Song, Cao, Tsan-Yuk Lam, Ni and Jia.)