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A 1000-year-old marine solar saltern in Hainan Island, South China, is in the continuation of traditional skills involving mud soak and solarization for three days to accumulate salt, which is a unique process contributing to the selection of highly halophilic microbes related to salt quality and flavor. Herein, the successions of physicochemical properties and bacterial and fungal communities of muds from the saltern were investigated during the processing of mud solarization. The results showed that Na+, Cl−, Mg2+ and total nitrogen were the main factors in explaining the fluctuation of the fungal community, whereas the bacterial community was predominantly determined by Ca2+, total kalium and total phosphorus. During three days of mud solarization, the soil bacterial alpha diversity in the saltern was significantly lower than that of the surroundings, whereas the fungal alpha diversity showed an opposite trend. The bacterial functional groups with the same survival and adaptation strategies remained relatively stable, while the dominant functional type in fungi changed from monotropic to complex trophic mode. Additionally, some unidentified fungi species were increasingly found in mud. The abundances of Saitozyma , Solicoccozyma and Wallemia (Basidiomycota) increased and may contribute to the salt flavor through decomposing cellulose molecules into glucose due to their higher β-glucosidase activity, while the harmful fungal genera including Inocybe and Paraconiothyrium decreased obviously due to the stresses of salinity and solar exposure. These results showed that the traditional salt-making skills associated with mud solarization have selected a high abundance of beneficial halophilic microbes to increase the salt quality and flavor. Our findings not only reveal the underlying mechanisms for the long-history salt-making skills of this 1000-year-old unusual cultural heritage but also are highly valuable for bioprospecting to develop novel halophilic bacteria and fungi for modern chemistry industries. [Display omitted] • Mud-solarization is a critical skill for the selection of highly halophilic microbes. • Successions of bacterial and fungal communities are revealed during the mud-solarization. • Bacterial functional groups with the same survival and adaptation strategies remain stable. • The dominant functional type in fungi changes from monotropic to complex trophic mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of type 2 diabetes is high, and the existing metformin hydrochloride (MH) tablets of 250 mg cannot meet the demands of the Chinese drug market. This study aimed to evaluate the bioequivalence and safety of generic formulations of MH tablets (test formulation [T], 250 mg/tablet) and innovative products (reference formulation [R], 250 mg/tablet) under fasting conditions. This was an open‐label, single‐dose, 2‐period, 2‐sequence crossover, single‐center, randomized phase I clinical trial. T and R were considered bioequivalent if the adjusted geometric mean ratios (GMRs) and 90% confidence intervals of the area under the curve (AUC) and maximum concentration (Cmax) were within the range of 0.8‐1.25. Thirty‐five participants completed the trial. The T/R adjusted GMRs (95.7% for Cmax, 98.7% for AUC0→t, 98.8% for AUC0→∞) were within the acceptable bioequivalence range of 80%‐125%. No serious adverse events or suspected or unexpected serious adverse reactions occurred during this trial. The study findings confirmed that generic MH is a well‐tolerated and bioequivalent alternative to innovative products under fasting conditions in healthy Chinese participants. (www.chinadrugtrials.org.cn; registration no. CTR20190356) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiment was to study the effect of replacing soybean meal with different proportions of whole plant fermentated hybrid tree on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality and nutrient apparent digestibility of finishing pigs. A total of 48 healthy 'Duroc x Landrace x Yorkshire' crossbred finishing pigs with an initial weight of (60.44±2.51) kg were randomly divided into four groups, with three replicates in each group and four pigs in each replicate. The finishing pigs in group A (control group) were fed with basal diet, and the finishing pigs in group B, group C and group D were fed with experimental diet with 3%, 5% and 7% whole fermented hybrid tree instead of soybean meal, respectively. The pre-test lasted for 10 d, and the formal test lasted for 45 d. The results showed that compared with group A, the average daily gain of finishing pigs in group B was increased by 2.78% (P>0.05), the eye muscle area, intramuscular fat content and protein content of finishing pigs in experimental groups were significantly increased (P<0.05). The apparent digestibility of acid detergent fiber, crude fat, neutral detergent fiber, calcium and phosphorus in diets of finishing pigs in group C and group D were significantly increased (P<0.05). The experiment indicates that using 3% whole plant fermented hybrid tree instead of soybean meal has better effect on growth performance, meat quality and apparent digestibility of finishing pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]