Furthermore, the rhizomicrobiome communities (bacteria and fungi), investigated through NGS, highlighted how α diversity increased in all treatments compared to the untreated N12 saplings. Soil compost amendment, as well as Zn pollution, strongly modified the bacterial rhizomicrobiome structure. Conversely, the variation of the fungal rhizomicrobiome was only marginally affected by soil Zn addition, and only partially impaired by compost. Nevertheless, substantial alterations of the fungal community were due to both compost and Zn. Together, our experimental results revealed that organic amendment increased the bacterial resistance to external stimuli whilst, in the case of fungi, the amendment made the fungi microbiome more susceptible. Finally, the greater microbiome biodiversity does not imply, in this case, a better plant wellness or phytoremediation ability, although the microbiome plays a role in the external stimuli response supporting plant life.Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) and it's also considered for treating other indications. Metagenomic studies have indicated that commensal donor bacteria may colonize FMT recipients, but cultivation has not been employed to verify strain-level colonization. We combined molecular profiling of Bifidobacterium populations with cultivation, molecular typing, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) to isolate and identify strains that were transferred from donors to recipients. Several Bifidobacterium strains from two donors were recovered from 13 recipients during the 1-year follow-up period after FMT. The strain identities were confirmed by WGS and comparative genomics. Our results show that specific donor-derived bifidobacteria can colonize rCDI patients for at least 1 year, and thus FMT may have long-term consequences for the recipient's microbiota and health. Conceptually, we demonstrate that FMT trials combined with microbial profiling can be used as a platform for discovering and isolating commensal strains with proven colonization capacity for potential therapeutic use.Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is one of the major etiologic agents causing hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in children and occasionally causes severe neurological diseases or even death. EV-A71 replicates rapidly in host cells. For a successful infection, viruses produce large quantities of viral proteins in a short period, which requires cellular chaperone proteins for viral protein folding and viral particle assembly. In this study, we explored the roles of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) chaperone subnetwork in the EV-A71 life cycle.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/semaxanib-su5416.html  Our results revealed that EV-A71 exploits multiple HSP70s at each step of the viral life cycle, i.e., viral entry, translation, replication, assembly and release, and that each HSP70 typically functions in several stages of the life cycle. For example, the HSP70 isoforms HSPA1, HSPA8, and HSPA9 are required for viral entry and the translational steps of the infection. HSPA8 and HSPA9 may facilitate folding and stabilize viral proteins 3D and 2C, respectively, thus contributing to the formation of a replication complex. HSPA8 and HSPA9 also promote viral particle assembly, whereas HSPA1 and HSPA8 are involved in viral particle release. Because of the importance of various HSP70s at distinct steps of the viral life cycle, an allosteric inhibitor, JG40, which targets all HSP70s, significantly blocks EV-A71 infection. JG40 also blocks the replication of several other enteroviruses, such as coxsackievirus (CV) A16, CVB1, CVB3, and echovirus 11. Thus, targeting HSP70s may be a means of providing broad-spectrum antiviral therapy.The sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine play an important role in food industry. These amino acids are used to confer a sulfur smell or meat-related aroma to food products. Besides their use as food additives, methionine and cysteine participate in flavor formation in dairy fermentations. For instance, the characteristic aroma of Cheddar cheeses is derived from methionine. Therefore, bacterial strains with the ability to overproduce and secrete these amino acids are relevant for the food industry. In addition, the quantification of these compounds in food matrices is a laborious task that involves sample preparation and specific analytical methods such as high-performance liquid chromatography. The ability of bacteria to naturally sense metabolites has successfully been exploited to develop biosensors. The presence of a specific metabolite is sensed by the biosensors, and it is subsequently translated into the expression of one or more reporter genes. In this study we aim to develop biosensods. These biosensors may eventually be used for screening of engineered strains to increase methionine and cysteine production, and may facilitate the detection of these amino acids in complex food matrices.
  Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the leading cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) world-wide. HBV variants, particularly the G1896A pre-core (PC) and A1762T/G1764A basal core promoter (BCP) mutations, are established risk factors for cirrhosis and HCC, but the molecular biological basis is unclear. We hypothesized that these variants result in differential HBV replication, APOBEC3 family expression, and cytokine/chemokine expression.
 
  HepG2 cells were transfected with monomeric full-length containing wild-type, PC, or BCP HBV. Cells and supernatant were collected to analyze viral infection markers (i.e., HBsAg, HBeAg, HBV DNA, and RNA). Cellular APOBEC3 expression and activity was assessed by quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR, immunoblot, differential DNA denaturation PCR, and sequencing. Cytokine/chemokines in the supernatant and in serum from 11 CHB carriers (4 non-cirrhotic; 7 cirrhotic and/or HCC) with predominantly wild-type, PC, or BCP variants were evaluated by Luminex.
 
  HBeAg expression was reduced in PC and BCP variants, and higher supernatant HBV DNA and HBV RNA levels were found with A1762T/G1764A vs. G1896A mutant (
  < 0.05). Increased APOBEC3G protein levels in wild-type vs. mutant were not associated with HBV covalently closed circular DNA G-to-A hypermutations. Differences in cytokine/chemokine expression in culture supernatants, especially IL-13 were observed amongst the variants analyzed. Noticeable increases of numerous cytokines/chemokines, including IL-4 and IL-8, were observed in 
  serum collected from CHB carriers with PC mutant.
 
  HBV sequence variation leads to differences in HBV protein production (HBeAg) and viral replication in addition to altered host innate antiviral restriction factor (APOBEC3) and cytokine/chemokine expression.
 HBV sequence variation leads to differences in HBV protein production (HBeAg) and viral replication in addition to altered host innate antiviral restriction factor (APOBEC3) and cytokine/chemokine expression.