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Microbial diversity in the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum of yak on a rapid fattening regime in an agro-pastoral transition zone
No full textThe ruminant digestive system harbors a complex gut microbiome, which is poorly understood in the case of the four stomach compartments of yak. High-throughput sequencing and quantitative PCR were used to analyse microbial communities in the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum of six domesticated yak. The diversity of prokaryotes was higher in reticulum and omasum than in rumen and abomasum. Bacteroidetes predominated in the four stomach compartments, with abundance gradually decreasing in the trend rumen > reticulum > omasum > abomasum. Microorganism composition was different among the four compartments, all of which contained high levels of bacteria, methanogens, protozoa and anaerobic fungi. Some prokaryotic genera were associated with volatile fatty acids and pH. This study provides the first insights into the microorganism composition of four stomach compartments in yak, and may provide a foundation for future studies in this area
Estimates and Predictions of Methane Emissions from Wastewater in China from 2000 to 2020
No full textMethane accounts for 20% of the global warming caused by greenhouse gases, and wastewater is a major anthropogenic source of methane. Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change greenhouse gas inventory guidelines and current research findings, we calculated the amount of methane emissions from 2000 to 2014 that originated from wastewater from different provinces in China. Methane emissions from wastewater increased from 1349.01 to 3430.03 Gg from 2000 to 2014, and the mean annual increase was 167.69 Gg. The methane emissions from industrial wastewater treated by wastewater treatment plants (E-It) accounted for the highest proportion of emissions. We also estimated the future trend of industrial wastewater methane emissions using the artificial neural network model. A comparison of the emissions for the years 2020, 2010, and 2000 showed an increasing trend in methane emissions in China and a spatial transition of industrial wastewater emissions from eastern and southern regions to central and southwestern regions and from coastal regions to inland regions. These changes were caused by changes in economics, demographics, and relevant policies
The linkage between vegetation and soil nutrients and their variation under different grazing intensities in an alpine meadow on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
No full textThe grassland degradation caused by overgrazing is the result of imbalance of energy flow and material cycle under grazing pressure in the ecosystem, and numerous ecological restoration and ecological engineering techniques widely used to restore some ecosystem. However, little research known focused on the relationship (energy flow and material cycle) between plant and soil under different grazing intensity, especially at the rhizosphere which is the most powerful area of plant and soil interaction. In this research we conducted a 5-year grazing experiment including 4 different grazing intensities (no grazing, UG; light grazing, LG; moderate grazing, MG; and heavy grazing, HG) in an alpine meadow on the northeastern margin of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). Plants and soil materials were sampled in July 2015, and to examine the nutrients concentration and ecological stoichiometric of vegetation and soil, the soil microbial biomass and activity, as well as their relationship with vegetation and soil characteristics. We found that grazing increased vegetation and soil nutrient concentrations and increased the ratio of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) to microbial biomass nitrogen (MBC), but the grazing intensity did not significantly influence the nutrients enrichment ratio of rhizosphere soil. There was significant relationship between total carbon (TC) concentration of vegetation and soil, and between vegetation total phosphorus (TP) and soil PO43--P concentration. These results suggested that vegetation and soil nutrient concentrations respond differently to the grazing intensity. Coupling relationship exists in specific nutrients of vegetation and soil and rhizosphere is a powerful tool to understanding the linkage between plant and soil
A Robust Noninvasive Approach to Study Gut Microbiota Structure of Amphibian Tadpoles by Feces
Get PDFThe 16S rDNA amplicon high-throughput sequencing technique provides a robust and inexpensive approach to detect the gut microbiota of amphibians. Since different experimental protocols generate technical biases in drawing the gut microbiota profiles, the integrative analysis of gut microbiota produced by different studies must be performed with circumspection. In this study, we compared the efficacy of two DNA extraction methods (i.e., a phenol-chloroform method and TIANamp Stool DNA Kit) in describing intestinal and fecal bacterial communities of transplanted Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans) tadpoles. In terms of the DNA extraction quality (i.e., DNA purity and yield rate) and the consistency in between fecal and intestinal microbiota structures (i.e., α and β diversity indices), the phenol-chloroform method was more robust than this commercial stool kit in profiling gut microbiota of tadpoles with feces
The Influence of Oxygen on the Development of Nanorana parkeri Tadpoles
Get PDFEctothermic animals are tolerant of variable oxygen availability, whether low-oxygen levels constrain the fitness of ectotherms remains unclear. Nanorana parkeri, an anuran endemic to the southern Tibetan plateau, is an excellent model with which to answer this question. In this study, we raised tadpoles of N. parkeri in oxygenated water (high-oxygen group) and deoxygenated unchlorinated tap water (low-oxygen group) and monitored their growth, mortality, and telomere length. The growth rate for body length and body weight was higher in the low-oxygen group than in the high-oxygen group. However, dissolved oxygen did not affect development time, mortality, and telomere length of the tadpoles. These results suggest that although the oxygen concentration influenced some phenotype traits of plateau tadpoles, but it didn’t influence the telomere length and survival rate, potential explanations are the local adaptation and N. parkeri tadpoles’ wide oxygen tolerance, and fluctuant toxic content that resulted in little oxidative stress on tadpoles. These results indicated that low oxygen was not a stress to N. parkeri tadpoles’ fitness and survival. This study is helpful in understanding the adaptation mechanisms of Tibetan plateau amphibians
Transcriptome Analysis Provides Insights into Gingerol Biosynthesis in Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
No full textGinger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), a perennial herb, is one of the most economically valuable plants in the Zingiberaceae family. Gingerol, as the major constituents of ginger essential oil, contributes to the unique flavor and pharmaceutical value of ginger. However, the pathway of gingerol biosynthesis has not been verified and described in ginger to help understand the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in nonmodel species. In this study, the concentrations of gingerols were quantified at different stages of rhizome development and in different tissues. The results confirmed that rhizomes are the major source of gingerols and that accumulation of gingerols in the rhizome starts at an early developmental stage. We also assembled a reference ginger transcriptome, which is composed of 219,479 unigenes consisting of 330,568 transcripts and provides a high-quality genetic resource for further research. An analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified 12,935 DEGs among several different comparisons. Five genes [ curcumin synthase (CURS), cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (CYP73A), p-coumaroyl quinate/shikimate 3'-hydroxylase (CYP98A), caffeoyl-coenzyme A O-methyl transferase (CCoAOMT), and hydroxycinnamoyl-coenzyme A shikimate/quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT)] associated with gingerol biosynthesis were identified as being significantly differentially expressed in the rhizome at an early developmental stage and all five genes were upregulated. Expression analysis revealed that different loci of these genes have become functionally specialized in different tissues and different developmental stages of the rhizome (subfunctionalization). Among the DEGs, CCoAOMT and HCT may act as gatekeepers and rate-limiting enzymes in the gingerol biosynthesis pathway and thus play an important role in regulating the biosynthesis of gingerol
Antiproliferative Sesquiterpenoids from Ligularia rumicifolia with Diverse Skeletons
No full textTwenty-two new sesquiterpenoids with four skeletal types and 15 known analogues were isolated from the whole plants of Ligularia rumicifolia. The structures of the isolates were elucidated based on comprehensive spectroscopic data analysis. Compound 1 is a C-14 nor-sesquiterpenoid featuring a 6/6/6 tricyclic skeleton with a 9,13-ether bridge. The absolute configuration of 2 was established through single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. Compounds 13-16 exhibited in vitro antiproliferative activity against the four human tumor cell lines A-549, HGC-27, HeLa, and MV4-11. Specifically, compounds 13 and 16 showed antiproliferative activity against the MV4-11 cell line with IC50 values of 0.5 +/- 0.2 and 1.1 +/- 0.5 mu M, respectively
Plant community ecological strategy assembly response to yak grazing in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau
No full textPredicting the impact of grazing on vegetation structure, and thus on ecosystem services, is one of the main technical bottlenecks in alpine grassland conservation and management. However, past researches based on the fixed, discrete, and qualitative indicators limited our understanding for the effect of grazing on plant community assembly. Research based on the quantitative competitor, stress tolerator, and ruderal (CSR) theory increases the possibilities for analyzing this ecological process. To test the hypothesis that the dominant plant strategy in alpine meadow plant community will shift from S-selection to R-selection with increased grazing intensity, the plant community CSR strategy assemblies among the cold-seasonal grazing meadows along a gradient of grazing intensity were studied on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The dominant strategy concentrated in the S-selected corner under the low grazing intensity, which provided a direct evidence to the environmental filters in the alpine area, and suggested that species of strong S-selection should dominate the undisturbed alpine grassland plant community. The C-selection of dominant strategies increased (R-2 = 0.431, p = 0.004), and the extent of S-selection decreased with greater grazing intensity; however, the R-selection of them only slightly increased under intermediate grazing intensity and finally decreased under high grazing intensity, reflecting a selective grazing disturbance combined with localized enrichment of soil that can provide microsites for the establishment of competitors. The strong C-selected species may dominate the plant community on the eastern Tibetan Plateau in place of S-selected and R-selected species, if the grazing intensity is continually high
The mitochondrial genome of the Microhyla taraiensis (Anura: Microhylidae) and related phylogenetic analyses
No full textThe complete mitochondrial genome of the Microhyla taraiensis from Eastern Nepal was sequenced. The genome has a typical gene order identical to most of other anuran species. The entire mtDNA of this species, 16,764 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. Phylogenetic relationships was constructed based on the complete mitogenome of M. taraiensis and other species of Microhylidae, using Bayesian inferences and Maximum likelihood approaches, and supports the monophly for this family. This work contributes to basic molecular data which is critical for further genetic research and conservation of this newly described species
A New Species of Genus Microhyla(Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from Zhejiang Province, China
No full textWe described a new species, Microhyla beilunensis sp. nov., from Zhejiang Province of China. Phylogenetic analyses based on the mitochondrial 12S, 16S and CO1 gene sequences suggested that the new taxon was distinctly separated from its congeners and closed to M. mixtura and M. okinavensis. Morphologically, the new species could be identified from its congeners except M. mixtura by several characters: (1) rudimentary webs on toe base; (2) absence of disks and dorsal median longitudinal grooves on finger tips; (3) presence of disks and dorsal median longitudinal grooves on toe tips. As well, the new species could be identified from topotype M. mixtura by the combination of characters: (1) apart from the stripes, bar-shaped and oval-shaped patterns, the rounded spots present on the dorsum of body and legs; (2) the outer metacarpal tubercles prominently larger than the inner one; (3) of males, the ratios of HW, IND, UEW and LAW to SVL of the new species were significantly larger than those of M. mixtura (P < 0.01), and the ratios of SL, IOD, LAHL, HLL, TL, TFL and FL to SVL of the new species were significantly less than those of M mixtura (P < 0.05)