Comparative effect of ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin on the modulation of bile acid profiles and gut microbiota in rats

Abstract Fluoroquinolones are an important class of antimicrobial agents to manage infectious diseases. However, knowledge about how host bile acids are modified by fluoroquinolones is limited. We investigated and compared the impact of fluoroquinolones on circulating bile acid profiles and gut microbiota from in vivo studies. We administered ciprofloxacin (100 mg/kg/day) or moxifloxacin (40 mg/kg/day) orally to male Wistar rats for seven days. Fifteen bile acids (BAs) from the serum and large intestine were quantified by HPLC-MS/MS. The diversity of gut microbiota after ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin treatment was analyzed using high-throughput, next-generation sequencing technology. The two fluoroquinolone-treated groups had different BA profiles. Ciprofloxacin significantly reduced the hydrophobicity index of the BA pool, reduced secondary BAs, and increased taurine-conjugated primary BAs in both the serum and large intestine as compared with moxifloxacin. Besides, ciprofloxacin treatment altered intestinal microbiota with a remarkable increase in Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio, while moxifloxacin exerted no effect. What we found suggests that different fluoroquinolones have a distinct effect on the host BAs metabolism and intestinal bacteria, and therefore provide guidance on the selection of fluoroquinolones to treat infectious diseases.

Gene co-expression network analysis provides a novel insight into the dynamic response of wheat to powdery mildew stress

Powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. Tritici, (Bgt)) is an important worldwide fungal foliar disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum) responsible for severe yield losses. The development of resistance genes and dissection of the resistance mechanism will therefore be beneficial in wheat breeding. The Bgt resistance gene PmAS846 was transferred to the hexaploid wheat lines N9134 from Triticum dicoccoides, and it is still one of the most effective resistance genes. Here, by RNA sequencing, we identified three co-expressed gene modules using pairwise comparisons and weighted gene co-expression network analysis during wheat–Bgt interactions compared with mock-infected plants. Hub genes of stress-specific modules were significantly enriched in spliceosomes, phagosomes, the mRNA surveillance pathway, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and endocytosis. Induced module genes located on chromosome 5BL were selected to construct a protein–protein interaction network. Several proteins were predicted as the key hub node, including Hsp70, DEAD/DEAH box RNA helicase PRH75, elongation factor EF-2, cell division cycle 5, ARF guanine-nucleotide exchange factor GNOM-like, and protein phosphatase 2C 70 protein, which interacted with several disease resistance proteins such as RLP37, RPP13 and RPS2 analogues. Gene ontology enrichment results showed that wheat could activate binding functional genes via an mRNA transcription mechanism in response to Bgt stress. Of these node genes, GNOM-like, PP2C isoform X1 and transmembrane 9 superfamily member 9 were mapped onto the genetic fragment of PmAS846 with a distance of 4.8 Mb. This work provides the foundations for understanding the resistance mechanism and cloning the resistance gene PmAS846

Mild salinization stimulated glyphosate degradation and microbial activities in a riparian soil from Chongming Island, China.

An incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of simulated saltwater treatment with different percentages of artificial seawater on degradation dynamics of herbicide glyphosate and microbial activities in a riparian soil in Chongming Island, China. The results showed that 10% seawater treatment showed significantly enhancing effects on degradation efficiency of glyphosate with the lowest residual concentration among all the treatments. However, glyphosate degradation was markedly decreased in the riparian soil with 20% and 50% seawater treatments. The half-lives for 20% and 50% seawater treatments were prolonged by 12.1 and 39.0%, respectively, as compared to control. Microbial investigation indicated that 10% seawater treatment significantly stimulated microbial activities in the glyphosate-spiked riparian soil throughout the incubation period. At 42 day of incubation experiment, flourescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis rate, microbial adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and basal soil respiration (BSR) in the glyphosate-spiked riparian soil with 10% seawater were 59.2, 42.5 and 31.8% higher than those with no saltwater treatment, respectively. In contrast, saltwater treatment with 50% seawater significantly inhibited microbial activities. Especially, FDA hydrolysis rate, microbial ATP and BSR were decreased by 66.4, 58.6 and 66.8%, respectively, as compared to control. The results indicate that levels of simulated saltwater can exert variable effects on herbicide degradation dynamics and microbial parameters in the riparian soil.