Plants inhibit the relative abundance of sulfonamide resistance genes and class 1 integron by influencing bacterial community in rhizosphere of constructed wetlands.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) commonly detected in wastewater can potentially lead to a health crisis. Constructed wetlands (CWs) remove ARGs and sulfonamides (SAs) from wastewater, but the importance of plants in the process is seldom reported. We compared the effect of three wetland plant species (Cyperus alternifolius, Juncus effuses, and Cyperus papyrus), sample distance from the root, and SA presence on the environmental abundance of class 1 integron (intI1) and SA resistance genes (sul) using specially designed CW rhizoboxes. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that the relative abundance of the target genes in planted CWs, especially in C. alternifolius planted CWs, was significantly lower than that in unplanted CWs (P < 0.05). The substrate in the rhizosphere or near-/moderate-rhizosphere (closest to the root) showed the lowest average relative abundance of the target genes, while the bulk substrate (without the root) showed the highest abundance of these genes, irrespective of the planted species. Further, the influence of plants was more evident after 8 weeks of wastewater treatment. The trend was the same in SA-treated and untreated groups, although the relative abundance of the target genes was significantly higher in the former (P < 0.05). The weaker correlation between the intI1 and sul genes in the rhizosphere and near-/moderate-rhizosphere in comparison to the bulk substrate in the SA group suggested that the risk of horizontal gene transfer was probably higher in the bulk substrate and unplanted CW. A partial least-squares path model revealed that dissolved organic carbon and oxygen content significantly influenced SA concentration, microbial community, and intI1 genes, and then shaping the sul genes together. Finally, redundancy analysis suggested that abundance of sul genes was influenced by bacteria enriched in the bulk substrate and unplanted CWs. The findings provide new insights into the importance for controlling risk of ARGs by wetland plants.

Bibliometric analysis of microbial sulfonamide degradation: Development, hotspots and trend directions.

Microbial sulfonamide degradation (MSD) is an efficient and safe treatment in both natural and engineered ecosystems. In order to systematically understand the research status and frontier trends of MSD, this study employed CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of data from the Web of Science (WoS) and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) published from 2000 to 2021. During this time, China, Germany, Spain, the United States and Australia played leading roles by producing numerous high impact publications, while the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the leading research institution in this interdisciplinary research category. The Chemosphere was the top journal in terms of the number of citations. MSD research has gradually progressed from basic laboratory-based experiments to more complex environmental microbial communities and finally to deeper research on molecular mechanisms and engineering applications. Although multi-omics and synthetic community are the key techniques in the frontier research, they are also the current challenges in this field. A summary of published articles shows that Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Burkholderiales and Alcaligenaceae are the most frequently observed MSD phylum, class, order and family, respectively, while Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Achromobacter are the top three MSD genera. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the development and current challenges of MSD research, put forward future perspective, and form a relatively complete list of sulfonamide-degrading microorganisms for reference.

A Data-Enabled Business Model for a Smart Healthcare Information Service Platform in the Era of Digital Transformation.

Digital technology has promoted service innovation and provided effective technical support for public service innovation in recent years. Smart healthcare, a key element of smart city development, has gradually become an important issue in government administration. Digital technology is deeply embedded in healthcare services and reshapes value creation through digital transformation. This study combines data-enabled platform business models and value cocreation and adopts a case study approach to develop a business model for a medical information service platform that allows stakeholders to cocreate value through service exchange and resource integration in smart healthcare ecosystems, promotes efficient and coordinated applications of information, and realizes innovative development in the medical industry.

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of the drought and heat-resistant Chinese alfalfa landrace, Medicago sativa 'Deqin'.

Medicago sativa 'Deqin' is an excellent alfalfa landrace with strong drought and heat resistant which can grow and propagate very well in Deqin, a xerothermic valley of Jinsha River, China. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of M. sativa 'Deqin' was assembled. The complete chloroplast genome of M. sativa 'Deqin' represents a typical circular with 125,470 bp in length, containing one inverted repeat (IR) region. Gene prediction revealed 110 genes encoding 76 proteins, 30 transfer RNAs, and four ribosome RNAs. Three genes (rps16, rpl22 and infA) are absent. The overall GC content is 33.9%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that M. sativa 'Deqin' belonged to the IR lacking clade, and was closely related to M. sativa with a 100% bootstrap support.

STAT3 inhibition enhances CDN-induced STING signaling and antitumor immunity.

Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway is a key regulator in innate immunity and has emerged as a promising drug target in cancer treatment, but the utility of this pathway in therapeutic development is complicated by its dichotomous roles in tumor development and immunity. The activation of the STING pathway and the induced antitumor immunity could be attenuated by the feedback activation of IL-6/STAT3 pathway. Here we reported that STAT3 inhibition significantly enhanced the intensity and duration of STING signaling induced by the STING agonist c-diAM(PS)2. Such sensitization effect of STAT3 inhibition on STING signaling depended on STING rather than cGAS, which was mediated by simultaneously upregulating the positive modulators and downregulating the negative modulators of the STING pathway. Furthermore, the combination treatment with the STAT3 inhibitor and STING agonist markedly regressed tumor growth in syngeneic mice by increasing CD8+ T cells and reducing regulatory T cells (Tregs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the tumor microenvironment. Our work provides a rationale for the combination of STAT3 inhibitors and STING agonists in cancer immunotherapy.