Community composition of phytopathogenic fungi significantly influences ectomycorrhizal fungal communities during subtropical forest succession.

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) can form symbiotic relationships with plants, aiding in plant growth by providing access to nutrients and defense against phytopathogenic fungi. In this context, factors such as plant assemblages and soil properties can impact the interaction between EMF and phytopathogenic fungi in forest soil. However, there is little understanding of how these fungal interactions evolve as forests move through succession stages. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate fungal communities in young, intermediate, and old subtropical forests. At the genus level, EMF communities were dominated by Sebacina, Russula, and Lactarius, while Mycena was the most abundant genus in pathogenic fungal communities. The relative abundances of EMF and phytopathogenic fungi in different stages showed no significant difference with the regulation of different factors. We discovered that interactions between phytopathogenic fungi and EMF maintained a dynamic balance under the influence of the differences in soil quality attributed to each forest successional stage. The community composition of phytopathogenic fungi is one of the strong drivers in shaping EMF communities over successions. In addition, the EMF diversity was significantly related to plant diversity, and these relationships varied among successional stages. Despite the regulation of various factors, the positive relationship between the diversity of phytopathogenic fungi and EMF remained unchanged. However, there is no significant difference in the ratio of the abundance of EMF and phytopathogenic fungi over the course of successions. These results will advance our understanding of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning during forest succession. KEY POINTS: •Community composition of both EMF and phytopathogenic fungi changed significantly over forest succession. •Phytopathogenic fungi is a key driver in shaping EMF community. •The effect of plant Shannon's diversity on EMF communities changed during the forest aging process.

Multiple interaction networks reveal that Lepidoptera larvae and adults prefer various host plants for diet and pollination.

Plant-Lepidoptera interactions are often studied using the pollination or herbivore networks only. Lepidoptera species are involved in two types of plant-insect interactions because they are herbivores as larvae and pollinators as adults. The study of entangled networks is critical, since the interaction of different networks can affect the overall network and community stability. Here, we studied the interaction of plants and Lepidoptera on the Yongxing Island, South China Sea. A plant-lepidopteran pollination network and a plant-lepidopteran herbivore network were built by using data from flower-pollinator and leaf-herbivore interactions. We then combined the two networks into a single network. We measured plant composition similarity within each sub-network and across sub-networks for Lepidoptera species. Our findings indicate that the plant-Lepidoptera pollination network and the herbivory network share significant proportions of Lepidoptera but small proportions of plant assemblages. The pollination network had higher nestedness and connectance than the herbivore network. Agrius convolvuli was the most specialized species, while Zizina otis had the highest species strength in the pollination network. Most Lepidoptera species were highly specialized in the herbivore network and their importance positively correlated across the two networks. Furthermore, there was no dietary composition similarity between the two networks for most Lepidoptera species. Our findings highlight the visible structural difference between the pollination and the herbivore networks. Adult Lepidoptera selects different plants for oviposition and feeding, a strategy that may benefit their reproduction and survival by sustaining adequate resources for their two life stages and the diversity of both plants and insects in oceanic island communities.

Risk of Recurrence and Metastasis for Patients with T1N0M0 Esophageal Carcinoma Who Achieve Completed Resection via Endoscopic Submucosal Resection: Evidence for the Appropriateness of the Watch and Wait Follow-Up Strategy.

PURPOSE: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a widely performed procedure for esophageal carcinoma when the depth of invasion reaches the epithelium and lamina propria. However, ESD for esophageal carcinoma with depth of invasion exceeding the muscularis mucosa is controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of ESD for T1N0M0 (tumor invading the mucosa and submucosa [T1], no regional lymph node metastasis [N0], no distant metastasis [M0]) esophageal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Esophageal cancer was evaluated via pathology and computed tomography (CT) in consecutive patients with negative margin and without additional therapy. A total of 84 patients were included. The mean follow-up time was 42 (range, 9-99) months. RESULTS: No recurrence and metastasis were detected in the M1 and M2 group. The 5-year locoregional recurrence rate and distant metastasis rate were 4.2% and 5.6% for the M3 group and were 0% and 1.4% for the SM group, respectively. The 3- and 5-year overall survival were 94.4% (M1+M2 group, 95.0%; M3 group, 95.0%; SM group, 92.9%) and 80.9% (M1+M2 group, 95.0%; M3 group, 95.0%; SM group, 92.9%). Meanwhile, the 3- and 5-year disease-specific survival rates were 100% (M1+M2 group, 100%; M3 group, 100%; SM group, 100%) and 90.8% (M1+M2 group, 100%; M3 group, 90.0%; SM group, 85.7%). The major complications were postoperative strictures, most of which were grade 1-2. In total, two (4.8%) and one (1.2%) patient developed grade 3 and 5 late esophageal strictures, respectively. CONCLUSION: ESD complete resection yields low recurrence and metastasis rates in early esophageal cancer (T1N0M0). Thus, additional treatment is not necessary, and a watch and wait strategy may be reasonable.

High mobility group-box 3 overexpression is associated with poor prognosis of resected gastric adenocarcinoma.

AIM: To elucidate high mobility group-box 3 (HMGB3) protein expression in gastric adenocarcinoma, its potential prognostic relevance, and possible mechanism of action. METHODS: Ninety-two patients with gastric adenocarcinomas surgically removed entered the study. HMGB3 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry through a tissue microarray procedure. The clinicopathologic characteristics of all patients were recorded, and regular follow-up was made for all patients. The inter-relationship of HMGB3 expression with histological and clinical factors was analyzed using nonparametric tests. Survival analysis was carried out by Kaplan-Meier (log-rank) and multivariate Cox (Forward LR) analyses between the group with overexpression of HMGB3 and the group with low or no HMGB3 expression to determine the prognosis value of HMGB3 expression on overall survival. Further, HMGB3 expression was knocked down by small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in the human gastric cancer cell line BGC823 to observe its influence on cell biological characteristics. The MTT method was utilized to detect gastric cancer cell proliferation changes, and cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Among 92 patients with gastric adenocarcinomas surgically removed in this study, high HMGB3 protein expression was detected in the gastric adenocarcinoma tissues vs peritumoral tissues (P < 0.001). Further correlation analysis with patients' clinical and histology variables revealed that HMGB3 overexpression was obviously associated with extensive wall penetration (P = 0.005), a positive nodal status (P = 0.004), and advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (P = 0.001). But there was no correlation between HMGB3 overexpression and the age and gender of the patient, tumor localization or histologic grade. Statistical Kaplan-Meier survival analysis disclosed significant differences in overall survival between the HMGB3 overexpression group and the HMGB3 no or low expression group (P = 0.006). The expected overall survival time was 31.00 ± 3.773 mo (95%CI = 23.605-38.395) for patients with HMGB3 overexpression and 49.074 ± 3.648 mo (95%CI = 41.925-57.311) for patients with HMGB3 no and low-level expression. Additionally, older age (P = 0.040), extensive wall penetration (P = 0.008), positive lymph node metastasis (P = 0.005), and advanced TNM tumor stage (P = 0.007) showed negative correlation with overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that HMGB3 overexpression was an independent variable with respect to age, gender, histologic grade, extent of wall penetration, lymph nodal metastasis, and TNM stage for patients with resectable gastric adenocarcinomas with poor prognosis (hazard ratio = 2.791, 95%CI = 1.233-6.319, P = 0.019). In the gene function study, after HMGB3 was knocked down in the gastric cell line BGC823 by shRNA, the cell proliferation rate was reduced at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. Compared to BGC823 shRNA-negative control (NC) cells, the cell proliferation rate in cells that had HMGB3 shRNA transfected was significantly decreased (P < 0.01). Finally, cell cycle analysis by FACS showed that BGC823 cells that had HMGB3 knocked down were blocked in G1/G0 phase. The percentage of cells in G1/G0 phase in BGC823 cells with shRNA-NC and with shRNA-HMGB3 was 46.84% ± 1.7%, and 73.03% ± 3.51% respectively (P = 0.001), whereas G2/M cells percentage decreased from 26.51% ± 0.83% to 17.8% ± 2.26%. CONCLUSION: HMGB3 is likely to be a useful prognostic marker involved in gastric cancer disease onset and progression by regulating the cell cycle.