Unveiling Endophytic Bacterial Community Structures of Different Rice Cultivars Grown in a Cadmium-Contaminated Paddy Field.

Endophytic bacteria play potentially important roles in the processes of plant adaptation to the environment. Understanding the composition and dynamics of endophytic bacterial communities under heavy metal (HM) stress can reveal their impacts on host development and stress tolerance. In this study, we investigated root endophytic bacterial communities of different rice cultivars grown in a cadmium (Cd)-contaminated paddy field. These rice cultivars are classified into low (RBQ, 728B, and NX1B) and high (BB and S95B) levels of Cd-accumulating capacity. Our metagenomic analysis targeting 16S rRNA gene sequence data reveals that Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes are predominant root endophytic bacterial phyla of the five rice cultivars that we studied. Principal coordinate analysis shows that the developmental stage of rice governs a larger source of variation in the bacterial communities compared to that of any specific rice cultivar or of the root Cd content. Endophytic bacterial communities during the reproductive stage of rice form a more highly interconnected network and exhibit higher operational taxonomic unit numbers, diversities, and abundance than those during the vegetative stage. Forty-five genera are significantly correlated with Cd content in rice root, notably including positive-correlating Geobacter and Haliangium; and negative-correlating Pseudomonas and Streptacidiphilus. Furthermore, Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States analysis shows that functional pathways, such as biosynthesis of siderophore and type II polyketide products, are significantly enhanced during the reproductive stage compared to those during the vegetative stage under Cd stress. The isolated endophytic bacteria from the Cd-contaminated rice roots display high Cd resistance and multiple traits that may promote plant growth, suggesting their potential application in alleviating HM stress on plants. This study describes in detail for the first time the assemblage of the bacterial endophytomes of rice roots under Cd stress and may provide insights into the interactions among endophytes, plants, and HM contamination.

The Smart Health Initiative in China: The Case of Wuhan, Hubei Province.

To introduce smart health in Wuhan, and provide some references for other cities. As the largest mega-city in central China, Wuhan is investing large amounts of resources to push forward the development of Smart Wuhan and Health Wuhan, and it has unique features. It is one of the centerpieces of China's New Healthcare Reform, and great hope is put on it to help solve the conflict between limited healthcare resources and the large population of patients. How to plan and design smart health is important. The construction of Wuhan Smart Health includes some aspects as follows, like requirement analysis, the establishment of objectives and blueprint, the architecture design of regional health information platform, evaluation and implementation, problems and solutions, and so on. Wuhan Smart Health has obtained some achievements in health network, information systems, resident's health records, information standard, and the first phase of municipal health information platform. The focus of this article is the whole construction process of smart health in Wuhan. Although there are some difficulties during this period, some smart health services and management have been reflected. Compared with other cities or countries, Wuhan Smart Health has its own advantages and disadvantages. This study aims to provide a reference for other cities. Because smart health of Wuhan is characteristic in construction mode. Though still in the initial stage, it has great potentials in the future.

Pharmacokinetics and nephrotoxicity of aristolochic acid in rabbits.

Aristolochic acids (AAs) which exist in plants of the genus Aristolochia are the toxins responsible for aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). To investigate the pharmacokinetics and nephrotoxicity of AAs, rabbits were used in this study. The plasma concentrations of the main components of AAs, aristolochic acid I (AA I) and aristolochic acid II (AA II), were determined by a validated high-performance liquid chromatographic method. After intravenous administration of different doses (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0mg/kg) of aristolochic acid sodium (AANa) to 4 respective groups of rabbits (n=6 for each dose), linear relationships between the doses of AA I and AA II and the area under the plasma concentration curve (AUC) were found to exist (p<0.001). AANa was also given in escalating doses (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0mg/kg) to the same rabbits at 7-day intervals. The clearance rates of both AA I and AA II significantly decreased with the escalating dose (p<0.001). A nonlinear relationship between the dose and AUC was obtained. Kidney specimens of rabbits were obtained to observe morphological changes on days 1 and 7 after AANa administration. The renal lesions caused by AAs consisted of progressive and dose-dependent tubular damage. However, no remarkable changes in the morphology of glomeruli were observed.