The human gut microbiota is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes, but little is known about their diversity and richness within the gut. Here we analyse the antibiotic resistance genes of gut microbiota from 162 individuals. We identify a total of 1,093 antibiotic resistance genes and find that Chinese individuals harbour the highest number and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes, followed by Danish and Spanish individuals. Single-nucleotide polymorphism-based analysis indicates that antibiotic resistance genes from the two European populations are more closely related while the Chinese ones are clustered separately. We also confirm high abundance of tetracycline resistance genes with this large cohort study. Our study provides a broad view of antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut microbiota.

The NCBI Assembly database (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/assembly/) provides stable accessioning and data tracking for genome assembly data. The model underlying the database can accommodate a range of assembly structures, including sets of unordered contig or scaffold sequences, bacterial genomes consisting of a single complete chromosome, or complex structures such as a human genome with modeled allelic variation. The database provides an assembly accession and version to unambiguously identify the set of sequences that make up a particular version of an assembly, and tracks changes to updated genome assemblies. The Assembly database reports metadata such as assembly names, simple statistical reports of the assembly (number of contigs and scaffolds, contiguity metrics such as contig N50, total sequence length and total gap length) as well as the assembly update history. The Assembly database also tracks the relationship between an assembly submitted to the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Consortium (INSDC) and the assembly represented in the NCBI RefSeq project. Users can find assemblies of interest by querying the Assembly Resource directly or by browsing available assemblies for a particular organism. Links in the Assembly Resource allow users to easily download sequence and annotations for current versions of genome assemblies from the NCBI genomes FTP site.

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), a gammaherpesvirus implicated in Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and Castleman's disease, encodes several pathogenically important cellular homologs. To define the HHV-8 transcription program, RNA obtained from latently infected body cavity-based lymphoma 1 cells induced to undergo lytic replication was used to query a custom HHV-8 DNA microarray containing nearly every known viral open reading frame. The patterns of viral gene expression offer insights into the replication and pathogenic strategies of HHV-8.

Our group recently reported positive therapeutic benefit of human endometrium‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (EnMSCs) delivered to infarcted rat myocardium, an effect that correlated with enhanced secretion of protective cytokines and growth factors compared with parallel cultures of human bone marrow MSCs (BMMSCs). To define more precisely the molecular mechanisms of EnMSC therapy, in the present study, we assessed in parallel the paracrine and therapeutic properties of MSCs derived from endometrium, bone marrow, and adipose tissues in a rat model of myocardial infarction (MI). EnMSCs, BMMSCs, and adipose‐derived MSCs (AdMSCs) were characterized by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting (FACS). Paracrine and cytoprotective actions were assessed in vitro by coculture with neonatal cardiomyocytes and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. A rat MI model was used to compare cell therapy by intramyocardial injection of BMMSCs, AdMSCs, and EnMSCs. We found that EnMSCs conferred superior cardioprotection relative to BMMSCs or AdMSCs and supported enhanced microvessel density. Inhibitor studies indicated that the enhanced paracrine actions of EnMSCs were mediated by secreted exosomes. Analyses of exosomal microRNAs (miRs) by miR array and quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that miR‐21 expression was selectively enhanced in exosomes derived from EnMSCs. Selective antagonism of miR‐21 by anti‐miR treatment abolished the antiapoptotic and angiogenic effects of EnMSCs with parallel effects on phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), a miR‐21 target and downstream Akt. The results of the present study confirm the superior cardioprotection by EnMSCs relative to BMMSCs or AdMSCs and implicates miR‐21 as a potential mediator of EnMSC therapy by enhancing cell survival through the PTEN/Akt pathway. The endometrium might be a preferential source of MSCs for cardiovascular cell therapy. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:209–222