Rex rabbit is an important small herbivore for fur and meat production. However, little is known about the gut microbiota in rex rabbit, especially regarding their relationship with different fecal types and growth of the hosts. We characterized the microbiota of both hard and soft feces from rex rabbits with high and low body weight by using the Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V4 region of the 16S rDNA. High weight rex rabbits possess distinctive microbiota in hard feces, but not in soft feces, from the low weight group. We detected the overrepresentation of several genera such as YS2/Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidales and underrepresentation of genera such as Anaeroplasma spp. and Clostridiaceae in high weight hard feces. Between fecal types, several bacterial taxa such as Ruminococcaceae, and Akkermansia spp. were enriched in soft feces. PICRUSt analysis revealed that metabolic pathways such as “stilbenoid, diarylheptanoid, gingerol biosynthesis” were enriched in high weight rabbits, and pathways related to “xenobiotics biodegradation” and “various types of N-glycan biosynthesis” were overrepresented in rabbit soft feces. Our study provides foundation to generate hypothesis aiming to test the roles that different bacterial taxa play in the growth and caecotrophy of rex rabbits.

No abstract

No abstract

International knowledge flows have become increasingly common and more frequent and are a key driving force promoting the development of global science. However, little attention has been paid to the determinants of international scientific collaboration. Using co‐publication data from the Web of Science database in the period 2000–2014, this paper illustrates spatial patterns of international knowledge flows and estimates the impact of geographical, technological, social, and cultural proximity on the variation of inter‐country collaboration in science. Our findings demonstrate that the coefficients of the four dimensions of proximity are positive and significant in panel estimates and cross‐section estimates—international knowledge flows are facilitated by geographical, technological, social, and cultural proximity. We also find that the effect of geographical and cultural proximity have waned over time, while the impact of social and technological proximity have strengthened.

Polymorphisms of IL-1beta/-1470, IL-1beta/-511, IL-1beta/-31, IL-4/-589, IL-6/-572, IL-8/-251, IL-10/-819, and TNFalpha/-308 are susceptibility loci for the development of sepsis and organ dysfunction in major trauma patients.