BackgroundPorcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) is the major etiological agent of viral enteritis and severe diarrhea in suckling piglets. In China, TGEV has caused great economic losses, but its role in epidemic diarrhea is unclear. This study aims to reveal the etiological role of TGEV in piglet diarrhea via molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis.ResultsA TGEV-HX strain was isolated from China, and its complete genome was amplified, cloned, and sequenced. Sequence analysis indicated that it was conserved in the 5′ and 3′-non-translated regions, and there were no insertions or deletions in nonstructural genes, such as ORF1a, ORF1b, ORF3a, ORF3b, and ORF7, as well as in genes encoding structural proteins, such as the envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleoprotein (N) proteins. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis indicated that the TGEV-HX strain was more similar to the TGEV Purdue cluster than to the Miller cluster.ConclusionsThe present study described the isolation and genetic characterization of a TGEV-HX strain. The detailed analysis of the genetic variation of TGEVs in China provides essential information for further understanding the evolution of TGEVs.

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Microbial population dynamics in co-composting of cow manure and rice straw were evaluated using 16S high throughput sequencing technology. Physicochemical factors, including temperature, pH, nitrogen contents, the ratio of carbon and nitrogen, and germination index, were also determined in this study. 16S high throughput sequencing results showed that bacterial community structure and composition significantly varied in each phase of composting. The major phyla included Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Planctomycetes, respectively. Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla in all phases, and Actinobacteria was just dominant in the mesophilic phase, while Firmicutes and Planctomycetes were ubiquitous. At the genus level, Simiduia, Flavobacterium, unclassified Chitinophagaceae and Flexibacter notably changed in each phase of composting. Bacterial community diversity in the mesophilic phase was higher than that in others based on the Shannon-Wiener index and Simpson diversity index. The ratio of carbon and nitrogen and germination index indicated that the co-composting of cow manure and rice straw reached maturation. The result of nitrogen contents showed that nitrogen loss mainly occurred in the thermophilic phase. In addition, the differences in the distributions of key OTUs between in the late thermophilic phase and the cooling and maturation phase were unobvious compared with other phase's base on the principal component analysis. Redundancy analysis revealed that the changes of nitrogen played a predominant role in the distributions of OTUs during the composting process.

Polysaccharide is efficient in attenuation of metabolic ailments and modulation of gut microbiota as prebiotics. The therapeutic effect of Inonotus obliquus polysaccharide (IOP) on chronic pancreatitis (CP) in mice has been validated in our previous study. However, it is not clear whether IOP is conducive to maintaining the homeostasis between gut microbiota and host. The aim of this study is to testify the potential effects of IOP on gut microbiota composition and diversity in mice with CP. The changes in glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), total antioxidant capacity (TAOC), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), lipase and trypsin levels were measured by commercial assay kits, meanwhile the gut microbiota composition and diversity were analyzed by high throughput sequencing. The IOP treatment increased GSH-PX and TAOC levels, and decreased TNF-α, TGF-β, lipase and trypsin levels in CP mice. It was also observed that gut microbiota in IOP treated groups were less diverse than others in terms of lower Shannon diversity index and Chao 1 estimator. IOP increased the proportion of Bacteroidetes and decreased that of Firmicutes at phylum level. Bacteroidetes was found positively correlated with GSH-PX and TAOC, and Firmicutes correlated with TNF-α, TGF-β, and lipase. In conclusion, administration of IOP could regulate gut microbiota composition and diversity to a healthy profile in mice with CP, and some bacterial phylum significantly correlated with characteristic parameters.