Streptococcus agalactiae, a highly contagious mastitis pathogen, caused huge economic losses; meanwhile, repeated use of antibiotics results in the emergence of serious antibiotic residues and drug resistance. Therefore, it is in great need to develop ecologically sustainable antimicrobial agents. In the study, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC), and action mechanism of terpinen-4-ol against S. agalactiae was investigated to evaluate antibacterial activity of terpinen-4-ol. Results showed the MIC and MBC of terpinen-4-ol were 98 and 196 µg/mL, respectively. Time-kill curves displayed that the antibacterial activity of terpinen-4-ol was in a concentration-dependent manner. Transmission electron micrographs showed that the cell membrane and wall of S. agalactiae were damaged, and plasmolysis and chromatins were inconspicuous. Release of Ca and Mg proved that terpinen-4-ol could increase cell membrane permeability. And the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) suggested that cell wall was destroyed. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining results showed that terpinen-4-ol could affect the synthesis of protein and DNA. These results suggested that terpinen-4-ol might be used as candidate for treating S. agalactiae infection.

Endophytic fungi act as seed endosymbiont, thereby playing a very crucial role in the growth and development of seeds. Seed-vectored endophytic fungi establish an everlasting association with seeds and travel from generation to generation. To explore the composition and diversity of endophytic fungi in Alpinia zerumbet seeds, high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing was employed for the following stages: fruit formation period (YSJ1), young fruit period (YSJ2), early mature period (YSJ3), middle mature period (YSJ4), and late mature period (YSJ5). A total of 906,694 sequence reads and 745 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained and further classified into 8 phyla, 30 classes, 73 orders, 163 families, 302 genera, and 449 species. The highest endophytic fungal diversity was observed at YSJ5. The genera with the highest abundance were Cladosporium, Kodamaea, Hannaella, Mycothermus, Gibberella, Sarocladium, and Neopestalotiopsis. Functional Guild (FUNGuild) analysis revealed that endophytic fungi were undefined saprotroph, plant pathogens, animal pathogen–endophyte–lichen parasite–plant pathogen–wood saprotroph, and soil saprotrophs. Alternaria, Fusarium, Cladosporium, and Sarocladium, which are potential probiotics and can be used as biocontrol agents, were also abundant. This study is part of the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations Organization (UNO) to “Establish Good Health and Well-Being.”

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ABSTRACT. Wool is produced via synthetic processes of wool follicles, which are embedded in the skin of sheep. The development of new-generation sequencing and RNA sequencing provides new approaches that may elucidate the molecular regulation mechanism of wool follicle development and facilitate enhanced selection for wool traits through gene-assisted selection or targeted gene manipulation. We performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of skin using the Illumina Hiseq 2000 sequencing system in sheep (Ovis aries). Transcriptome de novo assembly was carried out via short-read assembly programs, including SOAPdenovo and ESTScan. The protein function, clusters of orthologous group function, gene ontology function, metabolic pathway analysis, and protein coding region prediction of unigenes were annotated by BLASTx, BLAST2GO, and ESTScan. More than 26,266,670 clean reads were collected and assembled into 79,741 unigene sequences, with a final assembly length of 35,447,962 nucleotides. A total of 22,164 unigenes were annotated, accounting for Y.J. Yue et al. 1372©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (1): 1371-1384 (2015) 36.27% of the total number of unigenes, which were divided into 25 classes belonging to 218 signaling pathways. Among them, there were 17 signal paths related to hair follicle development. Based on mass sequencing data of sheepskin obtained by RNA-Seq, many unigenes were identified and annotated, which provides an excellent platform for future sheep genetic and functional genomic research. The data could be used for improving wool quality and as a model for human hair follicle development or disease prevention.

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Short-chain esters derived from fatty acid contribute to the characteristic flavor of apricot fruit, and the biosynthesis of these compounds in fruit is catalyzed by alcohol acyltransferase (AAT). In this work, we investigated the AAT gene family via genome-wide scanning, and three AAT loci were identified in different linkage groups (LGs), with PaAAT1 (PARG22907m01) in LG7, PaAAT2 (PARG15279m01) in LG4, and PaAAT3 (PARG22697m01) in LG6. Phylogenetic analysis showed that PaAAT1 belongs to clade 3, while PaAAT2 and PaAAT3 belong to clade 1 and clade 2, respectively. In contrast, the three AAT genes present different expression patterns. Only PaAAT1 exhibited distinct patterns of fruit-specific expression, and the expression of PaAAT1 sharply increased during fruit ripening, which is consistent with the abundance of C4–C6 esters such as (E)-2-hexenyl acetate and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate. The transient overexpression of PaAAT1 in Katy (KT) apricot fruit resulted in a remarkable decrease in hexenol, (E)-2-hexenol, and (Z)-3-hexenol levels while significantly increasing the corresponding acetate production (p < 0.01). A substrate assay revealed that the PaAAT1 protein enzyme can produce hexenyl acetate, (E)-2-hexenyl acetate, and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate when C6 alcohols are used as substrates for the reaction. Taken together, these results indicate that PaAAT1 plays a crucial role in the production of C6 esters in apricot fruit during ripening.

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Background Cinnamomum longepaniculatum (Gamble) N. Chao ex H. W. Li, whose leaves produce essential oils, is a traditional Chinese medicine and economically important tree species. In our study, two C. longepaniculatum varieties that have significantly different essential oil contents and leaf phenotypes were selected as the materials to investigate secondary metabolism. Result The essential oil content and leaf phenotypes were different between the two varieties. When the results of both transcriptome and metabolomic analyses were combined, it was found that the differences were related to phenylalanine metabolic pathways, particularly the metabolism of flavonoids and terpenoids. The transcriptome results based on KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that pathways involving phenylpropanoids, tryptophan biosynthesis and terpenoids significantly differed between the two varieties; 11 DEGs (2 upregulated and 9 downregulated) were associated with the biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites, and 12 DEGs (2 upregulated and 10 downregulated) were related to the metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides. Through further analysis of the leaves, we detected 196 metabolites in C. longepaniculatum. The abundance of 49 (26 downregulated and 23 upregulated) metabolites differed between the two varieties, which is likely related to the differences in the accumulation of these metabolites. We identified 12 flavonoids, 8 terpenoids and 8 alkaloids and identified 4 kinds of PMFs from the leaves of C. longepaniculatum. Conclusions The combined results of transcriptome and metabolomic analyses revealed a strong correlation between metabolite contents and gene expression. We speculate that light leads to differences in the secondary metabolism and phenotypes of leaves of different varieties of C. longepaniculatum. This research provides data for secondary metabolite studies and lays a solid foundation for breeding ideal C. longepaniculatum plants.