Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a metabolic complication that manifests as hyperglycemia during the later stages of pregnancy. In high resource settings, careful management of GDM limits risk to the pregnancy, and hyperglycemia typically resolves after birth. At the same time, previous studies have revealed that the gut microbiome of infants born to mothers who experienced GDM exhibit reduced diversity and reduction in the abundance of several key taxa, including Lactobacillus. What is not known is what the functional consequences of these changes might be. In this case control study, we applied 16S rRNA sequence surveys and metatranscriptomics to profile the gut microbiome of 30 twelve-month-old infants - 16 from mothers with GDM, 14 from mothers without - to examine the impact of GDM during pregnancy. Relative to the mode of delivery and sex of the infant, maternal GDM status had a limited impact on the structure and function of the developing microbiome. While GDM samples were associated with a decrease in alpha diversity, we observed no effect on beta diversity and no differentially abundant taxa. Further, while the mode of delivery and sex of infant affected the expression of multiple bacterial pathways, much of the impact of GDM status on the function of the infant microbiome appears to be lost by twelve months of age. These data may indicate that, while mode of delivery appears to impact function and diversity for longer than anticipated, GDM may not have persistent effects on the function nor composition of the infant gut microbiome.

Red dragon fruit (RDF) is well-known for its high nutritional content, especially the red pigment betacyanins that possess high antioxidant activity. Natural fermentation is an ancient yet outstanding technique that relies on the autochthonous microbiota from fruits and vegetables surfaces to preserve and improve the nutritional values and quality of the food product. The present study was to evaluate and identify the indigenous microbial community (bacteria and fungi) that are involved in the natural fermentation of RDF. Results revealed a total of twenty bacterial pure cultures and nine fungal pure cultures were successfully isolated from fermented red dragon fruit drink (FRDFD). For the first time, the PCR amplification of 16S rRNA and ITS regions and sequence analysis suggested nine genera of bacteria and three genera of fungi (Aureobasidium pullulans, Clavispora opuntiae, and Talaromyces aurantiacus) present in the FRDFD. Four dominant (≥10 % isolates) bacteria species identified from FRDFD were Klebsiella pneumonia, Brevibacillus parabrevis, Bacillus tequilensis and Bacillus subtilis. The carbohydrate fermentation test showed that all the indigenous microbes identified were able to serve as useful starter culture by fermenting sucrose and glucose, thereby producing acid to lower the pH of FRDFD to around pH 4 for better betacyanins stability. The present study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the indigenous microbial community that serves as the starter culture in the fermentation of RDF. Besides, this study provides a useful guide for future research to be conducted on studying the rare bacterial strains (such as B. tequilensis) identified from the FRDFD for their potential bioactivities and applications in medical treatment and functional foods industries.

UNASSIGNED: As periodontitis progresses, the oral microbiota community changes dynamically. In this study, we evaluated the dominant bacteria and their roles in the potential pathway in young males with stage III periodontitis.
UNASSIGNED: 16S rRNA sequencing was performed to evaluate variations in the composition of oral bacteria between males with stage I and III periodontitis and identify the dominant bacteria of each group. Function prediction was obtained based on 16S rRNA sequencing data. The inhibitor of the predominant pathway for stage III periodontitis was used to investigate the role of the dominant bacteria in periodontitis in vivo and in vitro.
UNASSIGNED: Chao1 index, Observed Species and Phylogenetic Diversity (PD) whole tree values were significantly higher in the stage III periodontitis group. β-diversity suggested that samples could be divided according to the stages of periodontitis. The dominant bacteria in stage III periodontitis were Prevotella, Prevotella_7, and Dialister, whereas that in stage I periodontitis was Cardiobacterium. KEGG analysis predicted that variations in the oral microbiome may be related to the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway. The inhibitor of this pathway, NOD-IN-1, decreased P. intermedia -induced Tnf-α mRNA expression and increased P. intermedia -induced Il-6 mRNA expression, consistent with the ELISA results. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the down-regulation of TNF-α and IL-6 expressions by NOD-IN-1 in P. intermedia-induced periodontitis.
UNASSIGNED: The composition of the oral bacteria in young males varied according to the stage of periodontitis. The species richness of oral microtia was greater in young males with stage III periodontitis than those with stage I periodontitis. Prevotella was the dominant bacteria in young males with stage III periodontitis, and inhibition of the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway can decrease the periodontal inflammation induced by P. intermedia.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to isolate a neotype bifidobacteria strain and evaluate its in vitro probiotic potential.
RESULTS: Bifidobacterium pseudolongum YY-26 (CGMCC 24310) was isolated from faeces of mice treated with low-molecular-weight hydrolyzed guar gum (GMPS) and identified based on 16S rRNA sequence and genome sequence. Whole-genome sequencing obtained using PacBio\'s single-molecular and Illumina\'s paired-end sequencing technology. A genome of 2.1 Mb in length, with 1877 predicted protein-coding sequences was obtained. Carbohydrate-Activity enZyme analysis revealed that YY-26 encodes 66 enzymes related to carbohydrate metabolism. Whole genome sequence analysis revealed the typical probiotic characteristics of YY-26, including safety in genetic level and ability to produce beneficial metabolites and extracellular polysaccharides. Ability of extensive carbon source utilization and short-chain fatty acid production was observed with single YY-26 cultivation. Considerable acetic acids and lactic acids were determined in GMPS utilization. YY-26 showed tolerance to simulated gastrointestinal tract and displayed appreciable antioxidant activity of free radical scavenging.
CONCLUSIONS: B. pseudolongum YY-26 was identified with numerous probiotic-associated genes and its probiotic characteristics were verified in vitro.
CONCLUSIONS: This study supplemented with limited publicly information regarding the genomes of B. pseudolongum strains and revealed the probiotic potential of YY-26.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria strain, named YIM B01951T, was isolated from a forest soil sample collected from Mopan Mountain National Forest Park, Xinping City, Yunnan Province, southwest PR China (101°58\'06\" N, 23°03\'02\" E). Growth occurred at 15-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 6.5) and with up to ≤ 3.0% (w/v) NaCl on Nutrient Agar plates. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that strain YIM B01951T was closely related to the type strain of Cohnella arctica M9-62T (96.5%) and Cohnella lupini RLAHU4BT (96.3%). YIM B01951T contains anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0 as the major cellular fatty acids; the main polar lipids are diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), lysylphosphatidylglycerol (PGL) and five aminophospholipids (APL). The MK-7 is the major respiratory quinone and the DNA G + C content is 49.2 mol%. Based on these phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses, strain YIM B01951T is considered to be a novel species of the genus Cohnella, and named Cohnella mopanensis sp. nov. The type strain is YIM B01951T (= NBRC 115331T = KCTC 43370T).

BACKGROUND: Recent evidences have suggested that human microorganisms participate in important biological activities in the human body. The dysfunction of host-microbiota interactions could lead to complex human disorders. The knowledge on host-microbiota interactions can provide valuable insights into understanding the pathological mechanism of diseases. However, it is time-consuming and costly to identify the disorder-specific microbes from the biological \"haystack\" merely by routine wet-lab experiments. With the developments in next-generation sequencing and omics-based trials, it is imperative to develop computational prediction models for predicting microbe-disease associations on a large scale.
RESULTS: Based on the known microbe-disease associations derived from the Human Microbe-Disease Association Database (HMDAD), the proposed model shows reliable performance with high values of the area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.9456 and 0.8866 in leave-one-out cross validations and five-fold cross validations, respectively. In case studies of colorectal carcinoma, 80% out of the top-20 predicted microbes have been experimentally confirmed via published literatures.
CONCLUSIONS: Based on the assumption that functionally similar microbes tend to share the similar interaction patterns with human diseases, we here propose a group based computational model of Bayesian disease-oriented ranking to prioritize the most potential microbes associating with various human diseases. Based on the sequence information of genes, two computational approaches (BLAST+ and MEGA 7) are leveraged to measure the microbe-microbe similarity from different perspectives. The disease-disease similarity is calculated by capturing the hierarchy information from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) data. The experimental results illustrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model. This work is expected to facilitate the characterization and identification of promising microbial biomarkers.

A novel Gram-stain positive, oval-shaped, and non-flagellated bacterium, designated YIM S02566T, was isolated from alpine soil in Shadui Towns, Ganzi County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China. Growth occurred at 23-35 °C (optimum, 30 °C) in the presence of 0.5-4% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1%) and at pH 7.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain YIM S02566T was most closely related to the genus Aestuariimicrobium, with Aestuariimicrobium kwangyangense R27T and Aestuariimicrobium soli D6T as its closest relative (sequence similarities were 96.3% and 95.4%, respectively). YIM S02566T contained LL-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall. MK-9(H4) was the predominant menaquinone. The major fatty acid patterns were anteiso-C15:0 (60.0%). The major polar lipid was DPG. The genome size of strain YIM S02566T was 3.1 Mb, comprising 3078 predicted genes with a DNA G + C content of 69.0 mol%. Based on these genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic evidences, strain YIM S02566T was identified as a novel species in the genus Aestuariimicrobium, for which the name Aestuariimicrobium ganziense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM S02566T (= CGMCC 1.18751 T = KCTC 49,477 T).

Infection with specific pathogens and alterations in tissue commensal microbial composition are intricately associated with the development of many human cancers. Likewise, dysbiosis of oral microbiome was also shown to play critical role in the initiation as well as progression of oral cancer. However, there are no reports portraying changes in oral microbial community in the patients of Indian subcontinent, which has the highest incidence of oral cancer per year, globally. To establish the association of bacterial dysbiosis and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) among the Indian population, malignant lesions and anatomically matched adjacent normal tissues were obtained from fifty well-differentiated OSCC patients and analyzed using 16S rRNA V3-V4 amplicon based sequencing on the MiSeq platform. Interestingly, in contrast to the previous studies, a significantly lower bacterial diversity was observed in the malignant samples as compared to the normal counterpart. Overall our study identified Prevotella, Corynebacterium, Pseudomonas, Deinococcus and Noviherbaspirillum as significantly enriched genera, whereas genera including Actinomyces, Sutterella, Stenotrophomonas, Anoxybacillus, and Serratia were notably decreased in the OSCC lesions. Moreover, we demonstrated HPV-16 but not HPV-18 was significantly associated with the OSCC development. In future, with additional validation, this panel could directly be applied into clinical diagnostic and prognostic workflows for OSCC in Indian scenario.

We report a case of prosthetic arthritis caused by Cardiobacterium valvarum, which has been exclusively reported to cause intravascular infections. A 81-year-old Japanese female complained prosthetic knee joint pain. Arthrocentesis cultured no pathogen, and surgical replacement of the implant surface was performed. Modified Levinthal medium culture and 16S rRNA sequencing has finally led to diagnosis of C. valvarum prosthetic knee arthritis without cardiac lesions. Fastidious bacteria such as C. valvarum can be candidate pathogens of orthopedic infections whose causative agents are sometimes unidentified. Further development of molecular diagnostics is expected, but also the importance of conventional methods should be noted.

Strain YIM B00363T, a Gram-positive, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped, spore-forming bacterium, was isolated from saline soil samples collected from a salt lake in Xinjiang province, north-west China, and was characterized using a polyphasic approach. The optimum growth temperature was 37 °C and the optimum pH was 7.5-8.0. The major menaquinone was MK-7; anteiso-C15:0 (53.52%), iso-C15:0 (15.04%) and C16:0 (12.76%) were the predominant cellular fatty acids. The diagnostic diamino acid of the cell wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The phospholipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, unidentified phospholipids, unidentified glycolipids and unknown lipids. The DNA G + C content of the type strain was 50.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the strain YIM B00363T belonged to a cluster comprising species of the genus Paenibacillus. The nearest relatives were P. residui MC-246T and P. senegalensis JC66T, with 93.2% and 92.8% gene sequence similarities, respectively. On the basis of its phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic distinctivenes, strain YIM B00363T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus turpanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM B00363T (= CGMCC 1.17507T = KCTC 43184T).