Soil salinization threatens approximately 20% of irrigated cropland globally. Conventional physical and chemical remediation methods are limited by high water consumption, significant costs, and environmental risks. Rhizosphere microorganisms, often termed as the plant's "second genome," enhance plant salinity tolerance through multidimensional synergistic mechanisms, which offering a sustainable and efficient strategy for saline soil amelioration. This review delineates plant salt tolerance mechanisms and systematically elucidates the role of rhizosphere microorganisms in regulating this tolerance, including regulating ion stabilization, maintaining osmotic balance, defensing oxidative stress, modulating phytohormone network, improving rhizosphere microhabitat and activating nutrient element. Additionally, the review further discusses the current applications in main crops, such as rice, wheat, maize, soybean, and vegetables. Meanwhile, to address persistent challenges such as inadequate microbial field stability, pronounced host-microbe interaction specificity, and constraints in technology dissemination, future research should prioritize:deepening the interaction of the "plant genotype-root exudate-microbial function" interaction mechanism; utilizing synthetic biology to design functionally complementary Synthetic Microbial Communities (SynComs); enhancing inoculant stability by integrating materials science; and developing smart agricultural technologies for precise application. These integrated strategies are anticipated to facilitate rhizosphere microbe-mediated technologies for saline-alkali land reclamation and large-scale deployment in sustainable agriculture.

Steroids are the second-largest category of clinical drugs following antibiotics, with significant physiological functions such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antitumor, and antihypertensive effects, bearing a huge market demand. Currently, the mainstream industrial approach for steroid drugs production is microbial semi-synthesis, which involves microbial degradation of phytosterols into steroid-drug intermediates (precursors) followed by chemical modification. This review focuses on Mycobacterium sp., a representative strain used for synthesizing steroid-drug intermediates, and outlines the key steps in its steroid metabolic pathway, including sterol uptake, initial oxidation of sterol nucleus, side chain degradation, further oxidation of sterol nucleus, and nucleus cleavage, along with the key enzymes involved. Furthermore, the genetic modification systems of gene overexpression, knockout and knockdown applicable to Mycobacterium are summarized. However, the identification and characterization of complex enzyme systems in the degradation process of sterol side chain remains a major challenge in current research and a key bottleneck restricting the development of novel steroid-drug intermediates. Therefore, accelerating the analysis of sterol metabolic pathways by high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics analysis and site-directed saturation mutagenesis is essential for the rational design of mycobacterial cell factories and for the construction of strains with high-yield of new steroid intermediates.

Floridoside, a glycosyl alcohol exhibiting diverse biological activities including antioxidant effects, immune regulation, and protein stabilization, demonstrates significant potential for applications in the food and cosmetic industries. In our previous study, we successfully achieved the heterologous expression of the recombinant α-galactosidase rAgaAJB07 from Mesorhizobium, which catalyzes floridoside biosynthesis via trans-glycosylation was obtained. In order to improve floridoside production, the reaction conditions were systematically optimized for the recombinant enzyme using glycerol as the acceptor substrate and p-nitrophenyl α-D-galactopyranoside (pNPG) as the donor substrate. The optimal parameters were determined as follows: 500 mmol/L glycerol, 40 mmol/L pNPG, 1.5 U/mL enzyme concentration, 2 h reaction duration, pH 8.5, and 30 ℃. Under these conditions, recombinant rAgaAJB07 achieved a maximum floridoside yield with a 66.2% enhancement compared to baseline parameters, while simultaneously reducing the reaction time by 22 hours. This optimization strategy provides a robust methodological framework for scalable enzymatic synthesis of floridoside.

The gene expression in Hericium coralloides on the process of producing γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was investigated under Schisandra chinensis （Turcz.）Baill. induction environment at different growth stages. H. coralloides RT25 was used in this research. The H. coralloides RT25 growth state of the fermentation mycelium and the primordium, the various indicators of the fruiting body were compared and analyzed between the experimental group with Schisandra and the control group without Schisandra. Transcriptome sequencing technology was used to analyze the differentially expressed genes and related enrichment pathways of H. coralloides at different growth and development stages. The results showed that the fermentation broth mycelial pellets of the Schisandra group had higher uniformity and density than those of the control group. The fruiting body of the Schisandra group showed significant improvement in mycelium growth rate, primordium formation and biological efficiency. Transcriptome study showed that the DN344 gene expression of H. coralloides RT25 with Schisandra group was up-regulated during the mycelium fermentation stage, and the activity of glutamic acid dehydrogenase was enhanced, resulting in the increase of L-glutamic acid, thereby promoting the increase of GABA content. The DN3464 gene expression of H. coralloides RT25 with Schisandra induction was up-regulated in the primordium formation period, and the activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase was improved, leading to improve the biological synthesis efficiency of GABA. The DN344 gene expression was up-regulated in the fruiting body maturity, the glutamic acid dehydrogenase activity was enhanced, and the L-glutamic acid content increased while the expression level of DN3464 gene and the activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase remained stable, and the activity of γ-aminobutyric acid transaminase was enhanced, which finally led to the increase of GABA content. Schisandra regulates the signal transduction pathway in cells, affects the expression of the related genes for GABA synthesis, and then regulates the activity of enzymes related to the GABA metabolic pathway, promotes the conversion of glutamic acid to GABA, finally improves the yield of GABA.

Aquatic fungi play an essential role in maintaining the biogeochemical cycles and functional stability of lake ecosystems. To elucidate the seasonal dynamics of aquatic fungal communities in alpine lakes and the environmental factors shaping them, water samples from the littoral zone of Nam Co Lake in August 2020 (summer), May 2021 (spring), and October 2021 (autumn) were collected and the communities were analyzed by using ITS1 amplicon sequencing. A total of 5 793 OTUs (17 phyla, 869 genera) were detected in spring, 7 227 OTUs (18 phyla, 892 genera) in summer, and 1 558 OTUs (10 phyla, 188 genera) in autumn, indicating pronounced seasonal variations in community diversity and dominant taxa. Ascomycota dominated in spring and summer (78.10% and 78.79%), whereas Chytridiomycota (37.17%) became dominant in autumn. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that water temperature (R²=0.376, P=0.001), pH (R²=0.147, P=0.038), and total nitrogen (R²=0.263, P=0.019) were the primary environmental factors shaping community structure, whereas α-diversity was significantly correlated with total phosphorus and total nitrogen (P<0.05). The neutral community model suggested that stochastic processes dominated in spring (R²=77.4%, Nm=11, 736) but weakened in summer and autumn (R²=14.7% and 8%, respectively), with a relatively low overall goodness of fit (R²=19.1%). Checkerboard score analysis (SES>2) further demonstrated that deterministic processes exerted a predominant influence on community assembly. Overall, aquatic fungal communities in the littoral zone of Nam Co Lake exhibited pronounced seasonal dynamics. Their structure and diversity were primarily driven by environmental factors and jointly regulated by deterministic and stochastic processes, with environmental filtering playing a dominant role in community assembly. These findings offer new insights into the seasonal variations, environmental regulation, and assembly mechanisms of aquatic fungal communities in alpine lakes, thereby advancing our understanding of microbial community formation and ecosystem function in high-altitude aquatic environments.

This study aimed to prepare monoclonal antibodies against human β2-MG and to establish rapid and accurate quantitative and qualitative immunoassay methods for β2-MG detection. Recombinant β2-MG was produced through prokaryotic expression and purification, and subsequently used for immunizing BALB/c mice. Monoclonal antibodies against human β2-MG were generated using hybridoma technology and screened via double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), which facilitated the development of a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA). Clinical serum β2-MG levels were measured to evaluate and analyze the detection performance of the proposed CLEIA. Additionally, a convenient and rapid colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay for β2-MG detection was preliminarily established. The monoclonal antibody pair 5H7/6H9-AP was developed into the CLEIA, demonstrating a linear range of 0.14-120.00 μg/L (extended to 60.00 mg/L). The serum β2-MG CLEIA results showed excellent correlation with the latex enhanced immunoturbidimetry assay conducted in hospitals (R²: 0.96, P<0.000 1). The established colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay exhibited good sensitivity for detecting recombinant β2-MG, with test strips capable of detecting a minimum concentration of 0.20 mg/L. The prepared monoclonal antibodies for β2-MG, along with the established quantitative and qualitative immunoassay methods, hold significant potential for clinical diagnostic applications.

The cytoskeleton could regulate the fusion and division of mitochondria, meanwhile, mitochondria also could regulate the normal dynamics of the cytoskeleton. The mpc1 gene encodes mitochondrial pyruvate carrier 1 which is located in the mitochondrial membrane. The protein of MPC1 is an essential component of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier complexes. Currently, the effect of mpc1 gene deletion on the dynamics of spindle, histone, and actin has not been reported. In this study, fluorescent labels of microtubules, histone, and actin were constructed in Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells. The stability of cell dynamics at different stages was observed using live-cell imaging to investigate the effects of mpc1 gene deletion on actin. Compared with the wild-type strain, the results showed that the mpc1Δ strain reduced the spindle elongation time by 6.70 min (P<0.01), accelerated the elongation rate by 0.17μm/min (P<0.01), reduced the chromosome segregation time by 3.40 min (P<0.01), and prolonged the total time for actin ring aggregation and contraction by 3.80 min (P<0.01) at room temperature. The experimental results mentioned above indicated that although the deletion of mpc1 gene promoted spindle elongation and chromosome segregation, it slowed down the formation and contraction of actin rings, ultimately leading to slow cell growth. This study provided a basis for further investigation of mpc1 function.

Inner Mongolia Alxa white cashmere goat milk and its dairy products with rich nutritional value and outstanding health care functions, serve as a vital source of dairy for local herders, but few studies related to the diversity of fungi that play a probiotic role have been reported. Therefore, in this study, Illumina-Miseq sequencing technology was used to determine the fungal ITS gene sequences in white cashmere goat milk, bishylag and airiga, and the comparison of fungal community structure and diversity were conducted. The results showed that the Shannon index of fungi in white cashmere goat milk and bishylag was significantly higher than that in airiga (P<0.05), while the Simpson index was significantly lower (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the Shannon and Simpson indices of the fungi in white cashmere goat milk and bishylag. Additionally, no significant differences were found in the Ace and Chao indices among white cashmere goat milk, bishylag and airiga (P>0.05). Beta diversity analysis revealed a high similarity in fungal community composition between white cashmere goat milk and bishylag, whereas the fungal community structure of airiga was distinct from that of white cashmere goat milk and bishylag. The dominant fungal phyla in white cashmere goat milk, bishylag and airiga were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. At the genus level, the dominant fungi were Apiotrichum, Cutaneotrichosporon, Cladosporium and Alternaria in white cashmere goat milk; Apiotrichum, Cutaneotrichosporon and Filobasidium in bishylag; and Issatchenkia, Rhodotorula, Kazachstania and Pichia in airiga. The relative abundance of fungal metabolism-relatde enzymes in white cashmere goat milk and its dairy products was higher for glucan 1, 4-alpha-glucosidase, adenosine triphosphatase, DNA-directed RNA polymerase, exo-alpha-sialidase, and peptidylprolyl isomerase. FUNGuild functional prediction indicated that saprotrophic fungi were the main nutritional mode in white cashmere goat milk and its dairy products. These findings not only establish a comprehensive understanding of fungal diversity in white cashmere goat milk and its dairy products in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, but also provide a basis for the study and safety evaluation of fungi in white cashmere goat milk and its dairy products.

Bacteriophages (phages) are the most abundant biological entities on Earth. Within the human microbiome, they vastly outnumber eukaryotic viruses and commensal bacteria, serving as essential regulators of microecological balance. Traditionally viewed strictly as bacterial predators, phages are now known to form direct, bidirectional interaction networks with mammalian cells. Beyond indirectly affecting human health by altering bacterial communities, phages actively cross biological barriers to engage in direct crosstalk with immune cells and trigger specific immunological effects. This phage-mediated immunity encompasses receptor recognition, endocytic trafficking, and the modulation of intracellular signaling pathways. This review summarizes current progress in phage immunity by examining direct phage-mammalian cell interactions. We specifically focus on how phage structural characteristics dictate their internalization, intracellular localization, and subsequent immune regulation. Furthermore, we discuss the practical implications of phage immunity across various conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, chronic infections, systemic disorders, and emerging applications in cancer immunotherapy. Ultimately, this review aims to clarify the molecular and material basis of phage immunity, providing a theoretical foundation for understanding the cross-kingdom regulation effects of phages and the development of phage-based immunotherapies.

Long-term excessive application of chemical fertilizers in agricultural production has led to soil quality degradation and environmental problems, which to some extent restricts the green development of modern agriculture. Microbial fertilizers can enhance crop yield and quality, improve stress resistance, and reduce environmental pollution. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics, development history, and classification of microbial fertilizers, with a focus on elucidating their mechanisms which include regulating plant hormones (such as salicylic acid and auxin) to influence plant immunity and development, improving soil aggregation through physical entanglement and secretion of extracellular polymers, as well as activating soil nutrients by secreting siderophores, solubilizing phosphates, and participating in nitrogen fixation and nitrification processes. The application prospects and trends in technology development of microbial fertilizers are analyzed and summarized from macro, market, and technical perspectives. Considering the agricultural context of Liaoning Province as a major grain-producing region, the current status and regional advantages of microbial fertilizer development in Liaoning are examined. Finally, future development directions for China's microbial fertilizer industry are discussed, aiming to provide references for the research and application of microbial fertilizers.