Biology subjects

Lai, Q.

Publications and source records attributed to Lai, Q..

18 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

BioIMA: a one-click desktop tool for standardized extraction of phenotypic traits from biological images

Standardized extraction of quantitative phenotypes from images is increasingly important across plant biology, from ecological and evolutionary studies to genetics, breeding, and functional genomics. However, as large image datasets are increasingly used for trait analysis, many biologically relevant traits, including size, shape, color, and spatial patterning, are still measured manually or using fragmented semi-automated workflows. These limitations reduce throughput, reproducibility, and accessibility, especially for researchers without computational expertise. Here, we present BioIMA, an open-source desktop tool for rapid and standardized phenotyping from biological images. BioIMA integrates foundation model-based segmentation with automated trait computation, allowing users to extract quantitative measurements from images through an intuitive graphical interface and without model training. To validate its performance, we quantified a set of knot morphological traits in two Populus species, as these measurements are typically time-consuming to perform manually. Automatic measurements showed strong agreement with manual ImageJ-based measurements (R2 > 0.95), while reducing per-image processing time by approximately 75% (from ~15 s to ~4 s). BioIMA was further applied to diverse plant datasets, including Helianthus and Rhododendron images with varying morphologies and background conditions. Although developed for plant phenotyping, BioIMA may also be extended to other biological samples where region-based size, shape, or color traits are of interest. By combining accessibility and standardization in a lightweight local application, BioIMA provides a practical community resource for image-based phenotyping in ecological and evolutionary studies.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2026

Genome-wide investigation of WRKY gene family in Lagenaria siceraria

BackgroundA significant family of transcription factors known as WRKY genes include many physiological functions and environmental adaptations. However, insufficient information was previously available about the WRKY genes in Lagenaria siceraria, a crucial crop with substantial economic significance. The recent publication of the whole-genome sequence of L. siceraria has allowed us to perform a genome-wide investigation of the organization of the WRKY genes in L. siceraria. ResultsIn the present study, 57 L. siceraria WRKY (LsiWRKY) genes were identified and given new names based on their relative chromosomal distribution. The 57 LsiWRKYs were further divided into three major groups and several subgroups based on their structural and phylogenetic properties. Segmentation duplication events have played a major role in the expansion of the WRKY gene family in L. siceraria. Phylogenetic comparisons of the Group III WRKY genes provide valuable insights into the evolutionary characteristics of WRKY genes in L. siceraria. Additionally, RNA-seq analysis revealed distinct expression pattern of WRKY genes across different tissues. ConclusionsThis study presents a preliminary analysis of the WRKY gene family in L. siceraria, including their structural characteristics, evolutionary traits, and tissue-specific expression patterns. The systematic insights provided here serve as a foundation for further functional studies aimed at enhancing L. siceraria crops. This knowledge holds promise for improving the cultivation and yield of L. siceraria, thereby contributing to agricultural advancements.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Evolutionarily Conserved T-tubule-Mitochondria Contacts in Striated Muscle

The intricate architecture of skeletal muscle is essential for its contractile function, with the spatial organization of organelles such as T-tubules and mitochondria playing a crucial role in maintaining muscle performance and health1,2. T-tubules propagate electrical signals deep into muscle fibers to ensure synchronous contraction, while mitochondria provide the necessary energy for muscle contraction3-5. Previous studies have extensively documented the interactions between T-tubules and the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), which are essential for excitation-contraction coupling6,7. However, the detailed spatial relationship between T-tubules and mitochondria has remained relatively unexplored. In this study, we utilized zebrafish and mice as model organisms to investigate the contacts between T-tubules and mitochondria. Using array tomography, deep learning-based analysis, and advanced microscopy techniques, we discovered extensive membrane contact sites, termed T-tubule-Mitochondria (TTM) contacts. These contacts are evolutionarily conserved across vertebrates, including skeletal and cardiac muscles. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized, intimate spatial coupling between T-tubules and mitochondria, with significant implications for muscle physiology and pathology. Understanding these TTM contacts could provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying muscle function and the development of muscle-related diseases.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Retinal pigment epithelium-derived PD-L1 reprograms microglial cells and protects against retinal degeneration in mouse models of experimental AMD and genetic retinitis pigmentosa

Retinal degeneration is a leading cause of blindness and a significant health burden during aging worldwide. Because of its complex pathogenic mechanisms, however, effective interventions applicable to multiple retinal degenerations remain limited. Excessive microglia-mediated inflammation is a common pathological feature of different retinal degenerative diseases, and inhibiting these overactive inflammatory responses by reprogramming microglia may provide a therapeutic strategy with broad-spectrum potential. Here, we uncover a novel retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) homeostatic signal, PD-L1, that drives the reprogramming of activated microglial toward a retinal-protective phenotype. Using multiple analyses, including gene expression profiling bioinformatics, adeno-associated virus-mediated RPE-specific gene overexpression, pharmacological, and genetic manipulations, we show that RPE cells upregulate the expression of PD-L1 to modulate microglia for protection against retinal degeneration in an experimental dry AMD mouse model. Bioinformatics enrichment analysis of the high-expression gene signatures of subretinal microglia in AMD patients, combined with pharmacological blocking of NF-{kappa}B activity or using Nlrp3 knockout mice, show that PD-L1/PD-1 signaling suppresses NF-{kappa}B activation in microglia, thereby inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome priming and attenuating microglia-mediated excessive inflammation. Furthermore, the overexpression of PD-L1 by the AAV8 virus exerts similar microglial reprogramming and retinal protective effects to alleviate retinal degeneration in a preclinical model of retinitis pigmentosa. These findings reveal that RPE-derived PD-L1 suppresses inflammatory reprogramming of subretinal microglia and mitigates retinal degeneration, highlighting a promising proof of concept for PD-L1 as a potential therapeutic target for the broad treatment of retinal degenerative diseases.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2025

A computational framework for mapping isoform landscape and regulatory mechanisms from spatial transcriptomics data

Transcript diversity including splicing and alternative 3 end usage is crucial for cellular identity and adaptation, yet its spatial coordination remains poorly understood. Here, we present SPLISOSM (SpatiaL ISOform Statistical Modeling), a computational framework for detecting isoform-resolution patterns from spatial transcriptomics data. SPLISOSM leverages multivariate testing to account for spot- and isoform-level dependencies, demonstrating robust and theoretically grounded performance on sparse data. In the mouse brain, we identify over 1,000 spatially variable transcript diversity events, primarily in synaptic signaling pathways linked to neuropsychiatric disorders, and uncover both known and novel regulatory relationships with region-specific RNA binding proteins. We further show that these patterns are evolutionarily conserved between mouse and human prefrontal cortex. Analysis of human glioblastoma highlights pervasive transcript diversity in antigen presentation and adhesion genes associated with specific microenvironmental conditions. Together, we present a comprehensive spatial splicing analysis in the brain under normal and neoplastic conditions.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2025

Evolutionary responses and genomic consequences of polyploidization in natural populations of Orychophragmus

Polyploidization has occurred throughout the tree of life and is particularly common in plants. Despite its ubiquity, our understanding of the short- and long-term effects and consequences of genome doubling in natural populations remains incomplete. In this study, we identified a novel ploidy-variable species system within the ornamental and industrial oilseed genus Orychophragmus (Brassicaceae), which comprises six species, including diploid and tetraploid cytotypes of O. taibaiensis. By integrating population-scale genomic and transcriptomic datasets across the species in this genus, we constructed a robust phylogenetic framework and investigated the divergence and demographic history of O. taibaiensis in comparison to its relatives. Specifically, we characterized the geographical distribution patterns of diploids and tetraploids in natural populations of O. taibaiensis, confirmed the autopolyploid origin of tetraploids, and inferred their origin time relative to diploid counterparts. Our findings further revealed that, following genome doubling, tetraploids accumulated a higher genetic load of deleterious mutations, likely due to relaxed purifying selection facilitated by allelic redundancy. Additionally, genome doubling was associated with pronounced changes in gene expression patterns, with differentially expressed genes evolving under relaxed selective constraints. These results highlight that the initial masking of deleterious mutations, changes in expression regulation, and divergent efficacy of selection likely all contribute to shaping the establishment and evolutionary potential of polyploids.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Disentangling associations between complex traits and cell types with seismic

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWIntegrating single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) with Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) can help reveal GWAS-associated cell types, furthering our understanding of the cell-type-specific biological processes underlying complex traits and disease. However, current methods have technical limitations that hinder them from making systematic, scalable, interpretable disease-cell-type associations. In order to rapidly and accurately pinpoint associations, we develop a novel framework, seismic, which characterizes cell types using a new specificity score. We compare seismic with alternative methods across over 1,000 cell type characterizations at different granularities and 28 traits, demonstrating that seismic both corroborates findings and identifies trait-relevant cell groups which are not apparent through other methodologies. Furthermore, as part of the seismic framework, the specific genes driving cell type-trait associations can easily be accessed and analyzed, enabling further biological insights. The advantages of seismic are particularly salient in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers, where disease pathology has not only cell-specific manifestations, but also brain region-specific differences. Interestingly, a case study of Alzheimers disease reveals the importance of considering GWAS endpoints, as studies relying on clinical diagnoses consistently identify microglial associations, while GWAS with a tau biomarker endpoint reveals neuronal associations. In general, seismic is a computationally efficient, powerful, and interpretable approach for identifying associations between complex traits and cell type-specific expression.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2023

Deciphering the Biosynthetic Potential of Microbial Genomes Using a BGC Language Processing Neural Network Model

Microbial secondary metabolites are usually synthesized by colocalized genes termed biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). A large portion of BGCs remain undiscovered in microbial genomes and metagenomes, representing a pressing challenge in unlocking the full potential of natural product diversity. In this work, we propose BGC-Prophet, a language model based on the transformer encoder that captures the distant location-dependent relationships among biosynthetic genes, allows accurately and efficiently identifies known BGCs and extrapolates novel BGCs among the microbial universe. BGC-Prophet is the first ultrahigh-throughput (UHT) method that is several orders of magnitude faster than existing tools such as DeepBGC, enabling pan-phylogenetic screening and whole-metagenome screening of BGCs. By analyzing 85,203 genomes and 9,428 metagenomes, new insights have been obtained about the diversity of BGCs on genomes from the majority of bacterial and archaeal lineages. The profound enrichment of BGCs in microbes after important geological events have been revealed: Both the Great Oxidation and Cambrian Explosion events led to a surge in BGC diversity and abundance, particularly in polyketides. These findings suggest that it is a general but constantly evolving approach for microbes to produce secondary metabolites for their adaptation in the changing environment. Taken together, BGC-Prophet enables accurate and fast detection of BGCs on a large scale, holds great promise for expanding BGC knowledge, and sheds light on the evolutionary patterns of BGCs for possible applications in synthetic biology. HighlightsO_LIBGC-Prophet shows superior performance to existing tools in terms of accuracy and speed. C_LIO_LIBGC-Prophet is the first ultrahigh-throughput (UHT) method that enables pan-phylogenetic screening and whole-metagenome screening of BGCs. C_LIO_LIBGC-Prophet builds the comprehensive profile of BGCs on 85,203 genomes and 9,428 metagenomes from the majority of bacterial and archaeal lineages. C_LIO_LIBGC-Prophet reveals the profound enrichment pattern of BGCs after important geological events. C_LI

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2023

A reference genome and its epigenetic landscape of potential Orychophragmus violaceus, an industrial crop species

Orychophragmus violaceus, also called er-yue-lan in China, is an annual plant of the family of Brassicaceae. The seed oil of O. violaceus contained two specific di-hydroxy fatty acids which were produced by functional divergence between two FAD2 WGD copies determine its industrial property. Here, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-level genome of O. violaceus via based on PacBio CLR technology and its cis-regulatory landscape of five mature tissues, including root, leaf, flower, seed and stem, based on ATAC-seq technology. 1.2 Gb draft genomic sequences were anchored to 12 pseudo-chromosomes and 49904 protein-coding genes were annotated on these chromosomes. To fully understand the epigenetic landscape of O. violaceus, we further performed WGBS-seq for leaf, flower and silique tissues. In total, our multi-omics data provide opportunity to find out the differences between two WGD copies and also a valuable resource for downstream breeding effort of this potential industrial species.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

The super-pangenome of Populus unveil genomic facets for adaptation and diversification in widespread forest trees

Understanding the underlying mechanisms between genome evolution and phenotypic and adaptive innovations is a key goal of evolutionary studies. Poplars are the worlds most widely distributed and cultivated trees, with extensive phenotypic diversity and environmental adaptability. Here we report a genus-level super-pangenome of 19 Populus genomes. After integrating pan-genomes with transcriptomes, methylomes and chromatin accessibility mapping, we reveal that the evolutionary fate of pan-genes and duplicated genes are largely associated with local genomic landscapes of regulatory and epigenetic architectures. Further comparative genomic analyses enabled to identify 142,202 structural variations (SVs) across species, which overlap with substantial genes and play key roles in both phenotypic and adaptive divergence. We experimentally validated a [~]180 bp presence/absence variant located in the promoter of the CUC2 gene, which contributed critically to leaf serration divergence between species. Together, this first super-pangenome resource in forest trees will not only accelerate molecular functional studies and genetic breeding of this globally important tree genus, but also lays a foundation for our understanding of tree biology.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Levy statistics define anxiety and depression in mice subjected to chronic stress

IntroductionAnxiety and depression are recognized as adaptive responses to external stressors in organisms. Current methods for evaluating anxiety and depression in rodents are both burdensome and stressful. The objective of this investigation is to explore a simplified methodology for identifying stress-induced and stress-free states, as well as anxiety and depression levels, by analyzing the movement patterns of rodents. MethodsTo address this issue, we utilized Levy statistics to examine the movement patterns of stressed rodents and compared them to non-stressed controls. We employed the two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to identify significant differences in the {gamma} and parameters derived from Levy flight (LF) between anxiety, depression, and control mice. Additionally, we employed the support vector machine algorithm to optimize the classification of each group. ResultsOur analysis revealed that stressed mice displayed heavy-tailed distributions of movement velocity in open fields, resembling the movement patterns observed in animal predators searching for scarce food sources in nature. In contrast, non-stressed mice exhibited a normal distribution of speed. Notably, the effectiveness of this methodology in the field of drug discovery was confirmed by the response of stressed mice to fluoxetine, a well-established selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). ConclusionThis study unveils a previously unidentified statistical walking pattern in mice experiencing anxiety and depression. These findings offer a novel and accessible approach for distinguishing between anxiety, depression, and healthy mice. This method provides a one-step gentle approach (free walk in an open field) instead of the traditional multi-step stressful tests.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2023

Integration of microbial and chemical synthesis for the efficient production of plitidepsin, a promising anticancer and antiviral agent

Plitidepsin, a marine-derived anticancer medicine, is being tested in phase III clinical trials for treating COVID-19. However, the current supply of plitidepsin relies on laborious chemical synthesis processes. Here, we present a new approach that combines microbial and chemical synthesis to produce plitidepsin. We screened a Tistrella strain library to identify a high-yield didemnin B producer, and then introduced a second copy of the didemnin biosynthetic gene cluster into its genome, resulting in the highest yield of didemnin B reported in the literature. Next, we developed two straightforward chemical strategies to convert didemnin B to plitidepsin, one of which involved a one-step synthetic route giving over 90% overall yield. We also synthesized two new didemnin analogues and assessed their anticancer and antiviral activities. Our findings offer a practical and sustainable solution for producing plitidepsin and its derivatives, potentially expediting didemnin drug development.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2022

The first host-associated anaerobic isolate of Psychrilyobacter provides insights into its potential roles in the abalone gut

Gut bacteria are essential to their hosts, but few studies have focused on marine animals. Psychrilyobacter is frequently related to various marine animals, but the relationship with host remains unknown due to lack of host-associated isolate or genomic information. Here, we combined of high-throughput sequencing, isolating and genomic analyses to uncover its potential role in host abalone. The high-throughput sequencing and literature compiling results indicated that Psychrilyobacter is widely distributed in marine and terrestrial ecosystems with both host-associated and free-living lifestyles. It showed a strong preference for the guts of marine invertebrates, especially abalone, which generally persisted with high relative abundances. By mimicking the gut inner environment for enrichment, the first host-related pure culture of Psychrilyobacter was isolated from the abalone intestine. Phylogenetic, physiological and biochemical characterizations suggested that it represents a novel species named Psychrilyobacter haliotis B1. Carbohydrate utilization experiments and genomic evidence indicated that B1 is good at fermenting diverse host-food-related monosaccharides and disaccharides but not polysaccharides, implying its critical roles in downstream fermentation instead of upstream food degradation in the gut. Furthermore, this strain showed potential to colonize the gut and benefit the host via different strategies, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) generation by fermenting carbohydrates and amino acids, and the production of diverse vitamins and antibiotics to support the host growth and antipathogenicity. To our knowledge, strain B1 represents the first host-related pure culture of Psychrilyobacter, acting as a potential probiotic gut anaerobe dominating in diverse marine invertebrates. ImportancePsychrilyobacter is a globally distributing bacterial genus and with an inhabiting preference for guts of marine invertebrates. Due to the difficulty of cultivation and the limited genomic information, its role in host remains largely unknown. We isolated the first host-associated Psychrilyobacter species from abalone gut and uncovered its functional potentials to the host through different mechanisms. Our findings provide some insights into the understanding of host-microbe interactions on a core taxon with the marine invertebrates, and the isolate has an application prospect as a probiotic in protection of marine animals.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

The frequent occurrence and metabolic versatility of Marinifilaceae bacteria involved in organic matter mineralizationas a key member in global deep sea

Transfer of animal and plant detritus of both terrestrial and marine origins to the deep sea occurs on the global scale. Microorganisms play an important role in mineralizing them therein, yet to identify in situ. Here we report the family Marinifilaceae that occurred as one of the most predominant bacteria thriving on the new inputs of plant and animal biomasses in both marginal and oceanic areas observed via in situ incubation about their differentiation, environmental adaption, and metabolic mechanisms underlying their prevalence in organic matter mineralizing communities. We described the metabolic features and in situ metabolizing activities of different subgroups (tentative genus level), based on the metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data. One representative subgroup MF-2 dominated plant detritus-enriched cultures and specialized in polysaccharide degradation by encoding many hydrolases involved in the hydrolysis of hemicellulose, pectin, starch, cellulose, and polysaccharides containing N-acetyl groups; this subgroup also encodes a manganese superoxide dismutase with the potential of lignin oxidation and possesses complete nitrogen fixation pathway to compensate for the shortage of nitrogen sources inside the plant detritus. In contrast, those dominating the animal tissue-supported microbiomes were more diverse and formed three subgroups, which distinguished themselves from MF-2 in carbon and nitrogen metabolisms. Regardless of differentiation in carbon and nitrogen metabolisms, they share in common in energy conservation through organic fermentation, and anaerobic respiration of diverse electron receptors. These results highlight the role of Marinifilaceae bacteria neglected before in organic matter mineralizing in marine environments coupling carbon and nitrogen cycling with metals and other elements. IMPORTANCEMicrobial mineralization of organic matters has a significant impact on the global biogeochemical cycle. This report confirmed the role of Marinifilaceae in organic degradation in the oceans, with underestimated contribution in the ocean carbon cycling. It is the dominant taxon thriving on plant and animal biomasses in our in situ incubator, as well as in whale- and wood-falls. At least nine subgroups were revealed, and widely distributed in global oceans but merely predominant in organic-rich environments with an average relative abundance of 8.3 %. Different subgroups display a preference for the degradation of different macromolecules (polysaccharides, lignin, and protein) and adapt themselves to the environments via special metabolic metabolisms.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2022

Genomic insights into present local adaptation and future climate change vulnerability of a keystone forest tree species in East Asian

Rapid global climate change is posing a huge threat to biodiversity. Assessments of the adaptive capacity for most taxa is usually performed on the species as a whole, but fails to incorporate intraspecific adaptive variation that may play a fundamental role in buffering future shifting climates. Here we generate a chromosome-scale genome assembly for Populus koreana, a pioneer and keystone tree species in East Asia temperate forests. We also obtain whole-genome sequences of 230 individuals collected from 24 natural populations. An integration of population genomics and environmental variables was performed to reveal the genomic basis of local adaptation to diverse climate variable. We identify a set of climate-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions-deletions (Indels) and structural variations (SVs), in particular numerous adaptive non-coding variants distributed across the genome of P. koreana. We incorporate these variants into an environmental modelling scheme to predict spatiotemporal responses of P. koreana to future climate change. Our results highlight the insights that the integration of genomic and climate data can shed on the future evolutionary adaptive capacities of a species to changing environmental conditions.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Research on the temporal evolution track and influence of green development in the last decade

Green development is important to realize the coordinated development of local ecological environment, economy and society, but also an important way to promote the harmony between human and land. This study utilizes projection pursuit model (PPM) measure, as well as the system gray prediction model GM (1, N), and other measurement methods, build an evaluation system from three dimensions of green fortune, green growth and green benefits to analyze the temporal evolution, development trend and its influencing factors of Baoshans ecological engineering of project acres, the results show: (1)The overall level of the green development system in Baoshan, Yunnan Province, is relatively good and shows an increasing trend year by year, with an average growth rate of 18.3%, and there is a synergistic coupling effect among the three subsystems. (2) Regional green development has achieved remarkable progress, but problems and pressure among the three subsystems are still grim. The sub-system of green growth and green benefits declined from 2010 to 2016, with an annual decline rate of 12%, and then picked up slightly in the next three years, reflecting the pressure of resources and ecological environment in this region and the difficulty of the sub-system of green wealth growth. (3) The prediction analysis shows that the green development index in Baoshan, Yunnan Province will keep a steady rise in the next two years, and the predicted value will be 4.51 in 2020, with an average growth rate of 15.1%, and the regional green development system is in good condition. (4) Green development is mainly affected by environmental pollution, industrial structure, urbanization, population, market and other factors from the three subsystems of local ecology, ecology, economy and social benefits. This paper puts forward suggestions in terms of popularizing the concept of green development, improving the level of ecological economic development and promoting the regional environment bearing capacity, green development model of ecological engineering area is also built. It aims to have some practical reference value for prompting regional ecological civilization construction and green development. And provide regional support for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the Achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Comparison of the two up-to-date sequencing technologies for genome assembly: HiFi reads of Pacbio Sequel II system and ultralong reads of Oxford Nanopore

The availability of reference genomes has revolutionized the study of biology. Multiple competing technologies have been developed to improve the quality and robustness of genome assemblies during the last decade. The two widely-used long read sequencing providers - Pacbio (PB) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) - have recently updated their platforms: PB enable high throughput HiFi reads with base-level resolution with >99% and ONT generated reads as long as 2 Mb. We applied the two up-to-date platforms to one single rice individual, and then compared the two assemblies to investigate the advantages and limitations of each. The results showed that ONT ultralong reads delivered higher contiguity producing a total of 18 contigs of which 10 were assembled into a single chromosome compared to that of 394 contigs and three chromosome-level contigs for the PB assembly. The ONT ultralong reads also prevented assembly errors caused by long repetitive regions for which we observed a total 44 genes of false redundancies and 10 genes of false losses in the PB assembly leading to over/under-estimations of the gene families in those long repetitive regions. We also noted that the PB HiFi reads generated assemblies with considerably less errors at the level of single nucleotide and small InDels than that of the ONT assembly which generated an average 1.06 errors per Kb assembly and finally engendered 1,475 incorrect gene annotations via altered or truncated protein predictions.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

Antibiotics-induced alterations in gut microbiol composition leads to blood-brain barrier permeability increase in rhesus monkeys

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) contributes to maintenance of brain homeostasis. Gut microbiome composition affected BBB development and expression of tight junction proteins in rodents. However, we still do not know if theres any direct effect of gut microbiol composition on BBB permeability and function in normal adult animals. In current study, we determined temporal and spatial change of BBB permeability in rhesus monkeys receiving either oral or intravenous amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (AC), by monitoring CSF/serum albumin ratio (AR) and the volume transfer constant (Ktrans). We showed that oral, but not intravenous AC led to a significant alteration in gut microbiol composition and increase of BBB permeability in all monkeys, especially in thalamus area. Acetic acid and propionic acid might play a pivotal role in this newly found communication between gut and central nervous system. Antibiotics-induced gut microbiol composition change, especially the decreasing of acetic and propionic acid producing phyla and genera, leads to increase of BBB permeability, which may contribute to a variety of neurological and psychological diseases.

neuroscience↗