Nitrous oxide emissions from tea plantations: A review.

Tea plantations are an important NO source. Fertilizer-induced NO emission factors of tea plantations are much higher than other upland agricultural ecosystems. According to the basic information on characteristics and knowledge of NO emissions from tea plantations around the world, we comprehensively reviewed NO emission characteristics, production process, influencing factors, and reduction measures from tea plantations.

Application of substrate utilization patterns and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis to characterize the oral bacterial community of healthy subjects and patients with periodontitis.

Understanding the association between the bacterial community and oral health status is essential for the diagnosis and therapy of periodontal diseases. The aim of the present study was to apply three methods [conventional culture, substrate utilization using the MicroResp™ system and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP)] to investigate the oral bacterial community in saliva from 20 healthy subjects and 20 patients with periodontitis. The three methods all revealed that there was a systematic change in the microbial ecological characteristics associated with oral health status.

[Rapid screening of katG gene mutation in isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between katG gene mutation and isoniazid (INH) resistance and to develop a rapid screening method of point mutation in the katG gene associated with MTB resistance. METHODS: Twenty-four clinical isolates of MTB with 8 INH resigtance isolates and 16 INH-sensitive isolates were analyzed by PCR-RFLP, with the H(37)Rv reference strain as the control. RESULTS: G-->C point mutations were detected in 7 of 8 isoniazid-resistant strains and no gene mutation was shown in 16 isoniazid-sensitive isolates.