Caves are one of the most exciting environments on earth, often considered an evolutionary laboratory due to the suite of convergent adaptive traits (troglomorphisms) of organisms inhabiting them. Sinonychia martensi Zhang & Derkarabetian, 2021, is the first and only Travunioidea species recorded in China and is endemic to Beijing, being known from multiple caves. However, nothing is known regarding its phylogeographic or evolutionary history.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpiders are natural predators of agricultural pests, primarily due to the potent venom in their venom glands. Spider venom is compositionally complex and holds research value. This study analyzes the diversity of symbiotic bacteria in spider venom glands and venom, as well as the biological activity of culturable symbiotic bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Karst caves serve as natural laboratories, providing organisms with extreme and constant conditions that promote isolation, resulting in a genetic relationship and living environment that is significantly different from those outside the cave. However, research on cave creatures, especially Opiliones, remains scarce, with most studies focused on water, soil, and cave sediments.
Results: The structure of symbiotic bacteria in different caves were compared, revealing significant differences.
Spiders host a diverse range of bacteria in their guts and other tissues, which have been found to play a significant role in their fitness. This study aimed to investigate the community diversity and functional characteristics of spider-associated bacteria in four tissues of Heteropoda venatoria using HTS of the 16S rRNA gene and culturomics technologies, as well as the functional verification of the isolated strains. The results of HTS showed that the spider-associated bacteria in different tissues belonged to 34 phyla, 72 classes, 170 orders, 277 families, and 458 genera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The full lockdown was carried out in China as well as in other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it proved to be effective in reducing the rate of transmission in the early stage of the pandemic. However, the negative effects of full lockdown on human mental health should be taken into consideration.
Case Presentation: During COVID-19 lockdown, a 3-month-old male infant was injured with a sewing needle penetrating into his heart by his mother with postpartum depression.
Background: Several studies have investigated the value of the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) for predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the results were inconsistent. Therefore, a meta-analysis and systematic review were conducted to assess the correlation between SII and risk of CVD.
Materials And Methods: Two investigators systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane library, and CINAHL databases to identify all studies that examined the association between SII levels and CVD.
Background: Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and breast cancer are a highly prevalent autoimmune disease and malignancy, respectively, both occurring predominantly in females. Whether there is a link between these two diseases is uncertain. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the risk, incidence, and mortality of breast cancer in patients with pSS.
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