Honeybees (Apis mellifera) continue to succumb to human and environmental pressures despite their crucial role in providing essential ecosystem services. Owing to their foraging and honey production activities, honeybees form complex relationships with species across all domains, such as plants, viruses, bacteria and other hive pests, making honey a valuable biomonitoring tool for assessing their ecological niche. Thus, the application of honey shotgun metagenomics (SM) has paved the way for a detailed description of the species honeybees interact with. Nevertheless, SM bioinformatics tools and DNA extraction methods rely on resources not necessarily optimized for honey. In this study, we compared five widely used taxonomic classifiers using simulated species communities commonly found in honey. We found that Kraken 2 with a threshold of 0.5 performs best in assessing species distribution. We also optimized a simple NaOH-based honey DNA extraction methodology (Direct-SM), which profiled species seasonal variability similarly to an established column-based DNA extraction approach (SM). Both approaches produce results consistent with melissopalinology analysis describing the botanical landscape surrounding the apiary. Interestingly, we detected a strong stability of the bacteria constituting the core and noncore gut microbiome across seasons, pointing to the potential utility of honey for noninvasive assessment of bee microbiota. Finally, the Direct-SM approach to detect Varroa correlates well with the biomonitoring of mite infestation observed in hives. These observations suggest that Direct-SM methodology has the potential to comprehensively describe honeybee ecological niches and can be tested as a building block for large-scale studies to assess bee health in the field.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13626 | DOI Listing |
Clin Cancer Res
December 2024
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States.
Purpose: Current methods for glioma response assessment are limited. This study aimed to assess the technical and clinical feasibility of molecular profiling using longitudinal intracranial CSF from patients with gliomas.
Experimental Design: Adults with gliomas underwent longitudinal intracranial CSF collection via Ommaya reservoirs or ventriculoperitoneal shunts.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
December 2024
Univ Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de Recherche en Santé Environnement Travail), UMR S 1085, Rennes, France.
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
December 2024
Institute of Human Genetics, School of Medicine & University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Male-pattern hair loss (MPHL) is the most common form of hair loss in humans. Limited treatment options exist, which are not curative and vary in efficacy and invasiveness. Therapeutic and cosmetic hair growth stimulating agents that alleviate hair loss at a low risk of side effects are therefore of interest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Immunoassay Immunochem
December 2024
Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of oral HPV infection and the risk indicators for oral HPV carriage in people living with HIV. Data on socio-demographics, sexual behavioral practices, and lifestyle practices of the participants were collected from 66 people living with HIV. The HIV parameters of each study participant were obtained from clinical records.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vis Exp
December 2024
Department of Medical Materials Science & Technology, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University Hospital Tübingen;
Foreign body reaction (FBR), an immune-mediated complex healing process, plays a crucial role in integrating implants into the body. Macrophages, as the first line of immune system interaction with implant surfaces, play a bidirectional role in modulating the inflammation-regeneration balance. For a deep understanding and the evaluation of the reactions between implant materials and immune responses, reliable in vitro methods and protocols are pivotal.
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