Background: Anopheles sinensisis a principal vector forPlasmodium vivaxmalaria in most parts of China. Understanding of genetic structure and genetic differentiation of the mosquito should contribute to the vector control and malaria elimination in China.Methods: The present study investigated the genetic structure ofAn. sinensispopulations using a 729 bp fragment of mtDNAND5among 10 populations collected from seven provinces in China.Results: ND5was polymorphic by single mutations within three groups ofAn. sinensisthat were collected from 10 different geographic populations in China. Out of 140 specimens collected from 10 representative sites, 84 haplotypes and 71 variable positions were determined. The overall level of genetic differentiation ofAn. sinensisvaried from low to moderate across China and with aF_STrange of 0.00065 – 0.341. Genealogy analysis clustered the populations ofAn. sinensisinto three main clusters. Each cluster shared one main haplotype. Pairwise variations within populations were higher (68.68%) than among populations (31.32%) and with high fixation index (F_ST = 0.313). The results of the present study support population growth and expansion in theAn. sinensispopulations from China. Three clusters ofAn. sinensispopulations were detected in this study with each displaying different proportion patterns over seven Chinese provinces. No correlation between genetic and geographic distance was detected in overall populations ofAn. sinensis(R² = 0.058;P = 0.301).Conclusions: The results indicate that theND5gene of mtDNA is highly polymorphic inAn. sinensisand has moderate genetic variability in the populations of this mosquito in China. Demographic and spatial results support evidence of expansion inAn. sinensispopulations.

Jaundice is a symptom of high blood bilirubin levels affecting about 80% of neonates. In neonates fed with breast milk, jaundice is particularly prevalent and severe, which is likely multifactorial. With the development of genomics and metagenomics, a deeper understanding of the neonatal gut microbiota has been achieved. We find there are accumulating evidence to indicate the importance of the gut microbiota in the mechanism of jaundice. In this paper, we present new comprehensive insight into the relationship between the microbiota and jaundice. In the new perspective, the gut is a crucial crossroad of bilirubin excretion, and bacteria colonizing the gut could play different roles in the excretion of bilirubin, including Escherichia coli as the main traffic jam causers, some Clostridium and Bacteroides strains as the traffic police, and most probiotic Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus strains as bystanders with no effect or only a secondary indirect effect on the metabolism of bilirubin. This insight could explain why breast milk jaundice causes a longer duration of blood bilirubin and why most probiotics have limited effects on neonatal jaundice. With the encouragement of breastmilk feeding, our perspective could guide the development of new therapy methods to prevent this side effect of breastfeeding.

Microbial contamination in ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products poses a significant food safety risk, as evidenced by previous reports of high aerobic plate counts and pathogen prevalence. Understanding the post-unpacking dynamics of bacterial communities is crucial for guiding consumer practices. In this study, 90 RTE meat samples of which the varieties include beef products, chicken products, duck products, pig products, mutton products, and donkey products, were collected to analyze microbial community structure by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. These samples were collected on the 7th, 14th and 21st day respectively after unpacking. In all these samples, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes made up more than 98% of total bacteria. Pseudomonas , Staphylococcus , Psychrobacter , Carnobacterium , and Shewanella were the most abundant genera on average in the 90 samples. Microbial communities of samples on day 21 were significantly different ( p < 0.05) from those on day 7 and day 14. The patterns of microbial community change over time were similar between the two sampling sites, Shandong and Henan. On day 14 and day 21, the microbial group clusters were significantly different from each other when grouped by unpacking site factor (Permanova index < 0.05). The abundance of potential spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, and Enterobacteriaceae , increased after 14 days of storage. Variety-specific operational taxonomic units showed very low abundance in the microbial community. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the unpacking environment, rather than the meat species, becomes the dominant factor influencing bacterial community succession after 14 days of storage. This finding highlights the critical importance of minimizing post-unpacking contamination and suggests that the storage time after opening should be strictly controlled, particularly beyond 2 weeks, to mitigate the growth of potential spoilage and pathogenic bacteria.