Human gut microbiota can be affected by a variety of factors, including geography. This study aimed to clarify the regional specific characteristics of gut microbiota in rural residents of Xinxiang county, Henan province, with hypertension and hyperlipidemia and evaluate the association of specific gut microbiota with hypertension and hyperlipidemia clinical indices. To identify the gut microbes, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used and a random forest disease classifier was constructed to discriminate between the gut microbiota in hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and the healthy control. Patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia presented with marked gut microbiota dysbiosis compared to the healthy control. The gut microbiota related to hypertension and hyperlipidemia may consist of a large number of taxa, influencing each other in a complex metabolic network. Examining the top 35 genera in each group showed that Lactococcus, Alistipes, or Subdoligranulum abundances were positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in hypertensive patients with treatment-naive hypertension (n = 63). In hypertensive patients undergoing anti-hypertensive treatment (n = 104), the abundance of Megasphaera or Megamonas was positively correlated to SBP. In the hyperlipidemia group, some of the top 35 genera were significantly correlated to triglyceride, total cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose levels. This study analyzed the characteristics of the gut microbiota in patients with hypertension and/or hyperlipidemia, providing a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of hypertension and hyperlipidemia in this region.

The treatment performance and microbial diversity of two parallel single-stage activated sludge bioreactors were investigated and compared. An innovative upflow microaerobic sludge bed (UMSB) bioreactor and an aerobic control system (ACS) were operated at dissolved oxygen levels of 0.5–0.9 and 2.5–4 mg/L, respectively. Under similar conditions, at a hydraulic retention time of 25 h, an organic loading rate of 1.4±0.1 kg COD/m³·d, and an influent total phosphate (TP) of 43±4 mg/L, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies of the UMSB and the ACS were 94%±1% and 95%±1%, respectively, and no significant difference in performance was noted between the two systems (p=0.498). It was, however, noted that TP removal efficiency of the UMSB (57%±5%) was significantly higher compared with ACS (34%±6%) (p=0.00). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that bacteria in the UMSB and ACS were highly diverse and obviously different. It is likely that facultative anaerobes, microaerophiles, and aerobes were able to coexist in the UMSB. This suggests the possibility of constructing microecosystems that integrate anaerobic and aerobic niches in one reactor. In this study, we demonstrate that under oxygen-limited conditions, it is possible to construct a single-stage activated sludge bioreactor for removing organic substances and phosphorous simultaneously. These findings have important consequences for recognizing and supplementing the enhanced biological phosphorus removal process and for developing new energy-saving treatment technologies.