Shuang-Jiang Liu
Principal Investigator, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Dr. Liu’s research interest covers environmental microbiology, microbial cultivation and gut microbiomes.
Jingyuan Fu
Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Dr. Fu’s research is focused on integrative genomics and host-microbe interactions in complex diseases.
James M. Tiedje
Michigan State University, USA
Yong-Guan Zhu
Institute of Urban Environment Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jun Yu
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ji-Zheng He
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Hans-Peter Grossart
Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Germany
Shuang-Jiang Liu
Principal Investigator, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Dr. Liu’s research interest covers environmental microbiology, microbial cultivation and gut microbiomes.
Jingyuan Fu
Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Dr. Fu’s research is focused on integrative genomics and host-microbe interactions in complex diseases.
James M. Tiedje
Michigan State University, USA
Yong-Guan Zhu
Institute of Urban Environment Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jun Yu
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ji-Zheng He
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Hans-Peter Grossart
Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Germany
Most recent articles
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Single-cell sequencing reveals the role of IL-33+ endothelial subsets in promoting early gastric cancer progression

  •  05 June 2025
Description unavailable

A single-cell atlas was established to reveal the molecular characteristics of early gastric cancer (EGC). In combination with organoids, animal models, and clinical samples, it was found that subpopulations such as pit mucous-like cell (PMC-like), proliferating cell (PC), CH25H+ CD4+ T cell, IL-33+ endothelial cell, and ADAMTSL2+ endothelial cell are specifically abundant in EGC. Mechanistically, IL-33 expressed by endothelial cells can upregulate the adhesion molecules PECAM1 and CD34 to facilitate angiogenesis. Meanwhile, IL-33+ endothelial cells can up-regulate the expression of KRT17 in EGC organoids to promote tumor growth.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

A Hiplot-based web service for cold atmospheric plasma high-throughput data integration and analysis on breast cancer

  •  25 May 2025
Description unavailable

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) represents an emerging onco-therapeutics that can specifically ablate cancer cells without harming their healthy peers via redox perturbation. CAP medicine in breast cancer (CAPmed-BC) is the first reservoir of multi-level omics data including whole transcriptome, acetylome, lactylome, proteome, phosphorylome that records the responses of different types of breast cancer cells to CAP treatment. Being the first functional module of Hiplo, CAPmed-BC can be used to capture the dynamics, functionality, and metabolism of triple negative breast cancer cells in response to CAP treatment, and is unique in interrogating cell metabolic alterations through coupled analysis of acetylome and lactylome.

CORRESPONDENCE
Open access

RepliChrom: Interpretable machine learning predicts cancer-associated enhancer-promoter interactions using DNA replication timing

  •  27 May 2025
Description unavailable

RepliChrom is an interpretable machine learning model that predicts enhancer-promoter interactions using DNA replication timing across multiple cell types. By integrating replication timing with chromatin interaction data from multiple experimental platforms, it accurately distinguishes true interactions and reveals promoter-region signals as key regulatory drivers. Importantly, the RepliChrom uncovers cancer-specific chromatin patterns in leukemia, offering mechanistic insights into how replication timing shapes long-range gene regulation in both normal and diseased genomes.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Phage-mediated horizontal transfer of Salmonella enterica virulence genes with regulatory feedback from the host

  •  20 May 2025
Description unavailable

In this study, we found evidence of phage-mediated horizontal transfer of virulence genes in Salmonella enterica in global habitats from a molecular evolutionary perspective. Notably, csrA, a global regulator in Salmonella enterica, curbed horizontal gene transfer by inhibiting the cyclization and release of prophage. This is a novel finding in phage–bacteria interactions that provides new ideas for controlling pathogenic bacteria in the environment.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Soyasaponin and vertical microbial transmission: Maternal effect on the intestinal development and health of early chicks

  •  20 May 2025
Description unavailable

This study investigates the vertical transmission of maternal microbiota in chickens and how it is modulated by maternal soyasaponin supplementation. Using a model spanning the reproductive tract, egg components, and developing chicks, we show that maternal gut and reproductive microbiota, including Bifidobacterium adolescentis (B. adolescentis), are transmitted via the yolk sac. Soyasaponin enhances this transmission and promotes B. adolescentis-derived Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) production. GABA modulates chick intestinal development by suppressing autophagy and apoptosis pathways and activating proliferation and differentiation. These effects are mediated through GABA receptors. The study highlights the interplay between host genetics, maternal diet, and microbiota inheritance, offering insights into nutritional strategies to optimize offspring intestinal health.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Gut microbiota-derived butyric acid regulates calcific aortic valve disease pathogenesis by modulating GAPDH lactylation and butyrylation

  •  19 May 2025
Description unavailable

Multi-omics sequencing and correlation analysis identified the beneficial role of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (F. prausnitzii)-derived butyric acid (BA) as a key metabolite in the restoration of valve function in calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). The therapeutic efficacy of BA in attenuating CAVD progression was confirmed in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo. Subsequent mechanistic investigations revealed that BA reshape glycolysis through site-specific inhibition of lactylation at the Lys-263 residue of GAPDH, which is mediated by competitive inhibition of butyrylation at the same site.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Spatio-temporal characteristics of the gastrointestinal resistome in a cow-to-calf model and its environmental dissemination in a dairy production system

  •  14 May 2025
Description unavailable

This study revealed spatio-temporal characteristics of gastrointestinal resistome in a cow-to-calf model and the pattern of their spread to the environment and offspring in the dairy production system. The gastrointestinal tract of dairy cows is a natural reservoir of resistomes and distinguished by gut sites and regions. The resistance profiles of different ecological niches (meconium, colostrum, soil, and water) were unique, and most of the features were shared with the maternal source. In the early life, antibiotics resistance genes may acquire from the maternal source, and diet and age are the primary regulatory factors of the resistome. Mobile genetic elements are an important medium between various ecological niches interactions which may occur most frequently from the soil and waste water.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Temporal response patterns of human gut microbiota to dietary fiber

  •  10 May 2025
Description unavailable

In this study, 19 overweight participants, with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus, underwent 14 days of normal-diet observation followed by 14 days of dietary fiber intervention. Fecal samples and continuous glucose monitoring data were collected daily throughout the 28-day period. Using guild-based analysis of individual-level networks and time-series approaches, we captured the dynamic responses of gut microbiota, revealing multiple abundance-shift patterns that are often overlooked by conventional sampling strategies. By integrating multi-omics data with time-delayed analysis, we further identified key microbial members and metabolites associated with host metabolic improvements, thereby providing reliable targets for subsequent mechanistic investigations.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

Maternal gut microbiota-derived daidzein prevents osteoporosis in female offspring following prenatal prednisone exposure

  •  28 April 2025
Description unavailable

Prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids is linked to long-term health risks in offspring, but the role of maternal gut microbiota in mediating these effects remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that prenatal prednisone therapy (PPT) in humans and prenatal prednisone exposure (PPE) in rats result in sex-specific long bone dysplasia in offspring, including reduced peak bone mass (PBM) and heightened osteoporosis risk in female offspring. Multi-omics profiling and fecal microbiota transplantation show that PPE alters maternal gut microbiota composition and depletes the microbial metabolite daidzein (DAI). DAI deficiency suppresses Hoxd12 expression, impairs osteogenesis, and leads to PBM decline in female offspring. In bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells from PPE female offspring, DAI promoted Hoxd12 expression and osteogenic differentiation. Notably, DAI supplementation restored H3K9ac levels, enhanced Hoxd12 expression, and promoted osteogenic differentiation through the ERβ/KAT6A pathway. Furthermore, maternal DAI supplementation during pregnancy prevented osteoporosis susceptibility in PPE female offspring and alleviated functional abnormalities in multiple organs, including the liver, hippocampus, ovary, and adrenal gland. In conclusion, PPE induces multiorgan dysplasia and increases disease predisposition (e.g., osteoporosis) in female offspring by disrupting maternal gut microbiota and depleting DAI. Maternal DAI supplementation provides a promising preventive strategy to counteract these adverse outcomes.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open access

EasyMetagenome: A user-friendly and flexible pipeline for shotgun metagenomic analysis in microbiome research

  •  14 February 2025
Description unavailable

EasyMetagenome is a user-friendly shotgun metagenomics pipeline designed for comprehensive microbiome analysis, supporting quality control, host removal, read-based, assembly-based, binning, genome and pan-genome analysis. It offers customizable settings, data visualizations, and parameter explanations. The pipeline is freely available at https://github.com/YongxinLiu/EasyMetagenome.

REVIEW ARTICLE
Open access

Gut–X axis

  •  26 February 2025
Description unavailable

The concept of “gut–X axis”: the intestine and intestinal microbiota are proven to be able to modulate the pathophysiologic progressions of the extraintestinal organs' diseases. The bioactive chemicals and/or intestinal immune cells can translocate into the circulatory system and other organs and influence the immune reactions, metabolic status, cells physiology, and so forth of extraintestinal organs, finally regulating these organs' homeostasis. Meanwhile, other organs may reversely impact the intestine, namely such regulatory axis is bidirectional.

SHORT COMMUNICATION
Open access

Ultrafast one-pass FASTQ data preprocessing, quality control, and deduplication using fastp

  •  08 May 2023
Description unavailable

Fastp is a widely adopted tool for FASTQ data preprocessing and quality control. It is ultrafast and versatile and can perform adapter removal, global or quality trimming, read filtering, unique molecular identifier processing, base correction, and many other actions within a single pass of data scanning. Fastp has been reconstructed and upgraded with some new features. Compared to fastp 0.20.0, the new fastp 0.23.2 is even 80% faster.

SHORT COMMUNICATION
Open access

ImageGP: An easy‐to‐use data visualization web server for scientific researchers

  •  21 February 2022
Description unavailable

Representative visualization results of ImageGP. ImageGP supports 16 types of images and four types of online analysis with up to 26 parameters for customization. ImageGP also contains specialized plots like volcano plot, functional enrichment plot for most omics-data analysis, and other 4 specialized functions for microbiome analysis. Since 2017, ImageGP has been running for nearly 5 years and serving 336,951 visits from all over the world. Together, ImageGP (http://www.ehbio.com/ImageGP/) is an effective and efficient tool for experimental researchers to comprehensively visualize and interpret data generated from wet-lab and dry-lab.

SHORT COMMUNICATION
Open access

Ggtree: A serialized data object for visualization of a phylogenetic tree and annotation data

  •  28 September 2022
Description unavailable

The ggtree object is designed to store phylogenetic tree and associated data, and the object itself is a graphic object that can be rendered as an image file. This work will increase the reproducibility and reusability of phylogenetic data, as well as facilitate integrative and comparative studies.

PROTOCOL
Open access

Using PhyloSuite for molecular phylogeny and tree-based analyses

  •  16 February 2023
Description unavailable

A new release of PhyloSuite, capable of conducting tree-based analyses. Detailed guidelines for each step of phylogenetic and tree-based analyses, following the “What? Why? and How?” structure. This protocol will help beginners learn how to conduct multilocus phylogenetic analyses and help experienced scientists improve their efficiency.