Salinity stress represents a significant environmental challenge that affects plant growth, resulting in adverse impacts on crop productivity and overall yield. Salt accumulation in plants affects cellular homeostasis and provokes osmotic and ionic imbalance. It stimulates higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) production leading to oxidative stress damage and eventual cellular dysfunction. Beneficial microorganisms like plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, endophytic fungi, and rhizosphere-associated microbes have recently emerged as resources for sustainable solutions to enhance plant resiliency against salinity stress. Their effects can involve osmotic adjustment, ion sequestration, oxidative-stress mitigation, phytohormone regulation, and rhizosphere-mediated stress buffering. The mechanisms to impart such benefits may include improved nutrients acquisition, assist in osmotic regulation, modulation of phytohormones signaling, and maintenance of cellular ion homeostasis. Often, beneficial microorganisms carry the potential to trigger both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense mechanisms. These responses contribute to oxidative-stress mitigation, yet, their interpretation requires contemplation of fine balance between oxidative damage and plant responses. For example, selected microbial inoculation studies have reported changes in the activity of crucial antioxidant enzymes, like superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, and glutathione reductase. However, the magnitude and the direction of these responses are context dependent. Multi-omics approaches, including amplicon and shotgun metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, host transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have expanded our understanding of the taxa, genes, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites associated with plant–microbe interactions under salinity. Therefore, here an effort has been made to present the evidential support for reported microbial effects and their proposed mechanisms of salt tolerance, with a focus on enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense mechanisms and the learnings of multi-omics studies. Frontier integrative mechanisms, including microbiome engineering, synthetic microbial consortia, and systems biology frameworks, are discussed for cultivating climate-resilient crops and sustainable agricultural systems in the salt-affected environments.
Edible algae, including microalgae and macroalgae, are recognized as sustainable aquatic bioresources for future food systems, with high areal productivity, low reliance on arable land and freshwater, and rich nutrients including proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids, pigments, minerals, vitamins and functional polysaccharides. Yet their wider application in mainstream foods is limited by low digestibility, rigid cell walls, marine off-flavors, variable safety and high processing costs. This review examines the nutritional potential, food applications, fermentation strategies, safety considerations and industrial bottlenecks of edible algae, focusing on fermentation-mediated valorization as an enabling strategy beyond conventional preservation. Lactic acid, alcoholic and mixed-culture fermentation can boost shelf stability, release intracellular nutrients, modulate sensory attributes, generate bioactive metabolites, and support circular use of residual algal biomass. Meanwhile, advanced technologies like enzyme-assisted extraction, non-thermal extraction, microfluidics and nanoencapsulation help enhance ingredient functionality and bioactive delivery. The review also notes that the future value of algae-based foods relies on matrix-specific formulation, standardized safety control for heavy metals and iodine, strain improvement, biorefinery integration and consumer-oriented sensory design. Overall, fermentative and precision-processing strategies offer a promising route to transform algae from niche supplements into safe, palatable, multifunctional ingredients for sustainable food innovation.
BackgroundContaminated duck litter is a leading cause of flock disease and a bottleneck for the sustainable development of large-scale dry-rearing systems.MethodsWe applied shotgun metagenomics to litter from four positions within each of three independent compound microbial intelligent membrane fermentation beds, with unfermented litter from the same three batches as the control. We investigated the bacterial community alongside the abundance of antibiotic, metal and biocide resistance genes (ARGs, MRGs and BRGs) and of virulence factor genes (VFGs).ResultsFermented litter was consistently enriched in thermophilic and thermotolerant taxa and in beneficial genera such as Paenibacillus and Bacillus, while opportunistic pathogens including Streptococcus, Mycobacterium and Escherichia were clearly reduced. The total burden of the ARG and VFG classes fell in every fermented position, and representative determinants were consistently depleted: floR, qacEdelta1 and sul2 among the ARGs, ruvB among the MRGs, mexF, ideR and sodA among the BRGs, and htpB, clpV and katA among the VFGs. A small number of genes, tet(L), fexA and bacA among them, rose in the most active zones, indicating structural remodeling of the resistance reservoir rather than uniform removal. Fermentation was not spatially uniform: the upper and edge layers were more active, and the center-lower layer remained closest to the unfermented control.ConclusionIntelligent membrane fermentation reduced the overall abundance of resistance and virulence determinants in the litter microbiome, and spatial uniformity is important for the process. Because these data are DNA-based, they describe the abundance of resistance and virulence determinants and not resistance or virulence phenotypes.
IntroductionThe gut microbiota plays a vital role in porcine growth, intestinal barrier function, and disease resistance, yet the influence of host genetics on microbiota development and breed-specific phenotypes remains unclear. This study investigated gut microbiota dynamics in genetically distinct pig breeds and evaluated the functional impact of breed-specific microbiota on intestinal health.MethodsA total of 76 healthy 3-day-old piglets from Min pigs and Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) pigs were monitored from day 3 to day 49. Microbiota composition was analyzed at eight developmental stages using high-resolution 2bRAD-M sequencing. Intestinal tissues were collected at day 49 for spatial microbiota profiling and barrier function assessment. Additionally, twelve 21-day-old DLY piglets were assigned to control, Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) K88 challenge, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) groups to evaluate the protective effects of Min pig microbiota.ResultsSignificant breed-specific differences were observed in microbial composition, developmental trajectories, and ecological succession patterns. Min pigs exhibited higher microbial diversity and greater community stability during early weaning compared to DLY pigs, accompanied by improved intestinal barrier integrity and reduced diarrhea incidence. FMT from Min pigs significantly enhanced microbial diversity, strengthened intestinal barrier function, and alleviated diarrhea following ETEC challenge.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that host genetics shapes gut microbiota development, influencing intestinal health and disease resistance. Microbiota derived from Min pigs confers protective effects against enteric infection, highlighting its potential as a microbial resource to improve gut health in commercial pig production.
Calcium phosphate biomineralization plays a crucial role in the formation of geological deposits, biological materials, and environmental remediation. While microorganisms are known to influence calcium phosphate precipitation, the relative contributions of bacterial cell surfaces and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) remain poorly defined. This study presents the first microscale investigation of the distinct roles of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cells and EPS in regulating hydroxyapatite (HAp) mineralization, employing abiotic, EPS-mediated, and bacterial precipitation systems. Zeta potential measurements and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that both bacterial cells and isolated EPS provide negatively charged, chemically distinct interfaces capable of interacting with dissolved Ca2+ ions. Solution chemistry demonstrated greater phosphate and calcium ion depletion in biotic systems, consistent with enhanced crystal precipitation compared to abiotic controls. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analyses showed that biological interfaces produced distinct crystal morphologies and surface characteristics. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed significant differences in phase composition: abiotic precipitation produced mixed calcium phosphate phases, whereas EPS-mediated precipitation promoted nucleation but remained dominated by precursor phases. In contrast, whole-cell systems favored HAp formation, with Sporosarcina pasteurii producing phase-pure crystalline HAp and Pseudomonas fluorescens producing HAp-dominant precipitates. Acid dissolution experiments further confirmed the increased stability of biogenic precipitates. These findings demonstrate that the spatial organization of bacterial surface functional groups, rather than surface charge alone, governs hydroxyapatite phase evolution, crystal growth, and mineral stability. While localized metabolic activity may contribute to microenvironmental conditions, the results highlight the importance of bacterial cell surfaces and EPS as key determinants of hydroxyapatite biomineralization, providing a mechanistic basis for the design of biologically mediated mineral materials.
