Intestinal microbiome is the highest and most complex symbiotic microbial ecosystem in human body (host) (Peck et al., 2019), which plays an important role in the stability of intestinal environment (Nie et al., 2019). Disorder of intestinal microbiome is the cause or contributing factor of many kinds of body system diseases, including digestive system, immune system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and even nervous system. Genetic and environmental factors of the host will lead to differences in the composition and function of intestinal microbiome. In fact, gut provides a nutritious habitat for symbiotic

Lophatherum gracile is distributed in south China, Japan and South Asia, and it is wild in the valley, stream, woodland, forest edge and gully edge. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome sequence of Lophatherum gracile was successfully obtained using Illumina sequencing. The full length of the chloroplast genome length was 137,749 bp with a typical quadripartite structure: one large single copy (LSC) region (80,610 bp), one small single copy (SSC) region (12,429 bp), and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) (22,355 bp each). The GC content of this genome was 38.64%. The whole genome contained 130 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that Lophatherum gracile was closely related to Cenchrus americanus and Cenchrus longispinus.

Intake of a high-fat diet (HFD) is closely related to disorders of the intestinal microbiota, which plays a key role in the pathogenesis of obesity. Duyun compound green tea, an ancient Chinese drink, is widely consumed to reduce weight, although the mechanism is not clear. In this study, 50 mice were randomly divided into 5 groups: normal control group (CK), HFD model control group (NK), positive control group with medicine (YK), low-dose compound tea group (DL), and high-dose compound tea group (DH). After 4 weeks of intervention, the feces of mice were taken under sterile conditions and evaluated using Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that the diversity of intestinal microbiota was the highest in the CK group, the lowest in the NK group, and relatively increased in the compound tea treatment group. Second, there were differences in intestinal microbiota in each group, among which the beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract of the CK group were higher than those in the other groups, while the beneficial bacteria in each compound tea treatment group were more abundant than those in the NK group, in which harmful bacteria in the intestinal tract were found to be the highest. These results suggest that compounds in tea may be able to attenuate imbalances of intestinal microbiota induced by poor diet, acting as a therapeutic agent in obesity or other diseases associated with gut dysbiosis.

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