named ‘house in sukumo’ it was developed in close collaboration with its clients who were seeking a space that would combine an office space for the wife who works at home a humble material palette was used and reflective glass to guarantee privacy located in an area where typhoons is a regular occurrence the architects slanted the outer wall of the south side of the second floor to influence to exit through the south-facing window this roof protrudes up to 1.8 meters from the first floor works as a roof over the open space of the first floor and forms a place to take shelter from the rain reminiscent of an ‘engawa’ which is traditional to japanese houses the second floor is a private space for the client’s family and the use of cedar as the main material was chosen to bring warmth ‘I hope that the four spaces and the courtyard enrich their daily life we believe this house can be a place to explore various possibilities for the family in the future.’ concludes takanobu kishimoto a net has been installed on the ceiling of the coutyard the home simultaneously serves as the home office of the wife walls lined with blackboard allows the children to doodle cedar boards inject warmth into the more family-orientated private areas on the second floor AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style Share your travel photos with us by hashtagging your images with #visitjapanjp Tokushima is one of four prefectures in Shikoku—Japan’s smallest major island located around 250 km southwest of Kyoto— and it is one of Japan’s main producers of natural indigo dye Dyeing fabric using plant-based natural dyes has long been part of Tokushima culture The prefecture used to be part of the Awa province Aizome refers to the practice of traditional indigo dyeing Tokushima is dominated by mountains and sea. Every year in August, over a million people visit the prefecture to dance in the Awa Odori Festival—a traditional folk-dance festival held over several days The prefecture is around a 70-minute flight from Tokyo Aizome dyeing in Tokushima dates back nearly 800 years and the prefecture’s location is key to the development of the practice The Yoshino River that runs through northern Tokushima irrigates the surrounding land providing an ideal environment for the cultivation of the Japanese indigo plant (Perisicaria tinctoria) the plant from which indigo dye is extracted The Yoshino River runs through northern Tokushima Prefecture the production of indigo dye proved lucrative for the area The government at the time put protections on the land and actively encouraged dye production and the quality of the indigo dye was raised The high-quality dye was called “Awa-ai” and the brand became known across Japan Workers separate leaves and stalks— the raw materials needed to produce indigo dye Over 2,000 Tokushima farmers were involved in cultivating and processing the dye during the peak production period The raw material necessary to produce Awa-ai dye is the indigo (ai) extracted from the Japanese indigo plant The plant grows in abundance in the town of Kamiita one of Tokushima’s main production sites for ai Kenta Watanabe is both a dyer and one of very few remaining “aishi”—dye artisans who produce their own dye He plants the seeds in March and harvests the plants twice in summer the entire process from planting the indigo to producing the dye takes one year Kenta is one of only a handful of artisans involved in cultivating and processing the plants Kenta tends to a field of Japanese indigo plants Kenta is one of a handful of artisans who does everything from cultivating ai to creating raw materials The indigo plant grows for around five months after which the leaves are picked and fermented for about three months The result of the fermentation process is a material called “sukumo.” Kenta explains that the quality of sukumo determines the vividness of the indigo Japanese indigo plant leaves are fermented to produce sukumo—the base material from which indigo dye is produced The ai fostered by nature is a living being The quality of the sukumo determines the vividness of the color artisans use a centuries-old method called lye fermentation to create the liquid indigo dye This forms a highly alkaline environment that activates microorganisms and prompts the deoxidation necessary to create the dye chemical dye is used for many indigo products the artisans of Kamiita strive to keep the traditional technique of lye fermentation alive Kenta explains the benefits of using a natural indigo dye over a chemically produced one He states that natural dye penetrates deep into the clothing fibers meaning the color is less likely to fade over time emphasizing the important role of the microorganisms and explaining that the quality of the dye is the result of Tokushima’s specific natural environment Tokushima itself is the key factor behind the beautiful deep indigo color of the dye He is meticulous about going beyond the framework of traditional culture to make aizome products that suit modern life Traditional techniques of aizome—or indigo dyeing—have been practiced for a long time Different techniques lead to different results The danzome technique produces a color and shade gradation effect shifting the position of the fabric as it is dipped into the dye Skilled artisans can create simple but beautiful gradations in the fabric or folded during the dyeing process leaving undyed white patches The shiborizome process creates a variety of patterns Shiborizome (tie-dyeing) is the most basic of all dyeing techniques This style is a variation on the shiborizome technique Artisans gather up the fabric before dyeing it The murakumozome technique forms unique patterns This is another variation on the shiborizome technique Fabric is folded and placed between pieces of wood that have been fashioned into various shapes This method can result in geometrical or asymmetric patterns A bold pattern created by the itajimeshibori technique The fabric is first dyed uniformly with indigo artisans place stencils on the pre-dyed fabric The application of a chemical to the stencil creates an elaborate design with lightened areas The bassen technique allows for more intricate design patterns Roketsuzome is the most challenging dyeing technique Artisans use melted wax to create unique designs Ai no Yakata is a historical museum where visitors can dye their own fabric using aizome techniques Staff at the museum can guide you through each stage of the process in English Visitors choose the type of fabric and dyeing method The stages below detail the process for dyeing a handkerchief using the danzome method purchase the base material that you will dye One of the simplest ways to experience aizome dyeing is to choose a handkerchief and dye using the danzome technique Visitors can choose one of seven dyeing patterns Attaching a bamboo rod to the top of the handkerchief allows for easy handling The first stage of the dyeing process is to dip one third of the fabric slowly into the dye It is important to hold the fabric straight when dipping The first stage of the danzome dyeing technique Allow the fabric to air-dry for one minute before placing back in the dye The next step is to dip two thirds of the handkerchief into the dye for one minute before lifting out and air-drying for the same amount of time Dyeing the handkerchief in thirds leads to a simple gradation pattern where the sections of fabric dipped in the dye for longer will be darker The second stage of the danzome dyeing process and dip the entire handkerchief into the dye for one minute A further step is required to produce the indigo color Air-dry the handkerchief for one minute before thoroughly wringing out and unfurling Washing it in water instantly turns the handkerchief a vivid indigo blue The indigo color is only revealed at the end of the dyeing process after thoroughly wringing the handkerchief Repeating the one-minute dip and air-dry process around 30 times will bring out an intense shade of indigo called kachiiro browse the many exhibits housed within the museum Ai no Yakata holds approximately 100 traditional tools once used to produce Awa-ai.—the indigo dye produced in Tokushima The tools form part of Tokushima heritage and have been designated Important Cultural Properties by the Japanese government Visitors can comfortably enjoy half a day at the museum The Ai no Yakata historical museum houses many Important Cultural Properties This store dates back to 1912 and sells aizome products that have been dyed with natural indigo Items using dye from natural lye fermentation are rare; less than one percent of the world’s dyed indigo products are created this way Rampuya also stocks products made using Awa Shoai Shijira-ori—an indigo weaving technique that has been designated a traditional craft by the Japanese government Rampuya stocks a selection of original products Items on the Rampuya shelves include traditional summer Japanese clothing such as yukata and jinbei There are also more modern items such as shirts and scarves Aizome denim items that retain their color and become richer in hue the more they are worn are also available Samue is a type of traditional Japanese roomwear Visitors to Tokushima can immerse themselves in a world of indigo Experience the traditional art of aizome and return home with some unique Visitors can observe Kenta Watanabe’s factory WEB：https://www.watanabezu.com WEB：https://discovertokushima.net/en/culture/museums_history/aizumicho-historical-museum-ai-no-yakata/ WEB：http://rampuya.com WEB：https://www.pref.tokushima.lg.jp/en/japanese/natural_culture/traditional_culture/awa-ai WEB：https://www.japan.travel/japan-heritage/full_list#shikoku-region Browse the JNTO site in one of multiple languages At least 12 people were injured following a magnitude-6.6 earthquake that struck a wide area of western Japan the previous night Wednesday registered lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Ainan according to the Japan Meteorological Agency Seven people were slightly injured in Ehime while in Sukumo two women in their 70s suffered serious injuries and a man in his 40s suffered minor injuries according to prefectural governments and local fire departments Two were also hurt in Oita Prefecture in the Kyushu region suspended some services on its lines from the start of Thursday but is expected to fully resume operations Friday "We have avoided the worst situation," Kochi Gov citing the low number of human casualties and the progress of recovery efforts A valve defect reduced the power output of the No 3 reactor at the Ikata nuclear complex in Ehime Prefecture by 2 percent though there was no major problem with overall operations while water supplies in the city were disrupted due to burst pipes at many locations were also temporarily cut off due to fallen trees The focus of the quake in the Bungo Channel was in a zone that a government panel has said could see a devastating temblor with a magnitude of at least 8.0 in the next 30 years an agency official told a press conference it was unlikely that the latest temblor had increased the chances of a massive quake The temblor occurred in the Philippine Sea Plate which has a different seismic mechanism than a potential Nankai Trough quake Its epicenter was also located around 10 kilometers deeper than the plate boundary for a massive earthquake M6.6 quake hits western Japan prefectures, no tsunami warning issued Kumamoto marks 8th anniversary of deadly quakes To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible we are often approached by some of the best in the business to talk shop So, when BUAISOU a Japanese company that specializes in the harvesting of indigo asked to stop by our headquarters for a visit to our Archives and offered to walk us through their process BUAISOU was founded in 2012 by two Japanese indigo farmers and dyers – Kenta Watanabe and Kakuo Kaji – in Tokushima which is renowned for its indigo leaf farming Those leaves are fermented and turned into “sukumo,” which is used for dyeing BUAISOU uses this technique to create “hell vats” of indigo that produces a color they refer to as “Japan Blue” – a process they strive to keep alive today “It was inspiring to see BUAISOU’s mastery of craft in indigo sukumo dyeing,” said Una Murphy farming and fermenting their own indigo allows them to experience their product from soil to garment They describe their process elegantly and it’s clear they are deeply in touch with every aspect of what they do.” Natural indigo has a unique color and cast and was used to dye some of our earliest overalls took the time to walk members of the Levi’s® design team through their dyeing process with a demonstration using a vat filled with sukumo Asai Roketsu is a small dyeing workshop in the west of Kyoto The Asai family dye the grounds of kimono in many colors from the Tokushima area of the island of Shikoku. Shikoku was the first area of Japan to grow indigo The young plants need lots of water and sunshine and it is easy for them to become choked with weeds The harvest each year is dependent on the weather and the care of the farmer. Indigo leaves are naturally alkaline and they are not readily eaten by insects this property means that indigo-dyed cloth protects the wearer from insect bites and so it has long been favored by Japanese farming people. so it is considered healthy to wear indigo-dyed cloth It was once used for diapers for babies for these reasons In order to get a solid deep blue colorーsuch as the name is famous forー the indigo leaves are crushed and heaped up Water is poured onto them and they begin to ferment They are kept damp and the fermentation continues for several weeks The fermented indigo is stored in large straw containers which the Asai workshop has sent from Tokushima At a dyer’s workshop it is very common to see an indigo pot as a hole in the ground these do not usually have enough capacity to dye a whole kimono evenly and generally leave darker and lighter patches on the cloth. the Asai workshop has three specially made tanks but ash is added to the water to increase the ph value to 11 or 12 and then the fermented indigo is poured in It continues to ferment for at least two weeks more sake is added and the dye becomes stronger again Asai workshop has about 500 rubber rollers with traditional Japanese celebratory patterns carved into them These are used for applying wax to kimono fabric to make roketsu The fabric is repeatedly dipped and then held in the air as the moment of meeting with oxygen is vital to development of the blue color. After drying and washing off the excess dye, the wax is removed to leave a white pattern on the dark blue ground of the kimono cloth. Collaboration with a kimono dyer who has painted the trees in wax, has produced the homongi with the design of woods rendered with two layers of wax resist, which give depth to the image. See how the process works, here Another venture is a collaboration with Horii Makoto of Tokyo, who is originally a bag maker. Asai and Horii have created Sukumo leather. After years of experimenting they have succeeded in indigo dyeing leather hides without causing the leather to become hard and brittle The leather must be soaked before being put in the dye bath lifting it periodically in order for oxidation to take place After dyeing it is sent to a tanner for a final wash and is dried slowly and naturally in fresh air Finally it is shaken repeatedly in order to make the leather soft. Not only have Sukumo managed to indigo dye the leather but they have also succeeded in applying the traditional fabric-dyeing techniques of roketsu This unique leather can be used for making apparel This indigo dyeing technique also has applications in the creation of beautiful and long-lasting unique interior fabric Sukumo’s superb luxury products have been picked up by leading European fashion brands at the Premiere Vision exhibition in Paris because they are outstanding examples of staying true to natural materials Japanese traditional techniques and also innovation and originality in product production If you are looking for a once in a lifetime experience and want to create your own indigo dyed items it is possible to partner with Sukumo at Asai workshop in Kyoto to produce your own which you do by dyeing a simple cotton handkerchief items of your own clothing such as shirts or other items of natural fibres can be dyed This can then be used to create your own bag Private groups of between two and six people can try this unique experience. Sukumo offers this VIP experience on weekday evenings or Sundays. For details (in Japanese) learn more about the company through their website here, or contact them at makoto@sukumojapan.com Find other columns on kimono by author Sheila Cliffe, here You must be logged in to post a comment. ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " the relationship goes hand in hand—you simply cannot be truly passionate or knowledgeable about denim without developing a deep admiration for Japan though the blue jean is the most classic piece of American clothing nowhere else in the world has the original spirit of American jeans been celebrated and maintained as it has in Japan the traditional process of producing natural indigo dye for raw denim is currently done only in that country “When I caught wind of a Japanese indigo dye house in Bushwick, I knew we had to get over there immediately!” says Najafi, who invited me to try out the process with her on some white jeans. We met with the lovely Sayaka and Yuki, two artisans who run the Buaisou outpost, and went to indigo dyeing town! Above, see the step by step. Industry Standard x Buaisou dip-dyed Odette mid-rise jeans, $265, available for purchase via special order at hello@industrystandardny.com (the turnaround time will be three to six weeks); Industry Standard x Buaisou tie-dyed Remy boyfriend jeans, $285, available for purchase via special order at hello@industrystandardny.com (the turnaround time will be three to six weeks) Volume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.957809 Water-insoluble indigo is solubilized by the reducing action of microorganisms which occurs during fermentation composted leaves of Polygonum tinctorium L (sukumo) are the raw material that has been used as both the indigo source and the bacterial inoculum indigo reduction occurs shortly after preparation of the fermentation vat The time-to-reduction depends on the quality of the sukumo and the methods for preparation and management of the fermentation batch We estimated the effect of adding Indigofera tinctoria L leaf powder (LP) to indigo fermentation in two fermentations originally exhibiting either rapid or slow time-to-reduction (T-sukumo and D-sukumo (97.7%–98.4% similarities with Alkalihalobacillus macyae) were observed only in the LP-added T-sukumo fermentation liquor They appeared from day 1 (0.7%) and increased to 24.4% on day 6 and their presence was related to indigo reduction Differences in functional ratio between LP-added and its control batches revealed enhancement of pathways related to reconstitution of cellular functions and substrate metabolisms appearance of bacteria necessary to initiate indigo reduction (principally Anaerobacillus/Polygonibacillus) was comparatively slower LP promotes earlier indigo reduction in both T- and D-sukumo-based batches owing to its promotion of microbiota transition The effect of the LP was intensified from day 1 to day 2 in both sukumo using batches according to the assumed function of the microbiota The initial effect of LP on the T-sukumo batches was more intense than that in the D-sukumo batches and was continued until day 3 while the duration in the T-sukumo batches was continued until day 5 we propose that the LP functions through its phytochemicals that eliminate oxygen and accelerate its transitional changes toward a suitable function that opens the pathway for the extracellular electron transfer using carbohydrates as a substrate which indigo itself after extraction from plants has become popular and has been used as source of indigo dye in India Extracted dye scarcely contains the source microorganisms that are necessary for the successive step of indigo fermentation for indigo reduction seed microorganisms for example in previous fermentation fluid should be added to perform prompt indigo reduction by fermentation Sukumo is a traditional indigo-dyeing material in Japan prepared by composting Polygonum tinctorium L (Aino et al., 2018) leaves are piled on an indoor earthen floor (approximately 5 m × 5 m) to a height of ~1 m Appropriate conditions for the activity of the microorganisms involved fermentation must be maintained for ~100 days Maintenance of fermentation conditions includes maintaining a high temperature of approximately 70°C turnover of the piles of the leaves to introduce air and adjusting moisture content by adding water This process requires the outstanding technical skills of trained and well-experienced craft workers During the fermentation process the constituents of the leaves are appropriately digested by microorganisms and indican contained in the leaves is oxidized to indigo The coached woad and sukumo are not only produced as the source of indigo but also are used as bacterial seeds in the following liquid fermentation (Aino et al., 2018) and metabolic byproducts of microorganisms involved in the composting processes may be utilized as the nutrients for microorganisms in the indigo reducing fermentation coached woad and sukumo exhibit exquisite functional preservation for the indigo reducing fermentation 10 years old sukumo can still be utilizable appropriately for successive fermentations Since prior initiation of indigo reduction is desirable to maximize the usability of the fermentation fluid, changes in microbiota at the initial fermentation phase have been studied via clone library analysis (Aino et al., 2010) and next generation sequencing (Tu et al., 2019a,b, 2021) facultative anaerobic Bacillaceae) first appear They consume oxygen and their ratio decrease with the decrease in redox potential in the fluid other facultative anaerobic Bacillaceae and obligate anaerobic Proteinivoraceae) increase the ratio of facultative anaerobes decrease and dominance of obligate anaerobes increases the mechanisms and requirements for initiation of indigo reduction have not been clarified to our knowledge Although it is difficult to regulate microbiota to a desirable state, the microbiota in indigo fermentation can be regulated in a manner suitable for indigo reduction, acceleration of initiation of indigo reduction will be possible (Lopes et al., 2021a) We found that addition of Indigofera tinctoria L leaf powder (LP) to the fluid at the beginning of its fermentation reduced redox potential and promoted the appropriate transition in the microbiota of the fluid we aim to understand the reason for the LP reducing the redox potential by estimating the oxygen consumption ability of the LP We try to understand the required state of the microbiota and the associated required metabolic basis for indigo reduction by producing differentiated the period form the fermentation preparation to the initiation of indigo reduction by using different kinds of sukumo combined with additives (LP and wheat bran) and analyzing the microbiota and estimating the predictive function of the metagenomes The results offer procedures to regulate the microbiota to desirable states and manage the bacteria function to initiate indigo reduction Preparation and maintenance procedures for six batches of sukumo fermentation fluids A small-scale fermentation batch (l L) for slow-changing microbiota was prepared using sukumo manufactured by K.S. (D-sukumo; Date, Hokkaido, Japan). Indigo reduction was initiated later than day 10 from fermentation fluid prepared using this sukumo. In a previous report, it took 58 days for obvious dyeing to appear (Lopes et al., 2021a) The sukumo mixed with wood ash extract as described above produced four different batches Batches D1 and D2 were control (no additives) and 0.5 g of LP added wheat bran was added at day 4 and LP wad also added to batch D4 (when its preparation was ready) with or without additives such as LP or wheat bran was centrifuged at 15,000×g for 10 min at 25°C to obtain a pellet to be used for DNA extraction The obtained pellet was treated with ISOIL extraction kit (Nippon Gene Japan) According to the manufacturer’s instruction except for the final step when 50 μl Tris-EDTA (TE) was added instead of 100 μl Samples from two sukumo (T-sukumo and D-sukumo) batches were directly treated by the kit The extracted DNA was stored at −35°C until use The bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequence of the V3–V4 region (341F–805R) was amplified with primer pair: V3V4f_MIX (ACACTCTTTCCCTACACGACGACGCTCTTCC-GATCT-NNNN-CCTACGGG-NGGCWGCAG) and V3V4r_MIX (GTGACTGGAGTTCAGACGTG-TGCTCTTCCGATCT-NNNNN-GACTACHVGGGTATCTAATCC) Purchased from Bioengineering Lab The primers consisted of an adapter sequence followed by insertions with 0–5 bases of random sequences (described as N) (adaptor) and a sequence for amplification of the targeted 16S rRNA sequence The random sequences were set to improve quality the PCR solution (40 μl) consisted of 4 μl of 10× Ex buffer (Takara Bio 2 ng DNA template (extracted sample) 0.4 μl of 5 U·ml−1 Ex Taq polymerase (Takara Bio) The amplification reaction of the targeted sequence was performed as follows: 94°C for 2 min; 25 cycles of 94°C for 30 s 55°C for 30 s and 72°C for 30 s; extension of 72°C for 5 min Product identity and quality were confirmed by agarose gel Electrophoresis The treatment and the control were made in triplicate analysis LP acts to accelerate indigo reduction in the natural fermentation of D-sukumo, which produces slow change in microbiota during fermentation (Lopes et al., 2021a) we aim to confirm the accelerative effect of LP on microbiota using T-sukumo which without LP would produce rapid change in microbiota which without LP would produce slow change in microbiota To estimate the capacity of LP to eliminate oxygen in the fermentation fluid directly, a large amount of LP was added to wood ash extract and changes in oxygen concentration in the fluid were estimated (Supplementary Figure S1) The oxygen in the LP-added fluid disappeared in 7 h while that in the no-LP-added batch scarcely changed the oxygen scavenging effect of LP was demonstrated Indican in LP is rapidly converted to indigo when in contact with dissolved oxygen indican in LP can contribute to the consumption of dissolved oxygen in the fluid Raw sequences (519,743) were obtained from a total of 12 samples one from each day (day 1 to day 6) after fermentation preparation from the LP-added and control batches using T-sukumo Raw sequences (1,579,972) were obtained from a total of 30 samples from the LP-added and control each day from day 1 to day 21 after fermentation preparation from D-sukumo used batches Changes in pH, ORP, dyeing intensity, and bacterial community in the fermentation using T-sukumo are shown in Figures 1, 2 The reduction in ORP was faster in the LP-added batch and reduction in ORP may have the effect of converging the diversity of the microbial flora also reflected in the lower percentage of “others” in the T2 batch at day 1 Although faint dyeing was observed at day 2 in the LP-added batch (T2) an evident difference in dyeing between the T2 batch and its control (T1) was observed at day 3 Facultative anaerobic alkaliphile Sutcliffiella cohnii predominantly appeared on day 1 in both the LP-added batch and the control The speed of its disappearance was greater in the LP-added batch The changes may be attributed to the decreasing ORP due to the aerobic metabolism of the initially colonizing microbiota While obligate anaerobic Alkalihalobacillus spp (Alkalihalobacillus macyae [97.7%–98.4% similarity]) appeared (11.1%) in the T2 batch facultative anaerobic Robertmurraya kyonggiensis (99.3% similarity; 11.1%) appeared in the control the obligate anaerobic Alkalicella caledoniensis (99.0%–100%) appeared 2 days earlier in the T2 than in the T1 batch Although the deference in ORP between T2 and T1 batches appears small it indicates that the environment in the T2 batch was more favorable for obligate anaerobes The pronounced difference in the microbial community between the T2 and T1 batches was the appearance of Alkalihalobacillus spp increasing the ratio of Amphibacillus spp. which has been reported to be indigo reducers may have contributed to dyeing intensity in the T1 batch after day 5 Changes in the relative abundance of bacterial communities (≥1.4% in any sample) Blue letters indicate the confirmed indigo-reducing taxa (including unpublished results) The percentages in the brackets indicate the similarities with the known species in the NCBI database depending on the fermentation period in indigo fermentation fluid batch T2 (Indigofera tinctoria L leaf powder [LP] added) T1 (control) using T-sukumo Changes in pH, ORP, dyeing intensity, and bacterial community, in the fermentation using D-sukumo are shown in Figures 3, 4 The pH range kept between pH 10.1 and pH 10.8 A rapid decrease in ORP was observed in the D2 batch (first decrease in ORP ca while it took 11 days to decrease the ORP ca although the cloth was faintly dyed on day 5 in D2 batch the intensity decreased up to day 7 and faintly dyeing was observed at day 11 again This is probably explained by the exhaustion of the readily utilizable substrates that are utilized by indigo-reducing bacteria The obvious dyeing was observed in both D2 and D1 batches at day 21 This may be attributed to the appearance of Polygonibacillus indicireducens (97.0%–98.1%) which is supposed to be a bacterium that can use hard-to-utilize substrates Higher ratio of the reported indigo-reducing Fermentibacillus polygoni was observed in the LP-added batch D2 We propose that the microbial community and its succession occurred in the D2 batch when readily utilizable substrates were exhausted for the corresponding microbial community the results can be demonstrated that addition of both LP accelerated the initiation of indigo reduction and addition of wheat bran stabilized the dyeing intensity by suppling substrates to the indigo reducing bacteria Changes in the relative abundance of bacterial communities (≥2.0% in any sample) depending on the fermentation period in indigo fermentation fluid batches D2 and D4 (Indigofera tinctoria L leaf powder [LP] added) and D1 and D3 (controls) and using D-sukumo Wheat bran was added to batches D3 and D4 at day 4 *Anaerobacillus alkaliphilus-like taxa are involve in Polygonibacillus indicireducens in batch D4 the observed OTUs of the T1 batch tended to decrease from day 1 to day 3 and from day 4 to day 5 The Shannon index exhibited a decreased only from day 2 to day 3 The deceasing may be related to the consumption of the readily utilizable substrates derived from sukumo The exhaustion of substrates may be attributed to continue dominance of S cohnii (99.8%–100%) and the appearance of Robertmurraya kyonggiensis (99.3%) in the T1 batch A dramatic increase was observed in the OTUs from day 5 to day 6 in the T1 batch This corresponded to the increase in Amphibacillus spp This increase may be attributed to changing mainly used substrates by the bacteria in the microbiota due to the exhaustion of readily utilizable substrates and as a consequence the initiation of indigo reduction was initiated The relative difference in changes in microbiota between the T2 and T1 batches was estimated using Bray–Curtis PCoA (Figure 5) The direction of change of microbiota differed between the T2 and T1 batches The initial change (from day 1 to day 2) was faster in the T2 than in the T1 batches The initial change in each batch corresponded to a change in dominance from facultative to obligate anaerobes and a large increase in observed OTUs were observed from day 5 to day 6 in the T1 batch observation of multi-faceted factors must be required to account for the observed changes in dyeing intensity depending on the fermentation period in indigo fermentation fluid using D-sukumo with the addition of Indigofera tinctoria L leaf powder (LP) added [D2: open triangles and D4: red circles in (B,C)] and controls [D1: open circles and D3: blue circles in (B,C)] Wheat bran was added to batches D3 and D4 on day 4 The observed OTUs tended to increase in the observation period following the impact of the introduction of wheat bran as the microbial community trained to the wheat brane as the substrate Bray–Curtis principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of indigo fermentation using T-sukumo (A) and D-sukumo (B) Branch numbers indicate the number of days of fermentation leaf powder (LP) added (T2: red circles) and control (T1: blue circles) leaf powder (LP) added (D2 and D4: red circles) and controls (D1 and D3: blue circles) The relative differences in the changes in microbiota between the LP-added batches (D2 and D4) and the controls (D2 and D3) were estimated using Bray–Curtis PCoA (Figure 5) The initial changes in the microbiota in this slow-changing microbiota fermentation fluid were slower than the rapid-changing microbiota fermentation fluid the LP-added batches (D2 and D4) the direction of change differed from that in the non-LP-added batches and the velocity of change accelerated from day 1 to day 2 The latter effect was reflected in the faster increase in obligate anaerobes in the LP-added batches which we presumed attribute to the rapid decrease in ORP Acceleration of microbial community change was also observed in the wheat bran-added batches The changes in velocity from the D3 day 4 (D3-4) to the D3 day 5 (D3-5) were faster than that of the change in non-wheat bran-added batch change from D1 day 3 (D1-3) to D1 day 5 (D1-5) it is important to make microbiota transitions quickly to the microbial flora that indigo reduction occurs and the addition of LP and wheat bran is effective for that purpose transport and catabolism (one subpathway; e.g. replication and repair (three subpathways; e.g. amino acid metabolism (three subpathways; e.g. carbohydrate metabolism (three subpathways; e.g. metabolism of cofactors and vitamins (one subpathway; e.g. metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides (one subpathway; e.g. nucleotide metabolisms (two subpathways; e.g. (unclassified) genetic information processing (one subpathways; e.g. and (unclassified) metabolism (two subpathways; e.g. It can be noticed that most of the stimulated functional subpathway continued until day 3 “amino acid metabolism” and “energy metabolism” were strongly enhanced on day 2 in batch T2 while these subpathways were not enhanced on day 5 This result suggested that the duration of the initial effects owing to the LP addition on the T-sukumo batch is up to the third day the three subpathways in the carbohydrate metabolism superpathway and the “replication recombination and repair proteins” subpathway were continuously enhanced in the LP-added batch these enhancements may be produced by secondly effect of produced by LP This metabolic trend may lead to the transfer of electrons produced by the metabolisms toward the extracellular indigo particles continuously leaf powder (LP) on the ratios (day 2/day 1 and T2/T1 for days 2 and 5) for each relative abundance of functional subpathway of the bacterial communities in the indigo fermentation using T-sukumo leaf powder [LP] added) and T1 (control) using T-sukumo are shown the metagenomic prediction produced using PICRUSt2 and BURRITO is shown Subpathways containing ratios higher than 1.10 in either day 2/day 1 or T2/T1 (for days 2 the contributions of each most predominant OTU for starch and sucrose metabolism were not high (6.8% and 7.5% the most predominant OTU belonging to genus Alkalihalobacillus exhibited large contributions in each representative subpathway (34.8%–54.3%) This result is consistent with the superiority of dye intensity in the LP-added batch which only contained genus Alkalihalobacillus The enhancement of “starch and sucrose metabolism” due to LP addition was observed form day 11 which could be the reason behind the delayed initiation of dyeing in batch D2 compared to batch T2 with T-sukumo leaf powder (LP) on the ratio (day 2/day 1) for each relative abundance of functional subpathway of the bacterial communities in indigo fermentation using D-sukumo leaf powder (LP) added (D2 and D4) and controls (D1 and D3) are shown Subpathways containing ratios higher than 1.05 were selected leaf powder (LP) on the ratios (D2/D1 of days 3 and 21) for each relative abundance of functional subpathway of the bacterial communities in the indigo fermentation using D-sukumo Subpathways containing ratios higher than 1.10 were selected in days 3–21 These findings suggest that the high ratio in substrates metabolisms utilizing for sustaining extracellular electron transfer to the total metabolisms of existing microorganisms is important to sustain indigo reduction Although it is considered that addition of external bacterial substrates may increase microbial species that are unfavorable for indigo reduction addition of wheat bran induced a favorable change in microbiota; it took ~5 days for induction of apparent indigo reduction according to the observation in the D3 and D4 batches The contribution of OTUs belonging to Polygonibacillus/Anaerobacillus for the enhanced subpathways was higher than on day 5 The results suggest that the functions involved in contributing indigo reduction are monopolized by specific microbial groups Enterococcus that specifically appeared in the D4 batch that contained both LP and wheat bran contributed subpathways of “ABC transporters,” “transcription factors,” “pentose phosphate pathway,” “starch and sucrose metabolism,” and “function unknown.” Considering the ratio that existed the contribution of Enterococcus to “starch and sucrose metabolism” was high As described above, T-sukumo and D-sukumo produced fast-and slow-changing microbial communities, respectively (Supplementary Figure S5) In order to understand the differences in the microbiota and metabolic functions microbial community analysis and metagenome prediction were performed (data not shown) Although there was not so much difference in the taxonomic diversity between T-sukumo and D-sukumo the constituted microbial communities were quite different Major constituents in the microbiota in D-sukumo were Marinimicrobium alkaliphilum (similarity:95.5%–95.7%; 16.8%) followed by Luteimonas dalianensis (97.8%–99.8%; 7.5%) unidentified class Clostridia (5.0%) and Azoarcus pumilus (94.0%–98.0%; 3.8%) while those of T-sukumo were uncultured order Longimicrobium (13.7%) followed by Oceanobacillus luteolus-like species (97.2%; 12.9%) The differences in microbiota between the two sukumo may be attributed to the procedures and environments of production original material of D-sukumo contains stalk of knotweed whereas T-sukumo uses only leaves of knotweed T-sukumo was produced on an in-house earthen floor which explains why it contained a high ratio of Bacillaceae The low ratio of Bacillaceae in D-sukumo suggests that it was not produced on an earthen floor Considering the metabolic functional differences the subpathway of “cell growth” in T-sukumo was 10.7-fold higher than that in D-sukumo The contribution of Bacillaceae to “cell growth” was very high (more than 95% to the total constituents) the changes in functional subpathways accompanying the acceleration of indigo reduction and the prerequisites for indigo reduction in the early stage of fermentation we changed the preparation in batches by adding LP or not (for the control) at the start of fermentation and using two kinds of sukumo that were known to produce different time lags from the preparation of the fermentation to the initiation of indigo reduction under minimum fluctuation fermentation pH LP was effective in promoting the initiation of indigo reduction in both T-sukumo and D-sukumo The presented results suggest that the addition of LP promotes rapid changes to the anaerobic metabolism-based microbial flora According to the changes in the predicted functions of the microbiota the effect of LP intensified from day 1 to day 2 in both of the sukumo using batches in the early stage of fermentation which produced a rapid change in the microbiota was more intense than that in the D-sukumo which produced a slow change in the microbiota and the primary duration was until day 3 while the duration in the T-sukumo was until day 5 Deduction from cellular metabolisms based on the constituted microorganisms suggests that stimulatory effects on the microbiota (i.e. oxygen-removing effect) by LP and consequent environmental pressures (i.e. decrease in ORP and the stimulatory effect of phytochemicals) brought rapid microbiota changes favorable to indigo reduction The reduction in indigo may be initiated through the drastic changes in microbiota and the presence of appropriate amount of substrates that derived from sukumo and transitional change of the microbiota It assumed that the indigo reduction occurs when the carbohydrate metabolism pathway for the extracellular electron transfer exceeds the threshold of the metabolic capacity in the microbial community we confirm the more specific prerequisite phase transition of microbiota that is required for indigo reduction The accompanying metabolic changes in the substrates and the contribution of genus Alkalicella to the carbohydrate metabolisms it is quite possible that it will be difficult to exceed the metabolic threshold for activating extracellular electron transfer even in the high ratio of genus Alkalicella in the microbiota cohnii was the dominant taxon in both batches T1 and T2 at the beginning of fermentation they hardly contributed to indigo reduction the species showed a high contribution to abundance ratio in the metabolism of substrates than the obligate anaerobic microorganisms This finding possibly indicated that the species did not fulfill the functions that are necessary to initiate an indigo reduction in the indigo fermentation fluid environment (i.e. the available substrates and physicochemical conditions) deeper dyeing can be seen only after the formation of a microbiota that is suitable for reducing indigo This probably meant that establishment and maintenance of the indigo reduction requires several physiological functions The effect of LP on the early phase of D-sukumo fermentation and the later phase of T-sukumo fermentation was demonstrated in the previous study (Lopes et al., 2021a) although the initiation of indigo reduction was accelerated in the fermentation batch with added LP the dyeing intensity tentatively decreased at day 25 This was probably due to the exhaustion of readily utilizable substrates in sukumo bacteria which are able to utilize cellulose or xylan appeared and the dyeing intensity recovered it is thought that presence of available substrates which are the sources for production of the reducing power for indigo will be necessary to maintain the indigo reducing state we established the batch to which wheat bran was added at day 4 with the aim to maintain the presence of the substrates and the induction of bacteria which are able to utilize cellulose or xylan (hard-to-utilize substrates) relationships between sukumo materials and the additives of LP and wheat bran were demonstrated under minimum fluctuation of fermentation pH There is a possibility that the substrates derived from sukumo were wasted under the moderate high pH The reduction in ORP was much faster in T-sukumo than in D-sukumo the ORP in indigo fermentation is reduced by oxygen metabolism by the facultative anaerobes derived from the sukumo there was a large difference in the microbial community between D-sukumo itself and the initially appearing microbiota at day 1 in the fermentation readily utilizable substrates involved in sukumo may be consumed more when using D-sukumo than T-sukumo a slow decrease in ORP allows microorganisms to consume of readily utilizable substrates derived from sukumo by oxygen metabolizable bacteria to an even larger extent It is considered that the faster initiation of the indigo reduction may suppress the loss of the intrinsic substrates originally present in sukumo continuous moderate high pH (less than pH 11) maintenance may allow to increase unfavorable bacteria for indigo reduction by the microbiota although the microbiota possibly exhibited dyeing at day 5 in the D2 batch addition of wheat bran led to faint dyeing in batches D4 and D3 Rapid consumption of readily utilizable substrates at the beginning of fermentation may not have occurred in batches based on T-sukumo there is a possibility that T-sukumo originally contained more readily utilizable substrates than D-sukumo rapid ORP reduction by oxygen metabolizing bacteria occurred in the T1 batch in the absence of LP Microbial analyses of D-sukumo fermentation showed the appearance of a high ratio of S cohnii followed by its rapid decrease then succession by obligate anaerobes which may have prevented rapid consumption of the readily utilizable substrates The large microbial flora change may have occurred because the LP addition accelerated the transition of microbial flora unnecessary increase in the diversity of the microbial community in indigo fermentation will lead to substrate loss for the direction of the extracellular electron transfer studies of the microbial community of indigo fermentation will provide a clue to the meaning of transitional changes and the maintenance of the ecosystem Selection of necessary microorganisms which contribute indigo reducing metabolisms in the microorganisms involving in sukumo is indispensable for initiation of indigo reduction This selection will lead to a correction of the metabolic pathways from utilization of substrates to production of extracellular reducing forces for the indigo reduction For efficient use of limited substrates in the fermentation batch (primarily from sukumo) loss of available substrates due to consumption by microorganisms that do not contribute to indigo reduction should be limited The addition of LP was effective for promoting the transitional changes to microbial community that contribute for anaerobic metabolisms and selection of the bacterial species which contribute indigo reduction in which rapid initiation of indigo reduction is difficult the addition of wheat bran (in addition to the introduction of LP) was effective for accelerating the initiation of reduction by induction The mechanisms were by inducing further positive changes in traditional microorganisms for indigo reduction and introducing wheat bran as a substrate for the microorganisms which are able to reduce indigo regulation of microbial communities toward favorable direction is thought to be difficult and there are not many such cases reported; in this study we demonstrated the effects of LP and wheat bran in deferent states of microbiota to promote the microbiota toward a favorable direction The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: https://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/ and IY conceived and designed the experiments All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version This work was supported by the Institute for Fermentation (IFO) We thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.957809/full#supplementary-material Microbial communities associated with indigo fermentation that thrive in anaerobic alkaline environments Bacterial community characterization and dynamics of indigo fermentation scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2 DADA2: high resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar “Indigo dye and reduction techniques” in Denim Roshan (Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Ltd.) 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Isao Yumoto, aS55dW1vdG9AYWlzdC5nby5qcA== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Today's print edition Home Delivery measuring a lower 6 on Japan's seismic intensity scale struck off the west coast of Shikoku island on Wednesday night but authorities reported no link to a potential Nankai Trough quake and reports suggested only minor injuries and damage.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); The quake measured a lower 6 — the third highest level — in the Ehime Prefecture town of Ainan and the Kochi Prefecture city of Sukumo a strait separating the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku The temblor left nine people with light injuries in Ehime fallen streetlights and a landslide on a national roadway but no fires were reported in the quake's aftermath a woman in Ainan in her 70s was taken to a hospital after collapsing No abnormalities have been detected at Shikoku Electric Power's Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority The Meteorological Agency initially reported the quake as magnitude 6.4 head of the agency's earthquake and tsunami monitoring division told a news conference early Thursday that the magnitude of 6.6 is below the 6.8 threshold that would necessitate an investigation into any relation with a Nankai Trough earthquake He added that while this quake doesn’t meet the criteria for further study in that context the agency will issue updates and convene expert panels as needed Harada noted that seismic activity has remained heightened since the quake The agency has advised residents of areas hit by the quake to be careful of seismic activity and heavy rainfall for the next week or so as the risk of house collapses and landslides has increased in areas where the tremors were strong The quake has prompted anxieties regarding the possibility of an upcoming Nankai Trough earthquake which typically occurs every 100-150 years stretching from the Tokai region to offshore eastern Kyushu is a hotbed of geological tension where the oceanic plate is subducting beneath the continental plate Major earthquakes and tsunamis are expected when this tension releases suddenly "This earthquake was caused by a fault shift within the plate which is deeper than the boundary between the plates," Harada explained at the conference we cannot say whether the probability of a Nankai Trough earthquake has increased or decreased due to this event," he said The agency will continue to closely monitor the region Relatively large earthquakes have occurred in the past in the vicinity of the Bungo Channel including an earthquake with a maximum intensity of upper 5 in Oita Prefecture in July 2015 when the current Japanese seismic intensity scale was introduced that a tremor of a lower 6 or higher has been observed in Ehime and Kochi prefectures the impact was distinctly felt at a local convenience store Several cup noodles and sake bottles toppled from the shelves The clerk described the ordeal: "It started shaking suddenly then my cell phone's earthquake alert went off The shaking felt like it lasted a long time but I managed to hold on by clinging to my desk." At a nearby Japanese-style pub owned by Keiichi Fujisawa the tremor caused plates to crash down from shelves "This was the biggest quake I have ever experienced," he said "I need to reorganize to ensure nothing dangerous falls next time." the quake's intensity was recorded at a lower 5 four customers ducked under tables for cover "It reminded me of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 I've received several calls checking in on me to make sure I’m safe." In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Metrics details Western boundary currents in the subtropics play a pivotal role in transporting warm water from the tropics that contribute to development of highly diverse marine ecosystem in the coastal regions As one of the western boundary currents in the North Pacific the Kuroshio Current (hereafter the Kuroshio) exerts great influences on biological resource variability off southwest Japan but few studies have examined physical processes that attribute the coastal fish resource variability to the basin-scale Kuroshio variability Using the high-quality fish catch data and high-resolution ocean reanalysis results this study identifies statistical links of interannual fish resource variability off Sukumo Bay to subsurface ocean temperature variability in the Kuroshio The subsurface ocean temperature variability off the south of Sukumo Bay exhibits vertically coherent structure with sea-surface height variability which originates from the westward-propagating oceanic Rossby waves generated through surface wind anomalies in the Northwest Pacific Although potential sources of the atmospheric variability remain unclarified the remotely-induced oceanic Rossby waves contribute to fish resource variability off Sukumo Bay These findings have potential applications to other coastal regions along the western boundary currents in the subtropics where the westward-propagating oceanic Rossby waves may contribute to coastal ocean temperature variability Since these countries are traditionally dependent on fish resources from the Kuroshio as sources of protein foods understanding physical processes in the Kuroshio and its potential link with fish resource variability is greatly important most of the previous studies limit their discussions to the underlying physical processes behind the Kuroshio variability and potential impacts on the amount of fish resources off the south of Japan have been poorly understood but the potential influence on the fish resource variability has yet to be investigated in the context of the links with basin-scale Kuroshio variability To bridge a gap in our current understanding of the relationship between coastal fish resources and basin-scale ocean current variability this study aims to (i) establish statistical links of the Kuroshio variability to the fish resources off Sukumo Bay and (ii) identify potential sources of the Kuroshio variability we utilize high-resolution ocean reanalysis results in the Northwest Pacific with the ability to resolve the Kuroshio variability involving mesoscale eddies high-quality fish catch data with daily catch efforts off Sukumo Bay are used to estimate monthly fish resources and their variability The identified relationship would be beneficial for establishing fish resource prediction and management off Sukumo Bay and have potential applications to other coastal regions along the western boundary currents in the subtropics (a) Monthly fish catch per unit effort (CPUE in kg) based on mid-size surrounding nets off Sukumo Bay during 2006–2018 in kg) and its standard deviation (solid white line (a) November-January mean of sea-surface height (SSH but for the subsurface ocean temperature (in °C) at 150 m depth (c) Correlation coefficient between November-January mean CPUE and SSH A black box indicates our region of interest off the south of Sukumo Bay but for the correlation coefficient between November-January mean CPUE and subsurface ocean temperature at 150 m depth Hatched areas indicate correlation coefficients which are statistically significant above 90% confidence level of a Student t-test subsurface ocean temperature variations may directly contribute to changes in spatial distribution of small fishes off Sukumo Bay November-January mean subsurface ocean temperature anomalies at 150 m depth (black solid line Red and blue dotted lines exhibit one and negative one standard deviation of subsurface ocean temperature anomalies Red and blue filled circles on the solid black line correspond to positive and negative events with anomalously high and low subsurface ocean temperature above one and negative one standard deviation Lag composites of absolute SSH (contour interval of 7 cm) and its anomalies (color Seasonal mean anomalies for (a) November-January (NDJ(0)) The black dot in (a) indicates Sukumo City Statistically significant anomalies exceeding 90% confidence level using a Student t-test are colored Monthly lag composites (16-month lag to 0-month lag Dec (0)) of SSH anomalies during the positive events The left panel shows north-south SSH anomalies (32.5–30°N) along 132°E while the right panel shows west-east SSH anomalies (132–168°E) along 30°N Statistically significant anomalies exceeding 90% confidence level using a Student t-test are shaded (a) Composite anomalies of November-January mean sea-level pressure (SLP in hPa) one year before positive events (i.e a coastal phenomenon with a sudden increase in coastal ocean current but the Kyucho in Bungo Channel rarely occurs during boreal winter further observational and modelling studies involving the interaction of dynamical and bio-geochemical processes would advance our understanding of the fish resource variability off Sukumo Bay the anticyclonic eddies traveling from the north may propagate westward via interaction with the re-circulation current the relative contributions from the internal oceanic processes and the atmospheric forcing remain unclear This needs to await further ocean modelling studies in which the atmospheric forcing such as wind stress curl is prescribed with or without interannual variations This study provides further implication for the development of fish resource prediction based on the ocean current information Since there is a one-year lag relationship between anticyclonic eddies in the Northwest Pacific and anomalous increase in fish resource off Sukumo Bay monitoring the SSH variability in the Northwest Pacific is imperative for predicting fish resource variability off Sukumo Bay one year ahead Given that the SSH variability in the Northwest Pacific is driven mostly by the atmospheric variations seasonal climate prediction over the Northwest Pacific using a global ocean-atmosphere coupled model may help extend the prediction lead time beyond one year The long-term prediction information for fish resource would benefit fishery people to efficiently establish fishing plan as well as sustainably use and manage fish resources Here we analyzed all the above datasets with the same horizontal resolution of 1° × 1° over the domain the SST from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/Multi-Channel SST (AVHRR/MCSST) and subsurface ocean temperature/salinity from the NOAA Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program (GTSPP) Here we analyzed JCOPE2 reanalysis results during 1993–2018 we subtracted monthly climatology and removed a linear trend using a least squares method For the analysis of correlation between the fish resource (x) and the oceanic variables (y) we used Pearson product-moment correlation in which the least-squares regression line was calculated and the degree of the line fitting was evaluated using the least-squares method where the superscript’ of each variable means monthly detrended anomalies and the subscript i indicates the monthly time series Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa Influence of the Gulf Stream on the troposphere On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate Variations in food abundance for Japanese sardine larvae related to the Kuroshio meander The effects of seasonal and interannual variability of oceanic structure in the western Pacific North Equatorial Current on larval transport of the Japanese eel Anguilla japonica Effects of the Kuroshio Current on copepod assemblages in Taiwan Annual and interannual variability in the Kuroshio current system Seasonal and interannual variability of the North Equatorial Current and the Kuroshio along the Pacific western boundary Structure and variability of the Kuroshio Current in Tokara Strait On the formation of the Kuroshio meander and its relationship to the large-scale ocean circulation Occurrence of small “trigger” meanders in the Kuroshio off southern Kyushu Sea level variations along the south coast of Japan and the large meander in the Kuroshio Velocity variation of the Kuroshio during formation of the small meander south of Kyushu and volume transport of the Kuroshio in relation with the large meander Alternating dominance of postlarval sardine and anchovy caught by coastal fishery in relation to the Kuroshio meander in the Enshu‐nada Sea A numerical experiment on the path dynamics of the Kuroshio with reference to the formation of the large meander path south of Japan Kuroshio path variations south of Japan: Bimodality as a self-sustained internal oscillation Anticyclonic eddies and Kuroshio meander formation Influence of mesoscale eddies on variations of the Kuroshio path south of Japan Usui, N., Tsujino, H., Fujii, Y. & Kamachi, M. Generation of a trigger meander for the 2004 Kuroshio large meander. J. Geophys. Res. Oce. 113, C01012, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JC004266 (2008) Usui, N., Tsujino, H., Nakano, H. & Fujii, Y. Formation process of the Kuroshio large meander in 2004. J. Geophys. Res. Oce 113, C08047, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JC004675 (2008) Long-term variability of the Kuroshio path south of Japan Quasiperiodic small meanders of the Kuroshio off Cape Ashizuri and their inter-annual modulation caused by quasiperiodic arrivals of mesoscale eddies Japan—Periodic intrusion of oceanic warm water TheKyucho in Sukumo Bay induced by Kuroshio warm filament intrusion Isobe, A., Guo, X. & Takeoka, H. Hindcast and predictability of sporadic Kuroshio‐water intrusion (kyucho in the Bungo Channel) into the shelf and coastal waters. J. Geophys. Res. Oce. 115, C04023, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JC005818 (2010) Numerical simulation of tidally induced eddies in the Bungo Channel: A possible role for sporadic Kuroshio-water intrusion (kyucho) Effects of tidally induced eddies on sporadic Kuroshio-water intrusion (kyucho) Mesoscale eddies observed by TOLEX-ADCP and TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter in the Kuroshio recirculation region south of Japan On “too fast” baroclinic planetary waves in the general circulation Propagation characteristics of extratropical planetary waves observed in the ATSR global sea surface temperature record Nutritional condition of first-feeding larvae of Japanese sardine in the coastal and oceanic waters along the Kuroshio Current Differences in food availability for Japanese sardine larvae between the frontal region and the waters on the offshore side of Kuroshio An improved in situ and satellite SST analysis for climate The ERA‐Interim reanalysis: Configuration and performance of the data assimilation system Hu, C., Lee, Z. & Franz, B. Chlorophyll a algorithms for oligotrophic oceans: A novel approach based on three‐band reflectance difference. J. Geophys. Res. Oce. 117, C01011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JC007395 (2012) Water mass variability in the western North Pacific detected in a 15-year eddy resolving ocean reanalysis A generalization of a sigma coordinate ocean model and an intercomparison of model vertical grids High resolution Kuroshio forecast system: Description and its applications High Resolution Numerical Modelling of the Atmosphere and Ocean (ed A reconstruction of observed profiles in the sea east of Japan using vertical coupled temperature-salinity EOF modes Download references The JCOPE2 was run on the Earth Simulator at the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). All figures were generated using Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) Version 2.1.a3 (http://cola.gmu.edu/grads/downloads.php) We appreciate the Sukumo Bay fishery cooperative and the Sukumo Bay fishery guidance office for providing high-quality fish catch data and two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments to improve the current research The present research is supported by the Ocean Policy Research Institute and in part by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund S-15 (Predicting and Assessing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services; PANCES) of the Ministry of the Environment conducted research and wrote main manuscript The authors declare no competing interests Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54432-3 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Sally Hancox from England creates indigo-dyed fabrics on Awaji Island in the Seto Inland Sea while working to promote the island’s charms No article or any part there of may be reproduced without the express permission of the Cabinet Office. Copyright inquiries should be made through this form Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report The first earthquake to register an intensity of lower 6 on the main western island of Shikoku injured eight people and disrupted traffic but caused no tsunami on April 17 with an estimated magnitude of 6.6 An intensity of lower 6 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 was recorded in the town of Ainan in Ehime Prefecture and the city of Sukumo in Kochi Prefecture The island had never experienced an earthquake with an intensity of lower 6 or stronger since the current seismic scale was introduced in 1996 Five people in Ehime Prefecture and one person in Kochi Prefecture were injured which is on the southwestern main island of Kyushu said power generation output fell about 2 percent at the No 3 reactor of the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture The utility said no radiation leaks were observed around the plant and that it will take about a day to inspect and restore the facility said service on the Yodo Line is expected to be canceled throughout April 18 between Uwajima Station in Uwajima The Uwakai limited express train on the Yosan Line will suspend its runs until around noon on April 18 between Uwajima and Matsuyama stations traffic has been closed on a section of National Route 197 in Ozu Traffic has been regulated on parts of prefectural roads in Ehime and Kochi prefectures The quake’s focus was in the Bungo Channel which separates Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku and Oita Prefecture on Kyushu It is in an area where seismologists have long anticipated a megaquake known as the Nankai Trough earthquake to occur Japan Meteorological Agency officials told a news conference on April 18 that they do not believe the latest quake has sharply raised the megaquake’s probability They said the seismic mechanism was different from the one that is expected to trigger the Nankai Trough earthquake The hypocenter of the April 17 quake is estimated to be 39 kilometers deep indicating it occurred inside the Philippine Sea Plate which is located deeper than its boundary with the continental plate The megaquake is expected to occur around the boundary between the two plates AI picks sites in Shikoku similar to world’s noted sightseeing spots Quakes now shaking island in Kagoshima Prefecture Several injuries reported from M5.2 quake in Chiba Prefecture Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages Copyright © The Asahi Shimbun Company. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission. A powerful earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.6 struck western Japan late Wednesday night, primarily in the Shikoku region. No tsunami were reported. To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page. This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies. Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. 6:50 JST, April 18, 2024 (updated at 17:15 JST) The quake occurred at 11:14 p.m. Wednesday, registering a lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Ainancho, Ehime Prefecture, and in Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture, both in western Shikoku. The quake’s epicenter was at the Bungo Suido channel between Ehime Prefecture in the Shikoku region and Oita Prefecture in the Kyushu region. It was located at a depth of 39 kilometers. This is the first time that an earthquake registering lower 6 or stronger has occurred in the Shikoku region since the current seismic intensity scale was introduced in 1996. “This earthquake occurred within the predicted epicenter area for a Nankai Trough earthquake, but it seems unlikely that the possibility of a Nankai Trough earthquake has suddenly increased,” a Japan Meteorological Agency official said at a press conference early Thursday morning. Agency officials said Wednesday’s earthquake occurred inside a plate and the mechanism was different from that of a Nankai Trough earthquake, which is expected to occur at the boundary between plates. They also said the earthquake did not reach magnitude 6.8, the level required for launching research into the possible occurrence of a large-scale earthquake. The energy level of Wednesday’s earthquake is believed to be about half that of the anticipated Nankai Trough quake, they said. Ten people were injured – seven in Ehime Prefecture, one in Kochi Prefecture, and two in Oita Prefecture, as a result of such incidents as falling down. The injuries were not life-threating. In Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, where the quake measured lower 5, rocks fell on National Route 197 in the Hijikawacho district, causing the road to be closed. In Yusuharacho, Kochi Prefecture, 10 people in five households in the Matsudani area were temporarily isolated as a town road was blocked by fallen rocks and trees. The earthquake measured 4 on the seismic scale in Yusuharacho. Water was cut off in the Hijikawa district of Ozu. In Ehime Prefecture, there were numerous reports of burst water pipes and water leaks at residences in Ainancho and Uwajima. According to Shikoku Railway Co. (JR Shikoku), services on some sections in Ehime and Kochi prefectures were suspended or canceled Thursday. At Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata Nuclear Power Plant in Ikatacho, Ehime Prefecture, where a seismic intensity of 4 was recorded, monitoring stations measuring the radiation levels in surrounding areas showed no abnormalities, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said. According to Shikoku Electric Power Co., the generator output of the No. 3 reactor decreased by about 2 percent, but this did not affect the operation of the reactor. The Nuclear Regulation Authority also said no abnormalities had been confirmed at other facilities, including Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Saga Prefecture and the company’s Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture. The Japan Meteorological Agency called on the public to be alert for earthquakes with a maximum seismic intensity of around lower 6 for about a week. It also urged caution as it is expected to rain in Ehime and Kochi prefectures from Saturday to Sunday. “In areas where the tremors were strong, there is an increased risk of collapsed houses and landslides. Please pay close attention to rainfall,” the agency said. The government set up a taskforce under the crisis management center of the Prime Minister’s Office late Wednesday night to take necessary measures. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued instructions to assess the damage caused by the earthquake as soon as possible; make thorough efforts to save lives and rescue disaster victims in close coordination with local governments; and provide timely and accurate information to the public regarding evacuation, damage and other matters. Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting, readable fomat. © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Volume 12 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.698674 Indigo fermentation fluid maintains its indigo-reducing state for more than 6 months under open-air To elucidate the mechanism underlying the sustainability of this indigo reduction state three indigo fermentation batches with different durations for the indigo reduction state were compared The three examined batches exhibited different microbiota and consisted of two phases oxygen-metabolizing-bacteria derived from sukumo established an initial network the initial bacterial community was replaced by obligate anaerobes (mainly Proteinivoraceae; phase 1) Approximately 1 month after the beginning of fermentation the predominating obligate anaerobes were decreased which can decompose macromolecules derived from wheat bran and the transition of microbiota became slow (phase 2) Considering the substrate utilization ability of the dominated bacterial taxa the transitional change from phase 1 to phase 2 suggests that this changed from the bacterial flora that utilizes substrates derived from sukumo including intrinsic substrates in sukumo and weakened or dead bacterial cells derived from early events (heat and alkaline treatment and reduction of ORP) to that of wheat bran-utilizers This succession was directly related to the change in the major substrate sustaining the corresponding community and the turning point was approximately 1 month after the start of fermentation we understand that the role of sukumo includes changes in the microbial flora immediately after the start of fermentation which has an important function in the start-up phase of fermentation whereas the ecosystem comprised of the microbiota utilizing wheat bran underpins the subsequent long-term indigo reduction the process is not environmentally friendly The traditional fermentation-reduction method would be a candidate for environmentally friendly procedures To make the already established methods more convenient and reliable it is necessary to understand the fundamentals of indigo fermentation fluids Several indigo-reducing microorganisms have been identified using culture-based approaches and their population dynamics has been analyzed using culture-independent molecular approaches as described below The microbiota of couched woad fermentation may be different from that using sukumo due to the differences in fermentation condition and in phytochemical constituents between I The study showed that early predominance of obligate anaerobes followed by successive changes into a stable microbiota is important for establishment of a fermentation fluid with long-lasting indigo-reducing state three batches of indigo fermentation fluids based on Japanese sukumo with different indigo-reducing lifetimes and maintenance procedures were evaluated to elucidate the mechanism underlying the transitional changes in microbiota responsible for the formation of the long-lasting indigo-reducing state The successive changes in bacterial flora in concomitance with diversity changes and microbial interaction networks were analyzed based on statistical correlations among microbial community assemblages Preparation and maintenance procedures for three batches of Japanese indigo fermentation fluids The samples were centrifuged at 15,000 × g for 10 min to obtain the sample pellet Total bacterial DNA was directly extracted from the sample pellets using ISOIL (Nippon Gene Japan) according to the manufacturer’s instructions The V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–amplified using the composite pair of primers 341F (5′-CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG-3′) and 805R (5′-GACTACHVGGGTATCTAATCC-3′) The PCR for samples from Batches 2 and 3 was performed in a 100 μL solution containing 20 μL 5 × Phusion HF buffer (ThermoFisher Scientific 2 U Phusion Hot Start II DNA polymerase (ThermoFisher Scientific) The amplification reactions were performed under the following conditions: initial thermal denaturation at 98°C for 30 s followed by 25 cycles each of heat denaturation at 98°C for 10 s The PCR for Batch 1 samples was performed in a 20 μL solution containing 2 μL 10 × Ex buffer and 1 μL of each 10 μM primer The amplification reactions were performed under the following conditions: initial thermal denaturation at 94°C for 2 min followed by 20 cycles each of heat denaturation at 94°C for 30 s the first-PCR products for samples were submitted to Hokkaido System Science Co. The second PCR was performed with an index-adapted primer to generate paired-end libraries (2 × 301 bp) for NGS performed using the MiSeq platform (Illumina A heatmap was generated based on the OTUs with the QIIME 2 heat map script KEGG pathway mapping was assigned in searching in the KEGG database according to the output results and 137,114 raw sequences obtained from Batch 1 (17 samples) 2 (10 samples including 1 sukumo sample) and 3 (10 samples) including 13,377 sequences from the sukumo sample the lowest available sequences were 19,283 The bacterial community structure of the three batches of sukumo fermentation fluid and redox potential was shown in Figure 1. Ranges of weekly pH changes and results of dyeing using fermentation fluids from Batches 1–3 during each incubation period are shown in Supplementary Figures 1, 2 the three batches exhibited different life spans of the indigo-reducing state; however these transitions in microbiota composition consisted of two phases The features of each phase were as follows: Phase 1 included initial bacterial flora resulting from hot wood ash extract treatment (60–70°C This initial microbiota exhibited a transitional change to that dominated by obligate anaerobes due to a decrease in the redox potential Phase 2 was a stable state wherein the rate of change in the microbiota was slower than that in the previous phase This phase ultimately moved toward a deterioration of the indigo-reducing state due to increase in microbiota diversity Changes in the relative abundance of bacterial communities (≥2% in any sample) and redox potential depending on the fermentation age in indigo fermentation fluid Batch 1 The percentages in the brackets indicate the similarities with the known species in the database Classification hierarchy depends on database similarity as follows: O Sukumo was pre-treated with hot (60–70°C) ash extract (ca. pH 11) during the preparation of the fermentation fluid. This process resulted in the selection of a heat- and alkali-resistant population that mainly comprised Bacillaceae and Actinobacteria. Batches 2 and 3 received heat treatment twice (days 0 and 1), and their bacterial constituents were much simpler than those of Batch 1, which received heat treatment only once (Table 1) Concomitant with the oxygen consumption by the initially oxygen-metabolizable bacteria Proteinivoraceae increased until day 2 (0 → 38.3%) in Batch 1 Under the predominance of Proteinivoraceae starting from day 2 Bacillus cohnii (reported indigo-reducing bacteria) and Bacillus vedderi-like-bacteria (from days 2 to 4) followed by Alkaliphilus oremlandii-like bacterium (Alkaliphilus sp.) these taxa tended to decrease from days 8 to 14; the obligate anaerobe Tissierellaceae increased and an obvious indigo reduction occurred (day 8) We have isolated Alkalibacterium pelagium and B and confirmed them to be indigo-reducing bacteria (unpublished result) indigo reduction did not initiate just by the appearance of indigo-reducing bacteria in Batches 1 and 3 (day 2 in Batch 1 and day 4 in Batch 3) the stable indigo-reduction state lasted for a long period in Batches 1 and 3 the lifetime in Batch 2 was short owing to the length of phase 2 Relationship between dyeing intensity and abundance ratio changes in known facultative anaerobic or aerotolerant indigo-reducing bacteria (lower side) and in obligate anaerobes (upper side) including the indigo-reducing Tissierellaceae ND: no data; * The dyeing date was different from the sampling date for analysis of bacterial community The bacterial community was also visualized using a heat map based on the OTUs (Supplementary Figure 3) The gene sequence corresponding to the OTU described in the output was assigned according to a search of the BLAST database The first cluster mainly consisted of Proteinivoraceae and B This was thought to represent an intermediate state in the change from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism The second cluster was characterized by the dominance of Proteinivoraceae In addition to the major members in the second cluster Clostridiaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae appeared in the third cluster (days 28 and 58) while the most majoring constituent was Clostridiaceae at Day 28 it was thought that this cluster represent an intermediate state of transfer from phase 1 to phase 2 This cluster consisted of various taxa and the most major predominant were Polygonibacillus and Am The last cluster involved days 322 and 364 This was characterized by the absence of Proteinivoraceae and the predominance of Parapusillimonas Although Batch 3 samples exhibited similarities with those of Batch 2 samples in the early phase (until day 28) each batch exhibited independent clustering in the later periods of each fermentation the total abundance of Bacillaceae plus Alkalibacterium in the long-lasting Batches 1 and 3 was considerably higher than that in the short-lasting Batch 2 including Bacillaceae plus Alkalibacterium indicireducens showed an increase in the initial indigo reduction or initial drop in ORP in all batches from 0.39 to 1.31% (day 2 → day 4) in Batch 1 0.17 to 1.78% (day 1 → day 7) in Batch 2 and 0.23 to 6.49% (day 4 → day 6) in Batch 3 These changes coincided with the change in dominance from Bacillaceae to Proteinivoraceae Although the percentages were constantly changing indicireducens was present almost throughout the process in all three batches among known indigo-reducing species the ratio of Proteinivoraceae may be important for the maintenance of the indigo-reducing state The abundance decreased with the fermentation period an increasing number of suppressed neutralophilic bacterial populations tended to gradually increase in diversity with an increase in debris in the neutralophilic microenvironment at the bottom of the fermentation fluid Figure 3. Changes in alpha diversity [observed operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and Shannon index of diversity (Shannon, 1948)] depending on the fermentation period analyzed using the Divisive Amplicon Denoising Algorithm (DADA2) based on the fermentation period The 16S rRNA sequencing depth is 6,000 for each sample The number corresponding to the depth was according to the read number for the coverage of all samples Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plots based on Jaccard (Figure 4A) and unweighted UniFrac distances (Figure 4B) illustrated similarities and distances of the microbiota among the three batches It is considered that the common change from the start of fermentation to the end of fermentation between batches indicated that the changes in the sukumo fermentation liquid with time have a common path The plot of changes reflected the degree of microbiota maturation in the indigo fermentation fluid The stable state (phase 2) of an indigo fermentation liquor was shown to be a state in which the change of the microbial flora was extremely slow Jaccard distance PCoA plots illustrated the differences between Batch 1 and Batches 2 and 3 in the transition from stable to terminal states which is attributed to the initial heat treatment (once in Batch 1 and twice in Batches 2 and 3) Unweighted UniFrac distance PCoA plots illustrated the process of microbiota changes during the entire fermentation period regardless of the different microbiota The pattern of changes in microbiota in Batch 3 differed slightly from those in the other batches This finding is probably a reflection of the simpler microbiota composition in Batch 3 because of the absence of the facultative anaerobes Bacillaceae and Pseudomonas spp. both of which were present in Batches 1 and 2 Figure 4. Jaccard distance principal coordinate analysis [PCoA; Fuxman Bass et al., 2013; (A)] and unweighted UniFrac distance PCoA analysis [Lozupone and Knight, 2005; (B)] A relatively strong network was constructed on the basis of the interaction among the bacteria that survived the initial hot wood ash extract treatment (60°C We considered that this state corresponds to phase 1 Initially appeared aerobic bacteria disappeared at a later time point in Batch 3 than in Batch 1; this finding was probably due to the fact that the relationship constructed from the bacteria initially present (mainly aerobic bacteria) in Batch 3 was stronger than that in Batch 1 This strong-relationship community was composed of oxygen-metabolizing bacteria that increased by the easy-to-use substrates present in sukumo It was reflected in the network (Phase 1) constructed in Batch 3 with the absence of Proteinivoraceae the contribution of the known indigo-reducing bacteria to the main network circle was decreased Erysipelotrichaceae and Clostridiaceae were dominant in late phase 2 Networks of the bacterial community based on the relative content change trend analyzed with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient [rs > 0.4 p < 0.05; (A)] Batch 1; (B) Batch 2; and (C) Batch 3 The red and blue lines represent positive and negative correlations The thickness of the lines shows the strength of the relationship (0.4 < rs ≤ 1) Node size shows accumulated taxon abundances during the entire fermentation period Classification at the phylum level is as follows: pale blue Gemmatimonadetes (Longimicrobiales); dark purple Deinococcus-Thermus (Trueperales); and light purple The relative abundance is shown by the size of circle Analysis of the predicted metabolic functions potentially expressed by the microbial communities showed differences between phase 1 and phase 2 in Batch 1 samples (Supplementary Figure 4) Many items indicated that separate events occurred before and after the day 28 (data not shown) the difference in the average ratio between phase 1 (days 0–28) and phase 2 (days 28–364) was estimated There were many profiles representing changes in the relative abundance of amino acid metabolism and fatty acid degradation as well as carbohydrate metabolism and glycan degradation which indicated the differences in major nutrients for bacteria between phase 1 and phase 2 Relative abundances of riboflavin and lipoic acid metabolism in phase 1 was observed This suggests that the basis of electron transfer systems related to indigo reduction was established in phase 1 The abundance in oxidative phosphorylation in phase 1 was mostly attributed to the oxygen metabolism after the initiation of fermentation It is known that the phosphotransferase system is involved in transporting many sugars to bacteria This might be related to the relative abundance of carbohydrate metabolism in phase 2 The abundance of biofilm formation in phase 2 suggested the development of biofilm formation on the debris derived from sukumo The difficulty in decomposing insoluble macromolecules in wheat bran may lead to slow transitional changes in microbiota These findings suggest that these obligate anaerobes have similar functions in sustaining the indigo-reducing system The bacterial flora sustained by wheat bran may utilize the remaining substrates in sukumo It can be considered that multiple functional redundancies including those of several known indigo-reducing bacteria were established during this phase to support the indigo-reducing state The microbiota was relatively stable during phase 2 because of the development of neutralophilic microenvironments in the long term the neutralophilic bacterial ratio and bacterial diversity gradually increased Our findings indicated that the increase in diversity led to dilution of the functional network to sustain indigo-reduction mechanisms the staining intensity results suggested that a decrease in the ratio of Proteinivoraceae and an increase in the ratio of the P granuli-like taxon may unfavorable for sustaining indigo reduction Our results also suggested that a decrease in the ratio of indispensable taxa an increase in taxa unfavorable for indigo reduction exhaustion of substrates sustaining phase 2 or the accumulation of metabolic by-products would have led to the transition from a network favorable for maintaining indigo reduction to the next stage We believe that the transition from the favorable network to the next stage would have altered the indigo-reduction state A high pH is thought to effectively eliminate species unfavorable for indigo fermentation a long period of exposure to high pH (>11) is responsible for damage to bacterial beneficial for indigo reduction regulation of the initial pH is very important for the generation of favorable long-lasting microbiota bacteria that decompose plant macromolecules in phase 2 weakened in the early stage of the fermentation and deficiency of substrates paramount for phase 2 led to the failure of the transition from phase 1 to phase 2 It is considered that these shortages resulted in the short-lived indigo-reducing state in Batch 2 Since the reduction state of the fermented fluid can usually be evaluated by the staining status the transition of the bacterial community has quietly occurred 3 weeks before (i.e. day 28) the significant change in the staining status (i.e. This study found that adding wheat bran within the first month (i.e. between day 21 to 28) of fermentation will help the smooth transition of the bacterial community and the major substrates can produce a network via another microbial community It was speculated that the slow transition of the microbial flora occurred due to the substrates which slowly decomposed by microbial community in phase 2 but the real resiliency mechanism in detail of the last microbial network formed has not been clarified The sustainable ecosystem in the later phase should be explained on the basis of the functions of constituent microorganisms and the material cycle in fermentation in detail The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: https://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/ ZT and IY: conceived and designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.698674/full#supplementary-material Trophic interactions of proteolytic bacteria Proteinivorax tanatarense in an alkaliphilic microbial community CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar and Tyrian Purple: important vat dyes from antiquity to the present CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar PICRUSt2: an improved and extensible approach for metagenome inference Google Scholar Accuracy of microbial community diversity estimated by closed- and open-reference OTUs PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Efficient use of sodium hydrosulfite in commercial vat dyeing processes Google Scholar Extracellular electron transport-mediated Fe(III) reduction by a community of alkaliphilic bacteria that use flavins as electron shuttles Using networks to measure similarity between genes: association index selection an indigo-reducing and obligate alkaliphile isolated from indigo fermentation liquor for dyeing “Polygonibacillus,” in Bergey’s Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria Goodfellow (Chichester: JohnWiley & Sons Google Scholar Humic substance mediated Fe (III) reduction by a fermenting Bacillus strain from the alkaline gut of humus-feeding scarab beetle larva Role of acid/alkali-treatment in primary sludge anaerobic fermentation: insights into microbial community structure functional shifts and metabolic output by high-throughput sequencing Eco-friendly indigo reduction by using Dietzia sp KDB1 strain: some variables required to develop process technology CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Peptidase Activity of Proteinivorax Bacteria and Their Possible Ecological Role in the 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indigo dye Development of media to accelerate the isolation of indigo-reducing bacteria which are difficult to isolate using conventional media Google Scholar Analysis of microbiota involved in the aged natural fermentation of indigo Google Scholar Implementation of a biotechnological process for vat dyeing with woad An indigo-reducing moderate thermophile from a woad vat CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Indigo-reducing Clostridium isatidis isolated from a variety of sources Google Scholar Combination of ammonia and xylanase pretreatments: impact on enzymatic xylan and cellulose recovery from wheat straw CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Cytoscape a software environment for integrated models of biomolecular interaction networks Developing an eco-friendly indigo dyeing system by using baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae): some variables related to pH control and scale-up CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Modulating the gut microbiota of humans by dietary intervention with plant glycans Google Scholar Characterization of the microbiota in long- and short-term natural indigo fermentation Vázquez-Baeza EMPeror: a tool for visualizing high-throughput microbial community data Google Scholar Stepwise pH control to promote synergy of chemical and biological processes for augmenting short-chain fatty acid production from anaerobic sludge fermentation Electron shuttle-mediated microbial Fe(III) reduction under alkaline conditions Isolation and characterization of wheat bran starch CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The SILVA and “all-species Living Tree Project (LTP)” taxonomic frameworks Google Scholar an obligate alkaliphile that reduces indigo dye a psychrotolerant obligate alkaliphile that reduces an indigo dye Self-regulating microbiome networks ensure functional resilience of biofilms in sand biofilters during manganese load fluctuations Narihiro T and Yumoto I (2021) The Mechanism Underlying of Long-Term Stable Indigo Reduction State in Indigo Fermentation Using Sukumo (Composted Polygonum tinctorium Leaves) Copyright © 2021 Tu, Lopes, Narihiro and Yumoto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Isao Yumoto, aS55dW1vdG9AYWlzdC5nby5qcA== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Yamaguchi Prefecture is located at the westernmost tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu. Surrounded by sea on three sides, it is characterized by its abundant nature and mild climate. Sukumo Island in Shunan City, situated in the southeastern part of the prefecture, has a festival in which a mikoshi* (portable shrine) is carried across the sea. We interviewed a person in charge of this festival at the Sukumojima City Center. Another highlight of the festival, TAKAMATSU explains, is the small tenmasen boat that guides the mikoshi. “At the bow of the boat is a dancer holding a bundle of colored paper called a bonden, and at the stern are two dancers who hold oars about 1 m long as they dance. It is said that these dancers and their calls of hohran’ei serve to lead the mikoshi carrying the spirits of the deities in a resplendent way, inspiring the 16 rowers.” The island’s dwindling population has caused concern in recent years, but after the main mikoshi ceremony, you can also see a children’s mikoshi carried by children, who are expected to carry the main mikoshi someday, or to be the future rowers of the tenmasen boat. BY TANAKA NozomiPhoto: Tokuyama Plant, Nippon Seiro Co., Ltd.; Sukumojima City Center; PIXTA If you have any feedback or comments on this content, please enter them in the space provided below. ※Max. 2000 characters Required Your valuable feedback and commnents will be referenced for our future operations. Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter for receiving monthly updates. You will be redirected to an external website. Would you like to proceed?If you wish to continue, please click the link below. He loves contrary. Maybe there wasn't enough of it here, which was odd because the artistic collaborator this time was the manga artist Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Hi no Tori, a series based on the phoenix. Some manga energy would have been nice. There were, however, some very pretty phoenix-feather prints, which Mihara carried over into shoes. Expect them to initiate some serious online searches next season. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 jolted the western areas of Ehime and Kochi prefectures at 11:14 p.m please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.6 jolted the western areas of Ehime and Kochi prefectures at 11:14 p.m The quake’s epicenter was off the coast of the western part of Ehime Prefecture at a depth of about 50 kilometers The temblor registered lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Ainan Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting I set off from Takamatsu on the ' Shikoku Green Travel ' ticket which allows me to use all JR Shikoku lines and all Tosa Kuroshio Railway lines' limited express trains (green cars) and local trains for four days and then traveled to Sukumo by bus because the Yodo Line was closed on all lines The morning of the second day started from Sukumo Shikoku Green Travelogue | Shikoku Travel JR Shikoku Tour (Ekikomi) ◆Tosa Kuroshio Railway Local: Sukumo → Nakamura In the morning we will travel from the accommodation to Sukumo Station on the Tosa Kuroshio Railway I boarded the local train bound for Kubokawa we could clearly see the hotel where we were staying We cross the Matsuda River, which flows near Sukumo city. ◆ Express Ashizuri No we arrived at Nakamura Station in the center of Shimanto City the Tosa Kuroshio Railway heads along the Tosa Bay and tsunami evacuation towers can be seen here and there from the train windows which we were unable to reach the previous day due to rain As the sun rose and harsh sunlight shone in from the right hand side of our direction of travel Kochi Castle came into view about two hours after changing trains at Nakamura ◆ Tosan Line/Tosa Kuroshio Railway Local: Kochi → Nahari Ashizuri 4 arrives at Kochi Station at 9:04 and from Gomen Station onwards you enter the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen-Nahari Line Each station on the Gomen-Nahari Line has a character designed by manga artist Takashi Yanase the Dosan Line curves to the left and the Gomen-Nahari Line curves to the right on an elevated track before splitting off We also saw tsunami evacuation towers along the Gomen-Nahari Line which runs along the east side of Tosa Bay The train stops at a place where you can see the station sign On the north side of the tracks there were a row of bridge piers for the Kochi Eastern Expressway Near Kyujo-mae Station is Aki Municipal Baseball Stadium where the Hanshin Tigers baseball team holds their fall training camp the stadium cannot be seen from the train window because it is blocked by The Aki Dome that was visible earlier can be seen in the center of the photo We crossed the iron bridge over the Nahari River ◆Kochi Tobu Kotsu: Nahari Station → Muroto Office We arrived at Nahari Station at 10:50 The ticket gates and platform are on the third floor of the building There is an Italian restaurant called Tonno on the same floor The exterior of Nahari Station looks like this Looking at the map of the coverage area of the 'Shikoku Green Travelogue' if you are not limited to the 'Shikoku Green Travelogue' as shown by the blue dotted line in the image The first floor of Nahari Station is home to a local product shop called 'Fig,' which sells figs, the fruit that gives the store its name, in September, but they were sold out by 9 a.m. Since I was there anyway As soon as the Kitagawa Village bus departed at 11:00 the Kochi Tobu Kotsu bus departing at 11:01 arrived so we headed to the nearest Muroto bus stop The clouds gradually thinned out and the weather cleared up so we enjoyed the view of Tosa Bay on our journey Note that this photo was taken facing the opposite direction of our travels If you want to take a regular bus other than the DMV 'Umi-no-Eki Toromu' bus ◆ On foot: Muroto Office → Toromu Sea Station There is a bus from Muroto Depot to 'Toromu Seaside Station' if you wait a little while but it is only about a 10-minute walk anyway Google Maps does not show the small alleys and local buses and DMV also depart and arrive here Kochi Tobu Kotsu Muroto Kohura Line buses bound for Muroto Office and Kohura Wharf arrive The Kohura Wharf bus does not head towards Muroto Cape crosses the base of the cape and heads towards 'Umi no Eki Toyocho.' there is only one DMV departing from Sea Station Toromu departing at 1:52pm on weekends and holidays Since we had a little time before departure we decided to have lunch at the restaurant 'Spring in Muroto is full of yellowtail,' and the restaurant was crowded with touring groups and the food was served about 20 minutes after ordering This is a sumptuous seafood bowl centered around three slices of seared bonito The 'Seared Bonito Set Meal' comes with six pieces of seared bonito There is a circular pool at the back of the building where you can literally watch the dolphin show right in front of your eyes You can get splashed with water as much as you like There are sea turtles in the pool next door The activities available are as follows: swimming with dolphins experiencing what it's like to be a dolphin trainer ◆ Asa Coast Railway: Seaside Station Toromu → Awa Kainan Just before 2 p.m. the DMV and Kochi Tobu Kotsu buses arrived at the highway bus terminal The buses headed for the Muroto Depot and left immediately but the DMV waited here for about 30 minutes before turning back A DMV waiting in the parking lot of the Marine Station The wheels for running in rail mode between Kouura Station and Awa-Kainan Station are stored under the vehicle You can see the rear wheels by simply peering in We depart for Awa Kainan Cultural Village at 1:52 pm The statue of Nakaoka Shintaro stands on Cape Muroto Although I couldn't see the cape itself I did see a monument that read 'Cape Muroto a Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty.' I saw a plane that looked like it was heading to Kochi Ryoma Airport I would have most likely changed trains at Muroto World Geopark but this time I decided to skip it and stay there It shows 32km to Kouura and 123km to Tokushima What can be seen on the elevated tracks is the platform from the time of the railway and now the DMV station building is located under the slope The DMV has been running on the road just like a regular bus We climb up a slope that is connected to the elevated track from the railway era Here's what the inside of the car looks like when it changes mode from bus to train after arriving at the designated location Just like when a train is coupled or uncoupled there is no big shock and it happens in the blink of an eye Now that everyone on board has gotten off I look around the bus and it looks like this so it's appropriate to call it a bus that can run on rails A series of tunnels cuts through the mountains and in parts it feels faster than driving on National Route 55 It is a transfer station to the JR Mugi Line but it was completely separated when the DMV was introduced Awa-Kainan Station also has the same mode change interchange as Kouura Station the DMV I had just got off on started its return journey from Awa-Kainan Bunkamura and arrived at Awa-Kainan Station again It seemed like it would be too close to make the connection in addition to the two round trips of the Muroto Express there was also the Tsurugiyama Express that went to Awa-Ikeda The Mugi Line connects Tokushima City and Kaiyo Town and runs through the eastern part of Tokushima Prefecture but there are few sections along the coastline and the scenery is mostly mountainous from Awa-Kainan to Anan the line runs through flat areas with a mixture of houses 26: Tokushima → Takamatsu The local train arrived at Tokushima Station at 6:12 p.m It was getting dark and I wanted to get back to my hotel but I had to go to Takamatsu for my next trip there was the Tokushima Line local train bound for Anabuki and the Kotoku Line limited express Uzushio No I sat in a seat with an electrical outlet for the first time since 'Iyonada Monogatari.' I stopped by a souvenir shop on the first basement floor of the station building and bought somen noodles and it was almost pitch black outside the city and the station so I had pretty much given up on taking photos but I saw a National Railways-colored Kiha 40 series train at Ritsurin Station I arrived at Takamatsu Station at 7:37 p.m It seems that it would take two days to travel around Shikoku but my journey still continues in order to achieve my goal of riding all of the JR Shikoku lines The station and bus stop names indicate where I got on and off for transfers An author talks about the results of using AI to generate podcast-style audio from his book A mysterious female secretary contributed to the development of one of the earliest chatbots, ELIZA. Oct 13, 2024 23:48:00 in Coverage, Vehicle