scholarly journals Obesity, Asthma, and the Microbiome

Physiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngji Cho ◽  
Stephanie A. Shore
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Novel Treatments

Obesity is a risk factor for asthma, but standard asthma drugs have reduced efficacy in the obese. Obesity alters the gastrointestinal microbial community structure. This change in structure contributes to some obesity-related conditions and also could be contributing to obesity-related asthma. Although currently unexplored, obesity may also be altering lung microbiota. Understanding the role of microbiota in obesity-related asthma could lead to novel treatments for these patients.

scholarly journals Stochastic Assembly Leads to Alternative Communities with Distinct Functions in a Bioreactor Microbial Community

mBio ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jizhong Zhou ◽  
Wenzong Liu ◽  
Ye Deng ◽  
Yi-Huei Jiang ◽  
Kai Xue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Diversity ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Stochastic Assembly

ABSTRACTThe processes and mechanisms of community assembly and its relationships to community functioning are central issues in ecology. Both deterministic and stochastic factors play important roles in shaping community composition and structure, but the connection between community assembly and ecosystem functioning remains elusive, especially in microbial communities. Here, we used microbial electrolysis cell reactors as a model system to examine the roles of stochastic assembly in determining microbial community structure and functions. Under identical environmental conditions with the same source community, ecological drift (i.e., initial stochastic colonization) and subsequent biotic interactions created dramatically different communities with little overlap among 14 identical reactors, indicating that stochastic assembly played dominant roles in determining microbial community structure. Neutral community modeling analysis revealed that deterministic factors also played significant roles in shaping microbial community structure in these reactors. Most importantly, the newly formed communities differed substantially in community functions (e.g., H2production), which showed strong linkages to community structure. This study is the first to demonstrate that stochastic assembly plays a dominant role in determining not only community structure but also ecosystem functions. Elucidating the links among community assembly, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning is critical to understanding ecosystem functioning, biodiversity preservation, and ecosystem management.IMPORTANCEMicroorganisms are the most diverse group of life known on earth. Although it is well documented that microbial natural biodiversity is extremely high, it is not clear why such high diversity is generated and maintained. Numerous studies have established the roles of niche-based deterministic factors (e.g., pH, temperature, and salt) in shaping microbial biodiversity, the importance of stochastic processes in generating microbial biodiversity is rarely appreciated. Moreover, while microorganisms mediate many ecosystem processes, the relationship between microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning remains largely elusive. Using a well-controlled laboratory system, this study provides empirical support for the dominant role of stochastic assembly in creating variations of microbial diversity and the first explicit evidence for the critical role of community assembly in influencing ecosystem functioning. The results presented in this study represent important contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms, especially stochastic processes, involved in shaping microbial biodiversity.

scholarly journals Microbial community structure in the western tropical South Pacific

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3909-3925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bock ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Moïra Dion ◽  
Solange Duhamel
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
N2 Fixation ◽  
Phytoplankton Biomass ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Bottom Up

Abstract. Oligotrophic regions play a central role in global biogeochemical cycles, with microbial communities in these areas representing an important term in global carbon budgets. While the general structure of microbial communities has been well documented in the global ocean, some remote regions such as the western tropical South Pacific (WTSP) remain fundamentally unexplored. Moreover, the biotic and abiotic factors constraining microbial abundances and distribution remain not well resolved. In this study, we quantified the spatial (vertical and horizontal) distribution of major microbial plankton groups along a transect through the WTSP during the austral summer of 2015, capturing important autotrophic and heterotrophic assemblages including cytometrically determined abundances of non-pigmented protists (also called flagellates). Using environmental parameters (e.g., nutrients and light availability) as well as statistical analyses, we estimated the role of bottom–up and top–down controls in constraining the structure of the WTSP microbial communities in biogeochemically distinct regions. At the most general level, we found a “typical tropical structure”, characterized by a shallow mixed layer, a clear deep chlorophyll maximum at all sampling sites, and a deep nitracline. Prochlorococcus was especially abundant along the transect, accounting for 68 ± 10.6 % of depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass. Despite their relatively low abundances, picophytoeukaryotes (PPE) accounted for up to 26 ± 11.6 % of depth-integrated phytoplankton biomass, while Synechococcus accounted for only 6 ± 6.9 %. Our results show that the microbial community structure of the WTSP is typical of highly stratified regions, and underline the significant contribution to total biomass by PPE populations. Strong relationships between N2 fixation rates and plankton abundances demonstrate the central role of N2 fixation in regulating ecosystem processes in the WTSP, while comparative analyses of abundance data suggest microbial community structure to be increasingly regulated by bottom–up processes under nutrient limitation, possibly in response to shifts in abundances of high nucleic acid bacteria (HNA).

scholarly journals mSphere of Influence: Drivers of Host-Associated Microbial Community Structure and Change

mSphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa L. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Disease Susceptibility ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Microbial Structure ◽  
Mucus Barrier ◽  
Evolution Of Mammals

ABSTRACT Vanessa L. Hale studies the role of the microbiome in disease susceptibility in animal and human health. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how the papers “Evolution of mammals and their gut microbes” (R. E. Ley, M. Hamady, C. Lozupone, P. J. Turnbaugh, et al., Science 320:1647–1651, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155725) and “A dietary fiber-deprived gut microbiota degrades the colonic mucus barrier and enhances pathogen susceptibility” (M. S. Desai, A. M. Seekatz, N. M. Koropatkin, N. Kamada, et al., Cell 167:1339–1353.e21, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.10.043) have provided a foundation for studying drivers of gut microbial structure and change across host species in the context of evolution and disease risk.

scholarly journals Horizontal and Vertical Transfer of Oral Microbial Dysbiosis and Periodontal Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (13) ◽  
pp. 1503-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Payne ◽  
A. Hashim ◽  
A. Alsam ◽  
S. Joseph ◽  
J. Aduse-Opoku ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Periodontal Disease ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Oral Microbiome ◽  
Vertical Transfer ◽  
Microbial Dysbiosis ◽  
Disease Agent

One of the hallmark features of destructive periodontal disease, well documented over the last 50 y, is a change to the quantitative and qualitative composition of the associated microbiology. These alterations are now generally viewed as transformational shifts of the microbial populations associated with health leading to the emergence of bacterial species, which are only present in low abundance in health and a proportionate decrease in the abundance of others. The role of this dysbiosis of the health associated microbiota in the development of disease remains controversial: is this altered microbiology the driving agent of disease or merely a consequence of the altered environmental conditions that invariably accompany destructive disease? In this work, we aimed to address this controversy through controlled transmission experiments in the mouse in which a dysbiotic oral microbiome was transferred either horizontally or vertically into healthy recipient mice. The results of these murine studies demonstrate conclusively that natural transfer of the dysbiotic oral microbiome from a periodontally diseased individual into a healthy individual will lead to establishment of the dysbiotic community in the recipient and concomitant transmission of the disease phenotype. The inherent resilience of the dysbiotic microbial community structure in diseased animals was further demonstrated by analysis of the effects of antibiotic therapy on periodontally diseased mice. Although antibiotic treatment led to a reversal of dysbiosis of the oral microbiome, in terms of both microbial load and community structure, dysbiosis of the microbiome was reestablished following cessation of therapy. Collectively, these data suggest that an oral dysbiotic microbial community structure is stable to transfer and can act in a similar manner to a conventional transmissible infectious disease agent with concomitant effects on pathology. These findings have implications to our understanding of the role of microbial dysbiosis in the development and progression of human periodontal disease.

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