scholarly journals Robustness of Mammalian Gut Microbiota to Humanization in Captivity

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian K. Trevelline ◽  
Andrew H. Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Gut Bacteria ◽  
Potential Importance ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Host Lineage

In mammals, the composition of the gut microbiota is associated with host phylogenetic history, and host-lineage specific microbiota have been shown, in some cases, to contribute to fitness-related traits of their hosts. However, in primates, captivity can disrupt the native microbiota through a process of humanization in which captive hosts acquire gut microbiota constituents found in humans. Despite the potential importance of this process for the health of captive hosts, the degree to which captivity humanizes the gut microbiota of other mammalian taxa has not been explored. Here, we analyzed hundreds of published gut microbiota profiles generated from wild and captive hosts spanning seven mammalian families to investigate the extent of humanization of the gut microbiota in captivity across the mammalian phylogeny. Comparisons of these hosts revealed compositional convergence between captive mammal and human gut microbiota in the majority of mammalian families examined. This convergence was driven by a diversity of microbial lineages, including members of the Archaea, Clostridium, and Bacteroides. However, the gut microbiota of two families—Giraffidae and Bovidae—were remarkably robust to humanization in captivity, showing no evidence of gut microbiota acquisition from humans relative to their wild confamiliars. These results demonstrate that humanization of the gut microbiota is widespread in captive mammals, but that certain mammalian lineages are resistant to colonization by human-associated gut bacteria.

scholarly journals Bacterial Atlas of Mouse Gut Microbiota

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengqi Chu ◽  
Xiaobo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Gut Bacteria ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
The Core ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota ◽  
Human Immunity ◽  
Mouse Gut Microbiota

Abstract Background: Mouse model is one of of the most widely used animal models for exploring the roles of human gut microbiota, a complex system involving in human immunity and metabolism. However, the structure of mouse gut bacterial community has not been explored at a large scale. To address this concern, the diversity and composition of the gut bacteria of 600 mice was characterized in this study. Results: The results showed that the bacteria belonging to 8 genera were found in the gut microbiota of all mouse individuals, indicating that the 8 bacteria were the core bacteria of mouse gut microbiota. The dominant genera of the mouse gut bacteria contained 15 bacterial genera. It was found that the bacteria in the gut microbiota were mainly involved in host’s metabolisms via the collaborations between the gut bacteria. The further analysis demonstrated that the composition of mouse gut microbiota was similar to that of human gut microbiota. Conclusion: Our study presented a bacterial atlas of mouse gut microbiota, providing a solid basis for investing the bacterial communities of mouse gut microbiota.

scholarly journals Prominent members of the human gut microbiota express endo-acting O-glycanases to initiate mucin breakdown

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy I. Crouch ◽  
Marcelo V. Liberato ◽  
Paulina A. Urbanowicz ◽  
Arnaud Baslé ◽  
Christopher A. Lamb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
Gut Bacteria ◽  
Glycoside Hydrolases ◽  
Gut Health ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Peptide Backbone ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota

AbstractThe human gut microbiota (HGM) are closely associated with health, development and disease. The thick intestinal mucus layer, especially in the colon, is the key barrier between the contents of the lumen and the epithelial cells, providing protection against infiltration by the microbiota as well potential pathogens. The upper layer of the colonic mucus is a niche for a subset of the microbiota which utilise the mucin glycoproteins as a nutrient source and mucin grazing by the microbiota appears to play a key role in maintaining barrier function as well as community stability. Despite the importance of mucin breakdown for gut health, the mechanisms by which gut bacteria access this complex glycoprotein are not well understood. The current model for mucin degradation involves exclusively exo-acting glycosidases that sequentially trim monosaccharides from the termini of the glycan chains to eventually allow access to the mucin peptide backbone by proteases. However, this model is in direct contrast to the Sus paradigm of glycan breakdown used by the Bacteroidetes which involves extracellular cleavage of glycans by surface located endo-acting enzymes prior to import of the oligosaccharide products. Here we describe the discovery and characterisation of endo-acting family 16 glycoside hydrolases (GH16s) from prominent mucin degrading gut bacteria that specifically target the oligosaccharide side chains of intestinal mucins from both animals and humans. These endo-acting O-glycanases display β1,4-glactosidase activity and in several cases are surface located indicating they are involved in the initial step in mucin breakdown. The data suggest a new paradigm for mucin breakdown by the microbiota and the endo-mucinases provide a potential tool to explore changes that occur in mucin structure in intestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer.

scholarly journals A benzoxazole derivative as an inhibitor of anaerobic choline metabolism by human gut microbiota

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1402-1412
Author(s):  
Moustafa T. Gabr ◽  
David Machalz ◽  
Szymon Pach ◽  
Gerhard Wolber
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Therapeutic Targets ◽  
Gut Bacteria ◽  
Human Diseases ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota ◽  
Choline Metabolism

Metabolic pathways mediated by human gut bacteria have emerged as potential therapeutic targets because of their association with the pathophysiology of various human diseases.

scholarly journals Characterization and Detection of a Widely Distributed Gene Cluster That Predicts Anaerobic Choline Utilization by Human Gut Bacteria

mBio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Martínez-del Campo ◽  
Smaranda Bodea ◽  
Hilary A. Hamer ◽  
Jonathan A. Marks ◽  
Henry J. Haiser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Gene Cluster ◽  
Gut Bacteria ◽  
Functional Gene ◽  
Metagenomic Data ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Bacterial Gene ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota ◽  
Choline Metabolism

ABSTRACTElucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the human gut microbiota's effects on health and disease has been complicated by difficulties in linking metabolic functions associated with the gut community as a whole to individual microorganisms and activities. Anaerobic microbial choline metabolism, a disease-associated metabolic pathway, exemplifies this challenge, as the specific human gut microorganisms responsible for this transformation have not yet been clearly identified. In this study, we established the link between a bacterial gene cluster, the choline utilization (cut) cluster, and anaerobic choline metabolism in human gut isolates by combining transcriptional, biochemical, bioinformatic, and cultivation-based approaches. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR analysis andin vitrobiochemical characterization of twocutgene products linked the entire cluster to growth on choline and supported a model for this pathway. Analyses of sequenced bacterial genomes revealed that thecutcluster is present in many human gut bacteria, is predictive of choline utilization in sequenced isolates, and is widely but discontinuously distributed across multiple bacterial phyla. Given that bacterial phylogeny is a poor marker for choline utilization, we were prompted to develop a degenerate PCR-based method for detecting the key functional gene choline TMA-lyase (cutC) in genomic and metagenomic DNA. Using this tool, we found that new choline-metabolizing gut isolates universally possessedcutC. We also demonstrated that this gene is widespread in stool metagenomic data sets. Overall, this work represents a crucial step toward understanding anaerobic choline metabolism in the human gut microbiota and underscores the importance of examining this microbial community from a function-oriented perspective.IMPORTANCEAnaerobic choline utilization is a bacterial metabolic activity that occurs in the human gut and is linked to multiple diseases. While bacterial genes responsible for choline fermentation (thecutgene cluster) have been recently identified, there has been no characterization of these genes in human gut isolates and microbial communities. In this work, we use multiple approaches to demonstrate that the pathway encoded by thecutgenes is present and functional in a diverse range of human gut bacteria and is also widespread in stool metagenomes. We also developed a PCR-based strategy to detect a key functional gene (cutC) involved in this pathway and applied it to characterize newly isolated choline-utilizing strains. Both our analyses of thecutgene cluster and this molecular tool will aid efforts to further understand the role of choline metabolism in the human gut microbiota and its link to disease.

In vitro study of the interaction between human gut microbiota and herbal extracts using willow bark extract as an example

Planta Medica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (S 01) ◽  
pp. S1-S381
Author(s):  
EM Pferschy-Wenzig ◽  
K Koskinen ◽  
C Moissl-Eichinger ◽  
R Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
In Vitro Study ◽  
Vitro Study ◽  
Bark Extract ◽  
Herbal Extracts ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota ◽  
Willow Bark

Metabolization of the herbal combination STW-5 by human gut microbiota in vitro

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
EM Pferschy-Wenzig ◽  
A Roßmann ◽  
K Koskinen ◽  
H Abdel-Aziz ◽  
C Moissl-Eichinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota

Substrate use prioritization by a coculture of five species of gut bacteria fed mixtures of arabinoxylan, xyloglucan, β-glucan, and pectin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Liu ◽  
AL Heath ◽  
B Galland ◽  
N Rehrer ◽  
L Drummond ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Dietary Fiber ◽  
Plant Cell Wall ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Short Chain ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Human Gut ◽  
Fermentation Products ◽  
Plant Polysaccharides ◽  
Human Gut Microbiota

© 2020 American Society for Microbiology. Dietary fiber provides growth substrates for bacterial species that belong to the colonic microbiota of humans. The microbiota degrades and ferments substrates, producing characteristic short-chain fatty acid profiles. Dietary fiber contains plant cell wall-associated polysaccharides (hemicelluloses and pectins) that are chemically diverse in composition and structure. Thus, depending on plant sources, dietary fiber daily presents the microbiota with mixtures of plant polysaccharides of various types and complexity. We studied the extent and preferential order in which mixtures of plant polysaccharides (arabinoxylan, xyloglucan, β-glucan, and pectin) were utilized by a coculture of five bacterial species (Bacteroides ovatus, Bifidobacterium longum subspecies longum, Megasphaera elsdenii, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Veillonella parvula). These species are members of the human gut microbiota and have the biochemical capacity, collectively, to degrade and ferment the polysaccharides and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). B. ovatus utilized glycans in the order β-glucan, pectin, xyloglucan, and arabinoxylan, whereas B. longum subsp. longum utilization was in the order arabinoxylan, arabinan, pectin, and β-glucan. Propionate, as a proportion of total SCFAs, was augmented when polysaccharide mixtures contained galactan, resulting in greater succinate production by B. ovatus and conversion of succinate to propionate by V. parvula. Overall, we derived a synthetic ecological community that carries out SCFA production by the common pathways used by bacterial species for this purpose. Systems like this might be used to predict changes to the emergent properties of the gut ecosystem when diet is altered, with the aim of beneficially affecting human physiology. This study addresses the question as to how bacterial species, characteristic of the human gut microbiota, collectively utilize mixtures of plant polysaccharides such as are found in dietary fiber. Five bacterial species with the capacity to degrade polymers and/or produce acidic fermentation products detectable in human feces were used in the experiments. The bacteria showed preferential use of certain polysaccharides over others for growth, and this influenced their fermentation output qualitatively. These kinds of studies are essential in developing concepts of how the gut microbial community shares habitat resources, directly and indirectly, when presented with mixtures of polysaccharides that are found in human diets. The concepts are required in planning dietary interventions that might correct imbalances in the functioning of the human microbiota so as to support measures to reduce metabolic conditions such as obesity.

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