Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society for Microbiology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Infection and Immunity 77 (2009): 2367-2375, doi:10.1128/IAI.01520-08.
Description:
Shifts in microbial communities are implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of
gastrointestinal diseases, but we have limited understanding of the mechanisms
that lead to altered community structures. One difficulty with studying these
mechanisms in human subjects is the inherent baseline variability of the
microbiota in different individuals that arise due to varying life histories. To try
and overcome this baseline variability we employed a mouse model to control
host genotype, diet and other possible influences on the microbiota. This allowed
us to determine if the indigenous microbiota in such mice had a stable baseline
community structure and whether this community exhibited a consistent
response following antibiotic administration. We employed a tag sequencing
strategy targeting the V6 hypervariable region of the bacterial small-subunit (16S)
ribosomal RNA combined with massively parallel sequencing to determine the
community structure of the gut microbiota. Inbred mice in a controlled
environment harbored a reproducible baseline community that was significantly
impacted by antibiotic administration. The ability of the gut microbial community
to recover to baseline following cessation of antibiotic administration varied
according to the antibiotic regimen administered. Severe antibiotic pressure
resulted in reproducible long-lasting alterations in the gut microbial community
including a decrease in overall diversity. The finding of stereotypic responses of
the indigenous microbiota to ecologic stress implies that a better understanding
of the factors that govern community structure could lead to strategies for the
intentional manipulation of this ecosystem to preserve or restore a healthy
microbiota.
Description:
The main projects were funded in whole with federal
funds from the NIAID, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services, under
contract number N01-AI-30058. Additional funding was supplied via subcontracts
from the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health from the National
Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation (NIH/NIEHS 1 P50
ES012742-01 and NSF/OCE 0430724-J. Stegeman PI to H.G.M. and M.L.S. and
R01 DK070875 to V.B.Y.) and a grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the
G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation (to M.L.S.). D.A.A. was supported by the National
Institutes of Health under a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award
(T32 HL07749).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
application/vnd.ms-excel
Permalink