Microbiota and metabolite profiling reveal specific alterations in bacterial community structure and environment in the cystic fibrosis airway during exacerbation.

ABSTRACT: Chronic polymicrobial infections of the lung are the foremost cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The composition of the microbial flora of the airway alters considerably during infection, particularly during patient exacerbation. An understanding of which organisms are growing, their environment and their behaviour in the airway is of importance for designing antibiotic treatment regimes and for patient prognosis. To this end, we have analysed sputum samples taken from separate cohorts of CF and non-CF subjects for metabolites and in parallel, and we have examined both isolated DNA and RNA for the presence of 16S rRNA genes and transcripts by high-throughput sequencing of amplicon or cDNA libraries. This analysis revealed that although the population size of

SUBMITTER: Twomey KB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3866110 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature