Anoxic Conditions Promote Species-Specific Mutualism between Gut Microbes In Silico.

ABSTRACT: The human gut is inhabited by thousands of microbial species, most of which are still uncharacterized. Gut microbes have adapted to each other's presence as well as to the host and engage in complex cross feeding. Constraint-based modeling has been successfully applied to predicting microbe-microbe interactions, such as commensalism, mutualism, and competition. Here, we apply a constraint-based approach to model pairwise interactions between 11 representative gut microbes. Microbe-microbe interactions were computationally modeled in conjunction with human small intestinal enterocytes, and the microbe pairs were subjected to three diets with various levels of carbohydrate, fat, and protein in normoxic or anoxic environments. Each microbe engaged in species-specific commensal, parasitic, mut

SUBMITTER: Heinken A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4524141 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature