The role of adaptive immunity as an ecological filter on the gut microbiota in zebrafish.

ABSTRACT: All animals live in intimate association with communities of microbes, collectively referred to as their microbiota. Certain host traits can influence which microbial taxa comprise the microbiota. One potentially important trait in vertebrate animals is the adaptive immune system, which has been hypothesized to act as an ecological filter, promoting the presence of some microbial taxa over others. Here we surveyed the intestinal microbiota of 68 wild-type zebrafish, with functional adaptive immunity, and 61 rag1^- zebrafish, lacking functional B- and T-cell receptors, to test the role of adaptive immunity as an ecological filter on the intestinal microbiota. In addition, we tested the robustness of adaptive immunity's filtering effects to host-host interaction by comparing the mi

SUBMITTER: Stagaman K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5520148 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature