Critical Role for a Subset of Intestinal Macrophages in Shaping Gut Microbiota in Adult Zebrafish.

ABSTRACT: The gut microbiota is strongly influenced by environmental factors, although host contribution is far less understood. We leveraged macrophage-deficient interferon regulatory factor irf8 zebrafish mutants to investigate the role of macrophages in this process. In conventionally raised adult irf8-deficient mutants, we found a significant loss of intestinal macrophages associated with a strikingly altered gut microbiota when compared to co-housed siblings. The destabilization of the gut commensal microbiota was associated with a severe reduction in complement C1q genes and outgrowth of a rare bacterial species. Consistent with a critical function of irf8 in adult intestinal macrophages, irf8 is abundantly expressed in these cells normally, and restoring macrophage irf8 expression in irf8 mut

SUBMITTER: Earley AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6245655 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature