Quantifying rapid bacterial evolution and transmission within the mouse intestine.

ABSTRACT: Due to limitations on high-resolution strain tracking, selection dynamics during gut microbiota colonization and transmission between hosts remain mostly mysterious. Here, we introduced hundreds of barcoded Escherichia coli strains into germ-free mice and quantified strain-level dynamics and metagenomic changes. Mutations in genes involved in motility and metabolite utilization are reproducibly selected within days. Even with rapid selection, coprophagy enforced similar barcode distributions across co-housed mice. Whole-genome sequencing of hundreds of isolates revealed linked alleles that demonstrate between-host transmission. A population-genetics model predicts substantial fitness advantages for certain mutants and that migration accounted for ∼10% of the resident microbiota each day. T

SUBMITTER: Vasquez KS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8445907 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature