Increasing helminth infection burden depauperates the diversity of the gut microbiota and alters its composition in mice

ABSTRACT: The gut microbiota constitutes a diverse community of organisms with pervasive effects on host homeostasis. The diversity and composition of the gut microbiota depend on both intrinsic (host genetics) and extrinsic (environmental) factors. Here, we investigated the reaction norms of fecal microbiota diversity and composition in three strains of mice infected with increasing doses of the gastrointestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus. We found that α-diversity (bacterial taxonomic unit richness) declined along the gradient of infective doses, and β-diversity (dissimilarity between the composition of the microbiota of uninfected and infected mice) increased as the infective dose increased. We did not find evidence for genotype by environment (host strain by infective dose) interactions,

SUBMITTER: Guiver E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9795360 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature