Dataset Information

Depolymerization of plant cell wall glycans by symbiotic human gut bacteria (Bacteroides ovatus)

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the distal human gut have evolved under intense pressure to utilize complex carbohydrates, predominantly plant cell wall glycans abundant in our diets. These substrates are recalcitrant to depolymerization by digestive enzymes encoded in the human genome, but are efficiently targeted by some of the ~103-104 bacterial species that inhabit this niche. These species augment our comparatively narrow carbohydrate digestive capacity by unlocking otherwise unusable sugars and fermenting them into host-absorbable forms, such as short-chain fatty acids. We used phenotype profiling, whole-genome transcriptional analysis and molecular genetic approaches to investigate complex glycan utilization by two fully sequenced and closely related human gut symbionts: Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Together these species target all of the common glycosidic linkages found in the plant cell wall, as well as host polysaccharides, but each species exhibits a unique ‘glycan niche’: in vitro B. thetaiotaomicron targets plant cell wall pectins in addition to linkages contained in host N- and O-glycans; B. ovatus uniquely targets hemicellulosic polysaccharides along with several pectins, but is deficient in host glycan utilization.

ORGANISM(S): Bacteroides ovatus Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron VPI-5482 Dorea longicatena DSM 13814 Bacteroides ovatus ATCC 8483 Blautia obeum ATCC 29174 Bacteroides caccae ATCC 43185 Collinsella aerofaciens ATCC 25986 [Ruminococcus] torques ATCC 27756 Phocaeicola vulgatus ATCC 8482 [Clostridium] scindens ATCC 35704 Parabacteroides distasonis ATCC 8503 Agathobacter rectalis ATCC 33656 Bacteroides sp. WH2 Thomasclavelia spiroformis DSM 1552 Bacteroides uniformis ATCC 8492 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii M21/2

PROVIDER: GSE25575 | GEO | 2011/05/01

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA142411

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The adult human gut microbial community is typically dominated by two bacterial phyla (divisions), the Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes. Little is known about the factors that govern the interactions between their members. Here we examine the niches of representatives of both phyla in vivo. Finished genome sequences were generated from E. rectale and E. eligens, which belong to Clostridium Cluster XIVa, one of the most common gut Firmicute clades. Comparison of these and 25 other gut Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes indicated that the former possess smaller genomes and a disproportionately smaller number of glycan-degrading enzymes. Germ-free mice were then colonized with E. rectale and/or a prominent human gut Bacteroidetes, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, followed by whole genome transcriptional profiling of both organisms in their distal gut (cecal) habitat as well as host responses, high resolution proteomic analysis of cecal contents, and biochemical assays of carbohydrate metabolism. B. thetaiotaomicron adapts to E. rectale by upregulating expression of a variety of polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) encoding numerous glycoside hydrolase gene families, and by signaling the host to produce mucosal glycans that it, but not E. rectale, can access. E. rectale adapts to B. thetaiotaomicron by decreasing production of its glycan-degrading enzymes, increasing expression of selected amino acid and sugar transporters, and facilitating glycolysis by reducing levels of NADH, in part via generation of butyrate from acetate, which in turn is utilized by the gut epithelium. This simplified model of the human gut microbiota illustrates niche specialization and functional redundancy within members of major gut bacterial phyla, and the importance of host glycans as a nutrient foundation that ensures ecosystem stability. The interactions between E. rectale and B. thetaiotaomicron were characterized by performing whole genome transcriptional profiling of each species after colonization of gnotobiotic mice with each organism alone, or in combination. E. rectale was also profiled during in vitro growth.

Dataset Information

Depolymerization of plant cell wall glycans by symbiotic human gut bacteria (Bacteroides ovatus)

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure