Project description:For phytophagous insects, the efficiency of utilization of hemicellulose and cellulose depends on the gut microbiota. Shifts in environmental and management conditions alter the presence and abundance of plant species which may induce adaptations in the diversity of gut microbiota. To test the adaptation of the microbiota to a shift from a natural diverse to a monocultural meadow with Dactylis glomerata the highly abundant grasshopper species, Chorthippus dorsatus, was taken from the wild and kept in captivity and were fed with Dactylis glomerata for five days. The feces were collected and analyzed by metaproteomics. After the diet shift from a diverse source to the single source, the microbiota composition stays relatively stable. The Bacilli as the group of highest abundance did not change on the functional level. In contrast, pronounced shifts of amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism in Clostridia and Proteobacteria were observed. Hence, the adaptation upon short-term change of food source in this grasshopper species is dominated by functional adaptations and not by shifts in the community structure of the microbiota. This suggests that the microbiota of grasshoppers is capable to cope also with the loss of diverse feeding plants at least for a shorter time period.
Project description:Morphine causes microbial dysbiosis. In this study we focused on restoration of native microbiota in morphine treated mice and looked at the extent of restoration and immunological consequences of this restoration. Fecal transplant has been successfully used clinically, especially for treating C. difficile infection2528. With our expanding knowledge of the central role of microbiome in maintenance of host immune homeostasis17, fecal transplant is gaining importance as a therapy for indications resulting from microbial dysbiosis. There is a major difference between fecal transplant being used for the treatment of C. difficile infection and the conditions described in our studies. The former strategy is based on the argument that microbial dysbiosis caused by disproportionate overgrowth of a pathobiont can be out-competed by re-introducing the missing flora by way of a normal microbiome transplant. This strategy is independent of host factors and systemic effects on the microbial composition. Here, we show that microbial dysbiosis caused due to morphine can be reversed by transplantation of microbiota from the placebo-treated animals.
Project description:Dietary oligosaccharides are prebiotics that fuel gut microbes, but individual microbiomes may respond differently depending on oligosaccharide structure and microbiome composition and function. The extent to which specific gut microbial communities exhibit personalized functional responses to distinct oligosaccharides remains underexplored. We applied a standardized ex vivo microbiome culture, called RapidAIM, coupled with metaproteomics to examine how six structurally diverse oligosaccharides affect the gut microbiota functional response.
Project description:Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease in middle-aged and elderly people. The disorder of gut microbiota is involved in the pathophysiological process of various neurological diseases, and many studies have confirmed that gut microbiota is involved in the progression of PD. As one of the most effective methods to reconstruct gut microbiota, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been considered as an important treatment for PD. However, the mechanism of FMT treatment for PD is still lacking, which requires further exploration and can facilitate the application of FMT. As a model organism, Drosophila is highly conserved with mammalian system in maintaining intestinal homeostasis. In this study, there were significant differences in the gut microbiota of conventional Drosophila colonized from PD patients compared to those transplanted from normal controls. And we constructed rotenone-induced PD model in Drosophila followed by FMT in different groups, and investigated the impact of gut microbiome on transcriptome of the PD host. Microbial analysis by 16S rDNA sequencing showed that gut microbiota could affect bacterial structure of PD, which was confirmed by bacterial colonization results. In addition, transcriptome data suggested that gut microbiota can influence gene expression pattern of PD. Further experimental validations confirmed that lysosome and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction are the most significantly influenced functional pathways by PD-derived gut microbiota. In summary, our data reveals the influence of PD-derived gut microbiota on host transcriptome and helps better understanding the interaction between gut microbiota and PD through gut-brain axis. The present study will facilitate the understanding of the mechanism underlying PD treatment with FMT in clinical practice.
Project description:Human diet emerges as a pivotal determinant of gut microbiota composition and function. Identification of the bacterial taxa targeted by diet derived factors with causal beneficial rather than detrimental effects on therapy and their mechanism of action is challenging but necessary for future clinical progress. The germ free mice colonized with human gut bacteria and four-plants derived nanoparticles uptaking bacteria were sorted with flow cytometry and identified with 16s rRNA next-generation sequencing.