Project description:Inter-microbial and host-microbial interactions are critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few tools are available to measure these interactions in situ. Here, we report a method for broad spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high resolution (1 µm). This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host RNA with spatial RNA-sequencing to increase bacterial RNA recovery and enable transcriptomic analysis of low-abundance and spatially restricted microbial taxa. We benchmark the method against existing spatial transcriptomic workflows, demonstrating improved sensitivity and resolution. Application of this method in a mouse model of intestinal neoplasia revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, frequent strong inter-microbial interactions at short length scales, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with widely available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing and can therefore be readily adopted to study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:Inter-microbial and host–microbial interactions are thought to be critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few substantive tools are available to measure these interactions. Here, we report a method for unbiased spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high spatial resolution. This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host transcripts with spatial RNA-sequencing. Application of this method revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, short-range intermicrobial interaction, local shaping of the microbiome by the host, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with broadly available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing, and can therefore be readily adopted to broadly study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:Inter-microbial and host–microbial interactions are thought to be critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few substantive tools are available to measure these interactions. Here, we report a method for unbiased spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high spatial resolution. This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host transcripts with spatial RNA-sequencing. Application of this method revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, short-range intermicrobial interaction, local shaping of the microbiome by the host, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with broadly available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing, and can therefore be readily adopted to broadly study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:Inter-microbial and host–microbial interactions are thought to be critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few substantive tools are available to measure these interactions. Here, we report a method for unbiased spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high spatial resolution. This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host transcripts with spatial RNA-sequencing. Application of this method revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, short-range intermicrobial interaction, local shaping of the microbiome by the host, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with broadly available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing, and can therefore be readily adopted to broadly study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:Inter-microbial and host–microbial interactions are thought to be critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few substantive tools are available to measure these interactions. Here, we report a method for unbiased spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high spatial resolution. This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host transcripts with spatial RNA-sequencing. Application of this method revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, short-range intermicrobial interaction, local shaping of the microbiome by the host, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with broadly available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing, and can therefore be readily adopted to broadly study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:Inter-microbial and host–microbial interactions are thought to be critical for the functioning of the gut microbiome, but few substantive tools are available to measure these interactions. Here, we report a method for unbiased spatial sampling of microbiome-host interactions in the gut at high spatial resolution. This method combines enzymatic in situ polyadenylation of both bacterial and host transcripts with spatial RNA-sequencing. Application of this method revealed the biogeography of the mouse gut microbiome as function of location in the intestine, short-range intermicrobial interaction, local shaping of the microbiome by the host, and tumor-associated changes in the architecture of the host-microbiome interface. This method is compatible with broadly available commercial platforms for spatial RNA-sequencing, and can therefore be readily adopted to broadly study the role of short-range, bidirectional host-microbe interactions in microbiome health and disease.
Project description:The gut microbiome is significantly altered in inflammatory bowel diseases, but the basis of these changes is not well understood. We have combined metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiling of the gut microbiome to assess changes to both bacterial community structure and transcriptional activity in a mouse model of colitis. Gene families involved in microbial resistance to oxidative stress, including Dps/ferritin, Fe-dependent peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase, were transcriptionally up-regulated in colitis, implicating a role for increased oxygen tension in gut microbiota modulation. Transcriptional profiling of the host gut tissue and host RNA in the gut lumen revealed a marked increase in the transcription of genes with an activated macrophage and granulocyte signature, suggesting the involvement of these cell types in influencing microbial gene expression. Down-regulation of host glycosylation genes further supports a role for inflammation-driven changes to the gut niche that may impact the microbiome. We propose that members of the bacterial community react to inflammation-associated increased oxygen tension by inducing genes involved in oxidative stress resistance. Furthermore, correlated transcriptional responses between host glycosylation and bacterial glycan utilisation support a role for altered usage of host-derived carbohydrates in colitis. Complementary transcription profiling data from the mouse hosts have also been deposited at ArrayExpress under accession number E-MTAB-3590 ( http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/experiments/E-MTAB-3590/ ).
Project description:Morphine and its pharmacological derivatives are the most prescribed analgesics for moderate to severe pain management. However, chronic use of morphine reduces pathogen clearance and induces bacterial translocation across the gut barrier. The enteric microbiome has been shown to play a critical role in the preservation of the mucosal barrier function and metabolic homeostasis. Here, we show for the first time, using bacterial 16s rDNA sequencing, that chronic morphine treatment significantly alters the gut microbial composition and induces preferential expansion of the gram-positive pathogenic and reduction of bile-deconjugating bacterial strains. A significant reduction in both primary and secondary bile acid levels was seen in the gut, but not in the liver with morphine treatment. Morphine induced microbial dysbiosis and gut barrier disruption was rescued by transplanting placebo-treated microbiota into morphine-treated animals, indicating that microbiome modulation could be exploited as a therapeutic strategy for patients using morphine for pain management. In this study, we establish a link between the two phenomena, namely gut barrier compromise and dysregulated bile acid metabolism. We show for the first time that morphine fosters significant gut microbial dysbiosis and disrupts cholesterol/bile acid metabolism. Changes in the gut microbial composition is strongly correlated to disruption in host inflammatory homeostasis13,14 and in many diseases (e.g. cancer/HIV infection), persistent inflammation is known to aid and promote the progression of the primary morbidity. We show here that chronic morphine, gut microbial dysbiosis, disruption of cholesterol/bile acid metabolism and gut inflammation; have a linear correlation. This opens up the prospect of devising minimally invasive adjunct treatment strategies involving microbiome and bile acid modulation and thus bringing down morphine-mediated inflammation in the host.
Project description:The gut microbiome is significantly altered in inflammatory bowel diseases, but the basis of these changes is not well understood. We have combined metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiling of the gut microbiome to assess changes to both bacterial community structure and transcriptional activity in a mouse model of colitis. Gene families involved in microbial resistance to oxidative stress, including Dps/ferritin, Fe-dependent peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase, were transcriptionally up-regulated in colitis, implicating a role for increased oxygen tension in gut microbiota modulation. Transcriptional profiling of the host gut tissue and host RNA in the gut lumen revealed a marked increase in the transcription of genes with an activated macrophage and granulocyte signature, suggesting the involvement of these cell types in influencing microbial gene expression. Down-regulation of host glycosylation genes further supports a role for inflammation-driven changes to the gut niche that may impact the microbiome. We propose that members of the bacterial community react to inflammation-associated increased oxygen tension by inducing genes involved in oxidative stress resistance. Furthermore, correlated transcriptional responses between host glycosylation and bacterial glycan utilisation support a role for altered usage of host-derived carbohydrates in colitis. Complementary RNA-seq and DNA-seq data sets of the microbiome from this study have also been deposited at ArrayExpress under accession number E-MTAB-3562 ( http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/experiments/E-MTAB-3562/ ).