Functional characteristics of the gut microbiome in C57BL/6 mice differentially susceptible to Plasmodium yoelii

Frontiers in Microbiology

Nathan W. Schmidt¹  Joshua Ethan Denny¹  Gary Raymond LeCleir²  Steven W Wilhelm²  Shawn Campagna²  Stephen P Dearth²  Joshua MA Stough² 

[1] University of Louisville;University of Tennessee;

关键词: Malaria;    microbiome;    basigin;    metatranscriptome;    C57BL/6N lineage;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2016.01520

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

C57BL/6 mice are widely used for in vivo studies of immune function and metabolism in mammals. In a previous study, it was observed that when C57BL/6 mice purchased from different vendors were infected with Plasmodium yoelii, a causative agent of murine malaria, they exhibited both differential immune responses and significantly different parasite burdens: these patterns were reproducible when gut contents were transplanted into gnotobiotic mice. To gain insight into the mechanism of resistance, we removed whole ceca from mice purchased from two vendors, Taconic Biosciences (low parasitemia) and Charles River Laboratories (high parasitemia), to determine the combined host and microflora metabolome and metatranscriptome. With the exception of two Charles River samples, we observed ≥ 90% similarity in overall bacterial gene expression within vendors and ≤ 80% similarity between vendors. In total 32 bacterial genes were differentially expressed in Charles River mice (p-value < 0.05) relative to the mice purchased from Taconic. Included among these, fliC, ureABC, and 6 members of the nuo gene family were overrepresented in microbiomes susceptible to more severe malaria. Moreover, 38 mouse genes were differentially expressed in these purported genetically identical mice. Differentially expressed genes included basigin, a cell surface receptor required for Plasmodium falciparum invasion of red blood cells. Differences in metabolite pools were detected, though their relevance to malaria infection, microbial community activity, or host response is not yet understood. Our data have provided new targets that may connect gut microbial activity to malaria resistance and susceptibility phenotypes in the C57BL/6 model organism.

【 授权许可】

Unknown