Commensal Bacteria Impact a Protozoan's Integration into the Murine Gut Microbiota in a Dietary Nutrient-Dependent Manner.
Yanxia Wei, Jing Gao, Yanbo Kou, Liyuan Meng, Xingping Zheng, Ming Liang, Hongxiang Sun, Zhuanzhuan Liu, Yugang Wang
Author Information
Yanxia Wei: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Jing Gao: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Yanbo Kou: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Liyuan Meng: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Xingping Zheng: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Ming Liang: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Hongxiang Sun: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Zhuanzhuan Liu: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Yugang Wang: Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China wangyg@xzhmu.edu.cn. ORCID
Our current understanding of the host-microbiota interaction in the gut is dominated by studies focused primarily on prokaryotic bacterial communities. However, there is an underappreciated symbiotic eukaryotic protistic community that is an integral part of mammalian microbiota. How commensal protozoanBacteria might interact to form a stable microbial community remains poorly understood. Here, we describe a murine protistic commensal, phylogenetically assigned as , whose colonization in the gut resulted in a reduction of gut bacterial abundance and diversity in wild-type C57BL/6mice. Meanwhile, dietary nutrient and commensal Bacteria also influenced the protozoan's intestinal colonization and stability. While mice fed a normal chow diet had abundant organisms, switching to a Western-type high-fat diet led to the diminishment of the protozoan from the gut. Supplementation of inulin as a dietary fiber to the high-fat diet partially restored the protozoan's colonization. In addition, a cocktail of broad-spectrum antibiotics rendered permissive engraftment of even under a high-fat, low-fiber diet. Furthermore, oral administration of spp. together with dietary supplementation of inulin in the high-fat diet impacted the protozoan's intestinal engraftment in a bifidobacterial species-dependent manner. Overall, our study described an example of dietary-nutrient-dependent murine commensal protozoan-bacterium cross talk as an important modulator of the host intestinal microbiome. Like commensal Bacteria, commensal protozoa are an integral part of the vertebrate intestinal microbiome. How protozoa integrate into a commensal bacterium-enriched ecosystem remains poorly studied. Here, using the murine commensal as a proof of concept, we studied potential factors involved in shaping the intestinal protozoal-bacterial community. Understanding the rules by which microbes form a multispecies community is crucial to prevent or correct microbial community dysfunctions in order to promote the host's health or to treat diseases.
