Taken together, our results show that at low doses found in food and feed, DON is able to affect the expression and production of MUCs by human and animal goblet cells. Due to the important role of MUCs in the barrier function and in the interaction of commensal bacteria with the host, such effect could explain the observed modifications in the microbial diversity and the increased susceptibility to enteric infection following exposure to DON.

Furthermore, we demonstrated that R. gnavus E1 modified specifically the glycosylation pattern and MUC2 expression by means of a small soluble factor of peptidic nature (<3 kDa) and heat stable in the HT29-MTX cell.