A low-error 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing method (LEA-Seq) plus whole genome sequencing of >500 cultured isolates were used to characterize bacterial strain composition in the fecal microbiota of 37 USA adults sampled for up to five years. Microbiota stability follows a power law function which, when extrapolated, suggests that most strains in an individual are residents for decades. Shared strains were recovered from family members, but not from unrelated individuals. Sampling individuals for up to 32 weeks while consuming a monotonous liquid diet indicated that changes in weight are more predictive of changes in strain composition than sampling interval. This combination of stability and responsiveness to physiologic change confirms the potential of the gut microbiota as a diagnostic tool and therapeutic target.

Colonization of germ-free mice with a normal gut microbiota elicits bacteria-specific IgA antibody responses. The effects of these responses on microbial and host biology remain poorly defined. Therefore, we developed a gnotobiotic mouse model where the microbiota is reduced to one bacterial species, and the antibody repertoire to a single, monoclonal IgA against the bacterium's capsular polysaccharide. Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron was introduced into germ-free wild-type, immunodeficient Rag1(-/-), or Rag1(-/-) mice harboring IgA-producing hybridoma cells. Without IgA, B. thetaiotaomicron elicits a more robust innate immune response and reacts to this response by inducing genes that metabolize host oxidative products. IgA reduces intestinal proinflammatory signaling and bacterial epitope expression, thereby balancing suppression of the oxidative burst with the antibody's negative impact on bacterial fitness. These results underscore the adaptive immune system's critical role in establishing a sustainable host-microbial relationship. Immunoselection of bacterial epitope expression may contribute to the remarkable strain-level diversity in this ecosystem.

Summary Identifying interventions that more effectively promote healthy growth of children with undernutrition is a pressing global health goal. Analysis of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) from 6-month postpartum mothers in two Malawian birth-cohorts revealed that sialylated HMOs are significantly less abundant in mothers with severely stunted infants. To explore this association, we colonized young germ-free mice with a consortium of bacterial strains cultured from the fecal microbiota of a 6-month old stunted Malawian infant and fed recipient animals a prototypic Malawian diet with or without purified sialylated bovine milk oligosaccharides (S-BMO). S-BMO produced a microbiota-dependent augmentation of lean body mass gain, changed bone morphology and altered liver, muscle and brain metabolism in ways indicative of a greater ability to utilize nutrients for anabolism. These effects were also documented in gnotobiotic piglets using the same consortium and Malawian diet. These preclinical models indicate a causal, microbiota-dependent relationship between S-BMO and growth promotion.

The human gut microbiota harbors three main groups of H 2 -consuming microbes: methanogens including the dominant archaeon, Methanobrevibacter smithii, a polyphyletic group of acetogens, and sulfate-reducing bacteria. Defining their roles in the gut is important for understanding how hydrogen metabolism affects the efficiency of fermentation of dietary components. We quantified methanogens in fecal samples from 40 healthy adult female monozygotic (MZ) and 28 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, analyzed bacterial 16S rRNA datasets generated from their fecal samples to identify taxa that co-occur with methanogens, sequenced the genomes of 20 M. smithii strains isolated from families of MZ and DZ twins, and performed RNA-Seq of a subset of strains to identify their responses to varied formate concentrations. The concordance rate for methanogen carriage was significantly higher for MZ versus DZ twin pairs. Co-occurrence analysis revealed 22 bacterial specieslevel taxa positively correlated with methanogens: all but two were members of the Clostridiales, with several being, or related to, known hydrogen-producing and -consuming bacteria. The M. smithii pan-genome contains 987 genes conserved in all strains, and 1,860 variably represented genes. Strains from MZ and DZ twin pairs had a similar degree of shared genes and SNPs, and were significantly more similar than strains isolated from mothers or members of other families. The 101 adhesin-like proteins (ALPs) in the pan-genome (45 ± 6 per strain) exhibit strain-specific differences in expression and responsiveness to formate. We hypothesize that M. smithii strains use their different repertoires of ALPs to create diversity in their metabolic niches, by allowing them to establish syntrophic relationships with bacterial partners with differing metabolic capabilities and patterns of co-occurrence.hydrogen-consuming microbes | metagenomics | microbial genome evolution | horizontal gene tranfer H uman microbiome projects seek to determine how microbial communities are assembled, maintained, and operate within our various body habitats as a function of our different cultural and socioeconomic conditions, family structures, stages of life, genotypes, and physiologies. Culture-independent metagenomic surveys have revealed that microbial communities cluster according to body habitat but with considerable interpersonal variation in bacterial species content (1), although differences are smaller within rather than between families (2). The gut harbors our largest collection of microbes, spanning all three domains of life. Bacteria dominate, specifically members of the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes (2-5).Monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs provide an attractive study paradigm for dissecting the relative contributions of host genotype and environmental exposures to shaping the microbial and viral landscape of our gut microbiota (2, 6). To date, bacterial 16S rRNA datasets indicate that adult MZ co-twins share no more similarity in their fecal bacterial communities than DZ ...

Genetically defined in vivo models are needed to assess the importance of target cell attachment in bacterial pathogenesis. Gastric colonization by Helicobacter pylori in human populations is common and persistent, and has various outcomes including peptic ulcers and cancer. The impact of attachment on the course of infection was examined in transgenic mice expressing a human receptor for H. pylori in their gastric epithelium. Persistent infection by a clinical isolate occurred at comparable microbial densities in transgenic and nontransgenic littermates. However, microbial attachment in transgenic mice resulted in production of autoantibodies to Lewis x carbohydrate epitopes shared by bacteria and acid-secreting parietal cells, chronic gastritis, and parietal cell loss. This model should help identify bacterial and host genes that produce attachment-related pathology.