Investigation into the stability and culturability of Chinese enterotypes

Abstract

Although many gut microbial enterotypes have been reported in Europe, Africa and the U.S., their effects on human health are still not yet clear. Culturing gut microbial enterotypes in vitro will be helpful to study their effects and applications. Here, fecal samples from 13 healthy Chinese volunteers were collected and subjected to next-generation sequencing. The results showed that seven of these samples belong to the Bacteroides enterotype and another six to the Prevotella enterotype. Stability of these Chinese gut microbial enterotypes was also evaluated. Results showed that most of the tested volunteer gut microbiota to be very stable. For one volunteer, the bacterial community returned to the state it was in before intestinal lavage and antibiotics treatment after four months. XP medium was found effective for simulating the Bacteroides enterotype independent of the original gut microbial community in an in vitro chemostat culture system. Although, the Prevotella enterotype was not very well simulated in vitro, different culture elements selectively enriched different gut bacteria. Pectin and xylan were found to be related to the enrichment of the genera Bacteroides, Sutterella, and Flavonifractor in this chemostat culture system.

The Core and Distinction of the Gut Microbiota in Chinese Populations across Geography and Ethnicity

“…This study found that Tibetans and Uygurs both had significant difference in gut microbial composition, compared with Hans who were from Tibet or Xinjiang respectively. As shown in the genetic relationship, Tibetan and Uygur had great genetic distance to Han [ 15 , 34 ]. This could contribute to different bacterial colonization in the gut [ 15 , 34 ].…”

A Lachnospiraceae-dominated bacterial signature in the fecal microbiota of HIV-infected individuals from Colombia, South America

“…The patient is recommended to initiate treatment as soon as a diagnosis is made. However, several studies have reported that the core ecosystem is stable in intervals of 1 year from the first sampling 80 – 83 . Taking the time it took for patients to be placed under treatment and the stability of the gut microbiota into consideration, a longitudinal study design conducted in a short time interval would not change our major findings.…”

An in vitro evaluation of the effects of different statins on the structure and function of human gut bacterial community

“…Batch culture fermentation was carried out using the procedure described by Hu et al [19], Rycroft et al [20], and Lei et al [21]. The VI growth medium was adjusted to pH 6.5 with 1 M HCl, and starch (8 g/L) was prepared and added according to our previous studies [12,19,22]. The liquid culture media was autoclaved at 121˚C for 15 min and cooled to room temperature under anaerobic conditions (10% H 2 , 10% CO 2 , and 80% N 2 ).…”

“…Considering that the VI medium could simulate the human gut microbiota in vitro with higher than 80% similarity with the original fecal bacterial community [22], VI medium was used in this study. After fermentation in vitro, the high throughput sequencing results showed that the FLU2 samples were enriched for the microbial groups of Escherichia/Shigella, Ruminococcaceae UCG 014, and Sutterella.…”