Paraburkholderia sabiae administration alters zebrafish anxiety-like behavior via gut microbial taurine metabolism

Abstract

Interventions to the gut microbiome manipulate the gut–brain axis and could be useful in the treatment of anxiety and depression. In this study, we demonstrated that administration of the bacterium Paraburkholderia sabiae reduces anxiety-like behavior in adult zebrafish. P. sabiae administration increased the diversity of the zebrafish gut microbiome. Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis revealed that the populations of Actinomycetales including Nocardiaceae, Nocardia, Gordoniaceae, Gordonia, Nakamurellaceae, and Aeromonadaceae were reduced, whereas those of Rhizobiales including Xanthobacteraceae, Bradyrhizobiaceae, Rhodospirillaceae, and Pirellulaceae were increased in the gut microbiome. Functional analysis using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt2) predicted that P. sabiae administration altered taurine metabolism in the zebrafish gut, and we demonstrated that P. sabiae administration increased the taurine concentration in the brain. Since taurine functions as an antidepressant neurotransmitter in vertebrates, our results suggest that P. sabiae could improve anxiety-like behavior in zebrafish via the gut-brain axis.

Small fish, big discoveries: zebrafish shed light on microbial biomarkers for neuro-immune-cardiovascular health

“…More recently, administration of Lactobacillus delbrueckii by direct inoculation into fish tanks resulted in reduced anxiety-like behavior in adult female zebrafish, altering its gut and brain transcriptomes (Olorocisimo et al, 2023). A similar study by Ichikawa et al showed that administration of Paraburkholderia sabiae in rearing water reduced anxiety-like behaviors and increased diversity of gut microbiota in adult zebrafish (Ichikawa et al, 2023). In investigation of neural hyperactivity, supplementation with Lactobacillus plantarum HNU082 in the feed influenced select neurotransmitters in adult zebrafish (Zhang et al, 2021b).…”