11/11/2013 Jonathan Luckau Biology 1615 Final Summary

Title: Effects of Diet on Resource Utilization by a Model Human Gut Microbiota Containing Bacteroides cellulosilyticus WH2, a Symbiont with an Extensive Glycobiome.

Introduction: Human gut bacteria are a little studied field in biology today. The authors wanted to discuss the effect of diet on resource utilization by a specific type of bacteria. There are trillions of different bacteria in our gut. Two of these species are dominant in our gut and they are well suited to the drastically changing environment. The authors believe this research will help set the groundwork for further studies in which the complex environment of the human gut is looked into more fully. Materials and Methods: First, the scientists isolated a string of Bacteriodes Cellulosilysticus from a human fecal sample. In order to sequence the bacterias genome, researchers use long and short pair methods. They discovered that B. Cellulosilysticus contains more glycocide hydrolase genes it can use than any other species of cellulosilysticus analyzed thus far. To ensure high sequence accuracy, four strands of rRNA were sequenced individually in the difficult to assemble regions of the genome. Two groups of mice were used in the study ranging from 1 week to 12 weeks old. The diets of these mice were strictly regulated throughout the study to make sure there were no other variables affecting the gut bacteria. Results: This study created generalizable rules for how gut microbial bacte ria behave in the

gut. The researchers were also able to evaluate the technical limitations of current molecular approaches for characterizing native communities. In addition, genetic tractability should facilitate future experiments in which transposed mutant libraries are screened in vivo as one component of a larger artificial community in order to identify this strains most important fitness determinants under a wide variety of dietary conditions. Identifying the genetic elements that allow B. Cellulosilyticus to persist at the relatively high levels observed, regardless of diet, should provide microbiologists and synthetic biologists with new standard biological parts that will aid them in developing the next generation of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics. Discussion: The ability to detect any of B. Cellulosilyticus WH2's expressed transcripts and proteins in samples from both diet treatment groups allows us to determine how well RNA and protein data for an abundant, active member of the artificial community might correlate. Their results indicated moderate degree of linear correlation between RNA and protein observations. They were also able to identify two diet-inducible, Xylanase-containing PULs (polysaccharide
utilization loci) whose genetic disruption resulted in diet-specific loss of fitness.

Conclusion: Human intestines are composed of a huge number of different microbial cells, and the majority of those are bacteria. The way these components of this machine operate remains mysterious, which is why this study will most likely be the first in a new series of studies on the bacteria living inside all of us. These results also gave the authors insight into how dietary changes affect the bacteria and the health of the host in a controlled environment. Bibliography: http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001637