Glycan foraging in vivo by an intestine-adapted bacterial symbiont.
Germ-free mice were maintained on polysaccharide-rich or simple-sugar diets and colonized for 10 days with an organism also found in human guts, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, followed by whole-genome transcriptional profiling of bacteria and mass spectrometry of cecal glycans. We found that these bacteria assembled on food particles and mucus, selectively induced outer-membrane polysaccharide-binding proteins and glycoside hydrolases, prioritized the consumption of liberated hexose sugars, and revealed a capacity to turn to host mucus glycans when polysaccharides were absent from the diet. This flexible foraging behavior should contribute to ecosystem stability and functional diversity.
Sonnenburg
Justin L
JL
Center for Genome Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA.
Xu
Jian
J
Leip
Douglas D
DD
Chen
Chien-Huan
CH
Westover
Benjamin P
BP
Weatherford
Jeremy
J
Buhler
Jeremy D
JD
Gordon
Jeffrey I
JI
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001439:Bacteroides / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002432:Cecum / Q000382:microbiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004032:Diet; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000378:metabolism; D017753:Ecosystem; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006601:Hexoses / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009093:Mucus / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D009876:Operon; D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D013559:Symbiosis; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D015854:Up-Regulation
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D006601:Hexoses; D011134:Polysaccharides; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases; D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases