title: Adaptation in a mouse colony monoassociated with Escherichia coli K-12 for more than 1,000 days.
abstract: Although mice associated with a single bacterial species have been used to provide a simple model for analysis of host-bacteria relationships, bacteria have been shown to display adaptability when grown in a variety of novel environments. In this study, changes associated with the host-bacterium relationship in mice monoassociated with Escherichia coli K-12 over a period of 1,031 days were evaluated. After 80 days, phenotypic diversification of E. coli was observed, with the colonizing bacteria having a broader distribution of growth rates in the laboratory than the parent E. coli. After 1,031 days, which included three generations of mice and an estimated 20,000 generations of E. coli, the initially homogeneous bacteria colonizing the mice had evolved to have widely different growth rates on agar, a potential decrease in tendency for spontaneous lysis in vivo, and an increased tendency for spontaneous lysis in vitro. Importantly, mice at the end of the experiment were colonized at an average density of bacteria that was more than 3-fold greater than mice colonized on day 80. Evaluation of selected isolates on day 1,031 revealed unique restriction endonuclease patterns and differences between isolates in expression of more than 10% of the proteins identified by two-dimensional electrophoresis, suggesting complex changes underlying the evolution of diversity during the experiment. These results suggest that monoassociated mice might be used as a tool for characterizing niches occupied by the intestinal flora and potentially as a method of targeting the evolution of bacteria for applications in biotechnology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wyse
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lesher
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Everett
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: Zoie E
authors.initials: ZE
authors.lastname: Holzknecht
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Whitesides
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Spears
authors.forename: Dawn E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bowles
authors.forename: Shu S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Tonkonogy
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Orndorff
authors.forename: R Randal
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Bollinger
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D048168:Escherichia coli K12 / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D051379:Mice; D015183:Restriction Mapping
references.citation: Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2008 Feb;12(1):109-14
references.pmid: 18280814
references.citation: Nature. 2009 Feb 12;457(7231):824-9
references.pmid: 19212400
references.citation: Science. 2009 Feb 20;323(5917):1022-3
references.pmid: 19229028
references.citation: PLoS Genet. 2008 Jan;4(1):e2
references.pmid: 18193944
references.citation: DNA Res. 2009 Feb;16(1):1-12
references.pmid: 19147530
references.citation: Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 1999 May;6(3):434-6
references.pmid: 10225851
references.citation: J Evol Biol. 2005 Nov;18(6):1376-86
references.pmid: 16313450
references.citation: Science. 2006 Jul 28;313(5786):514-7
references.pmid: 16825532
references.citation: Bacteriol Rev. 1971 Dec;35(4):390-429
references.pmid: 4945725
references.citation: J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2009 Mar 1;234(5):606-13
references.pmid: 19250038
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Feb 4;100(3):1072-7
references.pmid: 12538876
references.citation: Science. 2008 Jun 20;320(5883):1647-51
references.pmid: 18497261
references.citation: J Appl Bacteriol. 1992 Aug;73(2):163-7
references.pmid: 1328132
references.citation: Microbes Infect. 2000 Sep;2(11):1343-51
references.pmid: 11018451
references.citation: Mol Microbiol. 1992 Mar;6(6):697-701
references.pmid: 1349417
references.citation: Am Nat. 2000 Jan;155(1):24-35
references.pmid: 10657174
references.citation: Science. 1997 Sep 5;277(5331):1453-62
references.pmid: 9278503
references.citation: Nature. 1998 Jul 2;394(6688):69-72
references.pmid: 9665128
references.citation: Eur J Clin Microbiol. 1982 Jun;1(3):186-92
references.pmid: 6756909
references.citation: Science. 2001 Mar 30;291(5513):2606-8
references.pmid: 11283373
references.citation: Genetics. 1999 Sep;153(1):5-12
references.pmid: 10471695
references.citation: Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2009 Oct;234(10):1174-85
references.pmid: 19596821
references.citation: Infect Immun. 2004 Apr;72(4):1929-38
references.pmid: 15039312
references.citation: Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2006 Spring;3(1):59-67
references.pmid: 16602980
references.citation: Nutr Clin Pract. 2009 Apr-May;24(2):227-41
references.pmid: 19321897
references.citation: J Infect Dis. 1986 Mar;153(3):547-51
references.pmid: 3512730