Diversity and distribution of sulphate-reducing bacteria in human faeces from healthy subjects and patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
The relative abundance of different groups of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in faecal DNA collected before and after therapy from patients suffering from Crohn's disease (CD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or ulcerative colitis (UC) has been compared with that from healthy controls. Growth tests revealed that SRB were not more abundant in samples from patients with CD before treatment than in the healthy control group. For most of the 128 samples available, these preliminary results were confirmed using degenerate PCR primers that amplify the dsrAB gene. However, some samples from patients with CD before treatment contained a growth inhibitor that was absent from IBS or UC samples. In-depth sequencing of PCR-generated dsrB fragments revealed that the diversity detected was surprisingly low, with only eight strains of SRB and the sulphite-reducing bacterium, Bilophila wadsworthia, detected above the 0.1% threshold. The proportion of the two major species detected, B. wadsworthia and Desulfovibrio piger, was as high as 93.5% of the total SRB population in the healthy control group and lower in all patient groups. Four previously undescribed species were found: it is impossible to predict whether they are sulphate or sulphite-reducing bacteria.
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Wenjing
W
Jia
Rebekah N
RN
Whitehead
Lesley
L
Griffiths
Claire
C
Dawson
Hao
H
Bai
Rosemary H
RH
Waring
David B
DB
Ramsden
John O
JO
Hunter
Michael
M
Cauchi
Conrad
C
Bessant
Dawn P
DP
Fowler
Christopher
C
Walton
Claire
C
Turner
Jeffrey A
JA
Cole
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D058448:Biota; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D054892:Metagenome; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D013431:Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D013431:Sulfates