title: Colonizing the embryonic zebrafish gut with anaerobic bacteria derived from the human gastrointestinal tract.
abstract: The zebrafish has become increasingly popular for microbiological research. It has been used as an infection model for a variety of pathogens, and is also emerging as a tool for studying interactions between a host and its resident microbial communities. The mouse microbiota has been transplanted into the zebrafish gut, but to our knowledge, there has been no attempt to introduce a bacterial community derived from the human gut. We explored two methods for colonizing the developing gut of 5-day-old germ-free zebrafish larvae with a defined anaerobic microbial community derived from a single human fecal sample. Both environmental exposure (static immersion) and direct microinjection into the gut resulted in the establishment of two species-Lactobacillus paracasei and Eubacterium limosum-from a community of 30 strains consisting of 22 anaerobic species. Of particular interest is E. limosum, which, as a strict anaerobe, represents a group of bacteria which until now have not been shown to colonize the developing zebrafish gut. Our success here indicates that further investigation of zebrafish as a tool for studying human gut microbial communities is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Toh
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goodyear
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daigneault
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Allen-Vercoe
authors.forename: Terence J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Van Raay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D005051:Eubacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D006801:Humans; D007101:Immersion; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D007814:Larva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology; D008845:Microinjections; D023421:Models, Animal; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*