Simplified Intestinal Microbiota to Study Microbe-Diet-Host Interactions in a Mouse Model
Petia Kovatcheva-Datchary,
Saeed Shoaie,
Sunjae Lee,
Annika Wahlström,
Intawat Nookaew,
Anna Hallen,
Rosie Perkins,
Jens Nielsen,
Fredrik Bäckhed
Affiliations
Petia Kovatcheva-Datchary
Wallenberg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden
Saeed Shoaie
Centre for Host–Microbiome Interactions, Dental Institute, King’s College London, SE1 9RT, UK
Sunjae Lee
Centre for Host–Microbiome Interactions, Dental Institute, King’s College London, SE1 9RT, UK
Annika Wahlström
Wallenberg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden
Intawat Nookaew
Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden
Anna Hallen
Wallenberg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden
Rosie Perkins
Wallenberg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden
Jens Nielsen
Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark
Fredrik Bäckhed
Wallenberg Laboratory, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 41345, Sweden; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section for Metabolic Receptology and Enteroendocrinology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark; Corresponding author
Summary: The gut microbiota can modulate human metabolism through interactions with macronutrients. However, microbiota-diet-host interactions are difficult to study because bacteria interact in complex food webs in concert with the host, and many of the bacteria are not yet characterized. To reduce the complexity, we colonize mice with a simplified intestinal microbiota (SIM) composed of ten sequenced strains isolated from the human gut with complementing pathways to metabolize dietary fibers. We feed the SIM mice one of three diets (chow [fiber rich], high-fat/high-sucrose, or zero-fat/high-sucrose diets [both low in fiber]) and investigate (1) how dietary fiber, saturated fat, and sucrose affect the abundance and transcriptome of the SIM community, (2) the effect of microbe-diet interactions on circulating metabolites, and (3) how microbiota-diet interactions affect host metabolism. Our SIM model can be used in future studies to help clarify how microbiota-diet interactions contribute to metabolic diseases. : Kovatcheva-Datchary et al. develop a mouse model colonized with a simplified intestinal microbiota (SIM) to investigate the microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions in the mammalian gut, focusing on host metabolism. They combine dietary interventions and different omics approaches to show the potential of the SIM model to study the microbe-diet-host interplay. Keywords: microbiota, diet, transcriptome, metabolome
