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Comparative Study
. 2013 Mar;7(3):615-21.
doi: 10.1038/ismej.2012.128. Epub 2012 Nov 15.

Comparative analysis of the distribution of segmented filamentous bacteria in humans, mice and chickens

Yeshi Yin  1 , Yu Wang, Liying Zhu, Wei Liu, Ningbo Liao, Mizu Jiang, Baoli Zhu, Hongwei D Yu, Charlie Xiang, Xin Wang
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparative analysis of the distribution of segmented filamentous bacteria in humans, mice and chickens

Yeshi Yin et al. ISME J. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) are indigenous gut commensal bacteria. They are commonly detected in the gastrointestinal tracts of both vertebrates and invertebrates. Despite the significant role they have in the modulation of the development of host immune systems, little information exists regarding the presence of SFB in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution and diversity of SFB in humans and to determine their phylogenetic relationships with their hosts. Gut contents from 251 humans, 92 mice and 72 chickens were collected for bacterial genomic DNA extraction and subjected to SFB 16S rRNA-specific PCR detection. The results showed SFB colonization to be age-dependent in humans, with the majority of individuals colonized within the first 2 years of life, but this colonization disappeared by the age of 3 years. Results of 16S rRNA sequencing showed that multiple operational taxonomic units of SFB could exist in the same individuals. Cross-species comparison among human, mouse and chicken samples demonstrated that each host possessed an exclusive predominant SFB sequence. In summary, our results showed that SFB display host specificity, and SFB colonization, which occurs early in human life, declines in an age-dependent manner.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Phylogenetic relationships among the SFB (segmented filamentous bacteria) of human, mouse and chicken origin as shown by 16S rRNA sequencing. Five hundred and fifty-seven sequences corresponding to SFB 16S rRNA genes between primers 779F and 1380R were obtained from human, mouse and chicken samples. In each sample, the same sequences were deleted except one, which was preserved for further analysis. Fifteen published SFB sequences and ten closed Clostridium sequences were downloaded from the NCBI GenBank. In all, 342 sequences were aligned using ClustalX1.83. These were then used to construct a phylogenetic tree using MEGA 4.1 and a neighbor-joining algorithm. The red upward-facing triangles represent sequences of human fecal samples; the green squares represent mouse samples; the yellow downward-facing triangles represent chicken gut samples; the blue spindles represent published SFB sequences downloaded from NCBI and the cyan spindles represent the close Clostridium sequences downloaded from NCBI. The details of the human SFB branch, chicken SFB branch, mouse SFB branch and Clostridium branch are listed in Supplementary Figure S4. The color reproduction of this figure is available at The ISME Journal online.
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