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      Clostridium difficile colonizes alternative nutrient niches during infection across distinct murine gut microbiomes

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      bioRxiv

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          Abstract

          Clostridium difficile is the largest single cause of hospital-acquired infection in the United States. A major risk factor for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is prior exposure to antibiotics, as they disrupt the gut bacterial community which protects from C. difficile colonization. Multiple antibiotic classes have been associated with CDI susceptibility; many leading to distinct community structures stemming from variation in bacterial targets of action. These community structures present separate metabolic challenges to C. difficile . Therefore we hypothesized that the pathogen adapts its physiology to the nutrients within different gut environments. Utilizing an in vivo CDI model, we demonstrated C. difficile highly colonized ceca of mice pretreated with any of three antibiotics from distinct classes. Levels of C. difficile spore formation and toxin activity varied between animals based on the antibiotic pretreatment. These physiologic processes in C. difficile are partially regulated by environmental nutrient concentrations. To investigate metabolic responses of the bacterium in vivo, we performed transcriptomic analysis of C. difficile from ceca of infected mice across pretreatments. This revealed heterogeneous expression in numerous catabolic pathways for diverse growth substrates. To assess which resources C. difficile exploited, we developed a genome-scale metabolic model with a transcriptome-enabled metabolite scoring algorithm integrating network architecture. This platform identified nutrients C. difficile used preferentially between pretreatments, which were validated through untargeted mass spectrometry of each microbiome. Our results supported the hypothesis that C. difficile inhabits alternative nutrient niches across cecal microbiomes with increased preference for nitrogen-containing carbon sources, particularly Stickland fermentation substrates and host-derived glycans.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          bioRxiv
          December 07 2016
          Article
          10.1101/092304
          4183ad6e-557d-4b4a-8a03-94b291d3eba6
          © 2016
          History

          Microbiology & Virology
          Microbiology & Virology

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