Cargando…
Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome
BACKGROUND: Several links have been established between the human gut microbiome and conditions such as obesity and inflammatory bowel syndrome. This highlights the importance of understanding what properties of the gut microbiome can affect the health of the human host. Studies have been undertaken...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2012
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3534369/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23116195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2180-12-248 |
_version_ | 1782475324498378752 |
---|---|
author | Meehan, Conor J Beiko, Robert G |
author_facet | Meehan, Conor J Beiko, Robert G |
author_sort | Meehan, Conor J |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Several links have been established between the human gut microbiome and conditions such as obesity and inflammatory bowel syndrome. This highlights the importance of understanding what properties of the gut microbiome can affect the health of the human host. Studies have been undertaken to determine the species composition of this microbiome and infer functional profiles associated with such host properties. However, lateral gene transfer (LGT) between community members may result in misleading taxonomic attributions for the recipient organisms, thus making species-function links difficult to establish. RESULTS: We identified a peptides/nickel transport complex whose components differed in abundance based upon levels of host obesity, and assigned the encoded proteins to members of the microbial community. Each protein was assigned to several distinct taxonomic groups, with moderate levels of agreement observed among different proteins in the complex. Phylogenetic trees of these proteins produced clusters that differed greatly from taxonomic attributions and indicated that habitat-directed LGT of this complex is likely to have occurred, though not always between the same partners. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that certain membrane transport systems may be an important factor within an obese-associated gut microbiome and that such complexes may be acquired several times by different strains of the same species. Additionally, an example of individual proteins from different organisms being transferred into one operon was observed, potentially demonstrating a functional complex despite the donors of the subunits being taxonomically disparate. Our results also highlight the potential impact of habitat-directed LGT on the resident microbiota. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3534369 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-35343692013-01-03 Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome Meehan, Conor J Beiko, Robert G BMC Microbiol Research Article BACKGROUND: Several links have been established between the human gut microbiome and conditions such as obesity and inflammatory bowel syndrome. This highlights the importance of understanding what properties of the gut microbiome can affect the health of the human host. Studies have been undertaken to determine the species composition of this microbiome and infer functional profiles associated with such host properties. However, lateral gene transfer (LGT) between community members may result in misleading taxonomic attributions for the recipient organisms, thus making species-function links difficult to establish. RESULTS: We identified a peptides/nickel transport complex whose components differed in abundance based upon levels of host obesity, and assigned the encoded proteins to members of the microbial community. Each protein was assigned to several distinct taxonomic groups, with moderate levels of agreement observed among different proteins in the complex. Phylogenetic trees of these proteins produced clusters that differed greatly from taxonomic attributions and indicated that habitat-directed LGT of this complex is likely to have occurred, though not always between the same partners. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that certain membrane transport systems may be an important factor within an obese-associated gut microbiome and that such complexes may be acquired several times by different strains of the same species. Additionally, an example of individual proteins from different organisms being transferred into one operon was observed, potentially demonstrating a functional complex despite the donors of the subunits being taxonomically disparate. Our results also highlight the potential impact of habitat-directed LGT on the resident microbiota. BioMed Central 2012-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3534369/ /pubmed/23116195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2180-12-248 Text en Copyright ©2012 Meehan and Beiko; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Meehan, Conor J Beiko, Robert G Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title | Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title_full | Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title_fullStr | Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title_full_unstemmed | Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title_short | Lateral gene transfer of an ABC transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
title_sort | lateral gene transfer of an abc transporter complex between major constituents of the human gut microbiome |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3534369/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23116195 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2180-12-248 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT meehanconorj lateralgenetransferofanabctransportercomplexbetweenmajorconstituentsofthehumangutmicrobiome AT beikorobertg lateralgenetransferofanabctransportercomplexbetweenmajorconstituentsofthehumangutmicrobiome |