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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Meehan, Conor J, Beiko, Robert G
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