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Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota

While the diversity of the human gut microbiota is becoming increasingly well characterized, bacterial physiology is still a critical missing link in understanding how the gut microbiota may be implicated in disease. The current best practice for studying bacterial physiology involves the immediate...

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Autores principales: Taguer, Mariia, Quillier, Ophélie, Maurice, Corinne F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7866891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33604166
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10602
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author Taguer, Mariia
Quillier, Ophélie
Maurice, Corinne F.
author_facet Taguer, Mariia
Quillier, Ophélie
Maurice, Corinne F.
author_sort Taguer, Mariia
collection PubMed
description While the diversity of the human gut microbiota is becoming increasingly well characterized, bacterial physiology is still a critical missing link in understanding how the gut microbiota may be implicated in disease. The current best practice for studying bacterial physiology involves the immediate storage of fecal samples in an anaerobic chamber. This reliance on immediate access to anaerobic chambers greatly limits the scope of sample populations that can be studied. Here, we assess the effects of short-term oxygen exposure on gut bacterial physiology and diversity. We use relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity as markers of bacterial physiology, and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to measure bacterial diversity. Samples were stored for up to 6 h in either ambient conditions or in anoxic environments created with gas packs or in an anaerobic chamber. Our data indicate that AnaeroGen sachets preserve bacterial membrane integrity and nucleic acid content over the course of 6 h similar to storage in an anaerobic chamber. Short-term oxygen exposure increases bacterial membrane permeability, without exceeding inter-individual differences. As oxygen exposure remains an important experimental consideration for bacterial metabolism, our data suggest that AnaeroGen sachets are a valid alternative limiting loss of membrane integrity for short-term storage of samples from harder-to-access populations.
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spelling pubmed-78668912021-02-17 Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota Taguer, Mariia Quillier, Ophélie Maurice, Corinne F. PeerJ Ecology While the diversity of the human gut microbiota is becoming increasingly well characterized, bacterial physiology is still a critical missing link in understanding how the gut microbiota may be implicated in disease. The current best practice for studying bacterial physiology involves the immediate storage of fecal samples in an anaerobic chamber. This reliance on immediate access to anaerobic chambers greatly limits the scope of sample populations that can be studied. Here, we assess the effects of short-term oxygen exposure on gut bacterial physiology and diversity. We use relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity as markers of bacterial physiology, and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to measure bacterial diversity. Samples were stored for up to 6 h in either ambient conditions or in anoxic environments created with gas packs or in an anaerobic chamber. Our data indicate that AnaeroGen sachets preserve bacterial membrane integrity and nucleic acid content over the course of 6 h similar to storage in an anaerobic chamber. Short-term oxygen exposure increases bacterial membrane permeability, without exceeding inter-individual differences. As oxygen exposure remains an important experimental consideration for bacterial metabolism, our data suggest that AnaeroGen sachets are a valid alternative limiting loss of membrane integrity for short-term storage of samples from harder-to-access populations. PeerJ Inc. 2021-02-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7866891/ /pubmed/33604166 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10602 Text en © 2021 Taguer et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Taguer, Mariia
Quillier, Ophélie
Maurice, Corinne F.
Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title_full Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title_fullStr Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title_full_unstemmed Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title_short Effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
title_sort effects of oxygen exposure on relative nucleic acid content and membrane integrity in the human gut microbiota
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7866891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33604166
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10602
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