Host-microbial symbiosis in the mammalian intestine: exploring an internal ecosystem.

The mammalian intestine contains a complex, dynamic, and spatially diversified society of nonpathogenic bacteria. Very little is known about the factors that help establish host-microbial symbiosis in this open ecosystem. By introducing single genetically manipulatable components of the microflora into germfree mice, simplified model systems have been created that will allow conversations between host and microbe to be heard and understood. Other paradigms of host-microbial symbiosis suggest that these interactions will involve an exchange of biochemical signals between host and symbionts as well as among the bacteria themselves. The integration of molecular microbiology, cell biology, and gnotobiology should provide new insights about how we adapt to a microbial world and reveal the roles played by our indigenous, 'nonpathogenic' flora.

[1]  J. Leedle,et al.  CHAPTER 6 – Carbohydrate Metabolism in the Human Colon , 1983 .

[2]  T. Midtvedt,et al.  The Establishment of Some Microflora Associated Biochemical Characteristics in Feces from Children during the First Years of Life , 1985, Acta paediatrica Scandinavica.

[3]  W. Moore,et al.  Human fecal flora: the normal flora of 20 Japanese-Hawaiians. , 1974, Applied microbiology.

[4]  M. Pirhonen,et al.  A small diffusible signal molecule is responsible for the global control of virulence and exoenzyme production in the plant pathogen Erwinia carotovora. , 1993, The EMBO journal.

[5]  W. Wenzhi,et al.  Molecular analysis of the composition of the bifidobacterial and lactobacillus microflora of humans , 1996, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[6]  R. Beavis,et al.  Bacterial interference caused by autoinducing peptide variants. , 1997, Science.

[7]  P. Lerouge,et al.  Sulphated lipo-oligosaccharide signals of Rhizobium meliloti elicit root nodule organogenesis in alfalfa , 1991, Nature.

[8]  Philippe Roche,et al.  Symbiotic host-specificity of Rhizobium meliloti is determined by a sulphated and acylated glucosamine oligosaccharide signal , 1990, Nature.

[9]  J. Gordon,et al.  Differentiation and self-renewal in the mouse gastrointestinal epithelium. , 1994, Current opinion in cell biology.

[10]  P. Lerouge,et al.  Structural determination of bacterial nodulation factors involved in the Rhizobium meliloti-alfalfa symbiosis. , 1991, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[11]  A. Salyers,et al.  Competitiveness of different polysaccharide utilization mutants of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in the intestinal tracts of germfree mice , 1989, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[12]  J. Gordon,et al.  A Model of Host-Microbial Interactions in an Open Mammalian Ecosystem , 1996, Science.

[13]  G. Belle,et al.  Prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea by Saccharomyces boulardii: a prospective study. , 1989, Gastroenterology.

[14]  D. Waaij.  The Ecology of the Human Intestine and its Consequences for Overgrowth by Pathogens such as Clostridium Difficile , 1989 .

[15]  A. Kuspa,et al.  Identification of heat-stable A-factor from Myxococcus xanthus , 1992, Journal of bacteriology.

[16]  A. Grossman,et al.  Purification and characterization of an extracellular peptide factor that affects two different developmental pathways in Bacillus subtilis. , 1996, Genes & development.

[17]  D. Savage.  Microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract. , 1977, Annual review of microbiology.

[18]  E. Greenberg,et al.  Census and consensus in bacterial ecosystems: the LuxR-LuxI family of quorum-sensing transcriptional regulators. , 1996, Annual review of microbiology.

[19]  V. Rotimi,et al.  The development of the bacterial flora in normal neonates. , 1981, Journal of medical microbiology.

[20]  D. Kaiser.  Bacteria Also Vote , 1996, Science.

[21]  Y. Umesaki,et al.  Abrupt induction of GDP-fucose: asialo GM1 fucosyltransferase in the small intestine after conventionalization of germ-free mice. , 1982, Biochemical and biophysical research communications.

[22]  Robert F. Fisher,et al.  Rhizobium–plant signal exchange , 1992, Nature.

[23]  Y. Umesaki.  Immunohistochemical and biochemical demonstration of the change in glycolipid composition of the intestinal epithelial cell surface in mice in relation to epithelial cell differentiation and bacterial association. , 1984, The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society.

[24]  K. Norin.  Influence of antibiotics on some intestinal microflora associated characteristics. , 1997, Anaerobe.

[25]  A. Imaoka,et al.  Segmented Filamentous Bacteria Are Indigenous Intestinal Bacteria That Activate Intraepithelial Lymphocytes and Induce MHC Class II Molecules and Fucosyl Asialo GM1 Glycolipids on the Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells in the Ex‐Germ‐Free Mouse , 1995, Microbiology and immunology.

[26]  R. Berg,et al.  The indigenous gastrointestinal microflora. , 1996, Trends in microbiology.

[27]  G. Salmond,et al.  A general role for the lux autoinducer in bacterial cell signalling: control of antibiotic biosynthesis in Erwinia. , 1992, Gene.

[28]  G. Larson,et al.  Degradation of human intestinal glycosphingolipids by extracellular glycosidases from mucin-degrading bacteria of the human fecal flora. , 1988, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[29]  C. Surawicz,et al.  Treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile colitis with vancomycin and Saccharomyces boulardii. , 1989, The American journal of gastroenterology.

[30]  C. Nord,et al.  Isolation and characterization of a mucin-degrading strain of Peptostreptococcus from rat intestinal tract. , 2009, Acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica. Section B, Microbiology.

[31]  G. Stacey,et al.  A 2-O-methylfucose moiety is present in the lipo-oligosaccharide nodulation signal of Bradyrhizobium japonicum. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[32]  E. Ruby,et al.  Lessons from a cooperative, bacterial-animal association: the Vibrio fischeri-Euprymna scolopes light organ symbiosis. , 1996, Annual review of microbiology.

[33]  René Dubos,et al.  THE GASTROINTESTINAL EPITHELIUM AND ITS AUTOCHTHONOUS BACTERIAL FLORA , 1968, The Journal of experimental medicine.

[34]  W. Fuqua,et al.  A LuxR-LuxI type regulatory system activates Agrobacterium Ti plasmid conjugal transfer in the presence of a plant tumor metabolite , 1994, Journal of bacteriology.