The Effects of Rhodobacter sphaeroides on the Composition of Gut Microbiota and Short-chain Fatty Acids in Mice

Cui Yang¹, Na Luan¹, Jun An², Michael Zhang³, Zuming Li^1, , Qian Li¹, Yuxi Ling¹, Xiaohui Niu¹, Zhihui Bai⁴ and Wentao Xu⁵

¹College of Biochemical Engineering, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100023, China

²Beijing Key Laboratory of Forest Food Processing and Safety, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada

⁴Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

⁵College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Cite this paper:
Cui Yang, Na Luan, Jun An, Michael Zhang, Zuming Li, Qian Li, Yuxi Ling, Xiaohui Niu, Zhihui Bai and Wentao Xu. The Effects of Rhodobacter sphaeroides on the Composition of Gut Microbiota and Short-chain Fatty Acids in Mice. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2020; 8(6):288-296. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-8-6-7

Abstract

This study aims to determine the effects of Rhodobacter sphaeroides 8513 on the physiological and biochemical indicators, short-chain fatty acids, and gut microbiota of healthy BALB/c mice. Mice were divided into the control group and R. sphaeroides group (5×10⁸ CFU/mL). After 28 days of continuous gavage, fecal samples were collected for high-throughput sequencing, then mice were sacrificed and the serum was taken for biochemical analysis. Liver, kidney, and spleen were obtained for organ coefficient calculation, and cecum contents were collected for short-chain fatty acid analysis by gas chromatography. The results showed that there was no significant difference in body weight gain, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and urea nitrogen (BUN) levels between the control group and R. sphaeroides group, while R. sphaeroides significantly decreased the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatinine (CRE) level. No side effect of R. sphaeroides treatment on the basic physiological health of mice was observed. R. sphaeroides significantly increased the content of acetic acids in the gut of mice, while there were no significant changes in the concentration of butyric and propionic acid. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in α-diversity between these 2 groups, while there was no significant difference in β-diversity between them. R. sphaeroides not only increased the abundance of anaerobic bacteria of Rhodospirillaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, and Helicobacter in the gut of mice, but also increased the abundance of the predominant microflora in the gut such as Bacteroidaceae (Bacteroides), Prevotellaceae, Clostridiales_vadinBB60_group (Closporaceae). These results suggested that R. sphaeroides 8513 could modulate the microbial ecology in the gut of mice.

Keywords:
Rhodobacter sphaeroides gut microbiota short-chain fatty acids high-throughput sequencing mice

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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