Colonizing the embryonic zebrafish gut with anaerobic bacteria derived from the human gastrointestinal tract

Zebrafish. 2013 Jun;10(2):194-8. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2012.0814. Epub 2013 Mar 26.

Abstract

The zebrafish has become increasingly popular for microbiological research. It has been used as an infection model for a variety of pathogens, and is also emerging as a tool for studying interactions between a host and its resident microbial communities. The mouse microbiota has been transplanted into the zebrafish gut, but to our knowledge, there has been no attempt to introduce a bacterial community derived from the human gut. We explored two methods for colonizing the developing gut of 5-day-old germ-free zebrafish larvae with a defined anaerobic microbial community derived from a single human fecal sample. Both environmental exposure (static immersion) and direct microinjection into the gut resulted in the establishment of two species-Lactobacillus paracasei and Eubacterium limosum-from a community of 30 strains consisting of 22 anaerobic species. Of particular interest is E. limosum, which, as a strict anaerobe, represents a group of bacteria which until now have not been shown to colonize the developing zebrafish gut. Our success here indicates that further investigation of zebrafish as a tool for studying human gut microbial communities is warranted.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria, Anaerobic / genetics
  • Bacteria, Anaerobic / growth & development
  • Bacteria, Anaerobic / isolation & purification*
  • Bacteria, Anaerobic / metabolism
  • Eubacterium / genetics
  • Eubacterium / growth & development
  • Eubacterium / isolation & purification
  • Eubacterium / metabolism
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Gastrointestinal Tract / microbiology*
  • Germ-Free Life*
  • Humans
  • Immersion
  • Lactobacillus / genetics
  • Lactobacillus / growth & development
  • Lactobacillus / isolation & purification
  • Lactobacillus / metabolism
  • Larva / growth & development
  • Larva / microbiology
  • Microinjections
  • Models, Animal*
  • Zebrafish / growth & development
  • Zebrafish / microbiology*