Abstract
The maintenance and significance of the complex populations of microbes present in the mammalian intestine are poorly understood. Comparison of conventionally housed and germ-free NMRI mice revealed that production of fucosylated glycoconjugates and an alpha1, 2-fucosyltransferase messenger RNA in the small-intestinal epithelium requires the normal microflora. Colonization of germ-free mice with Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a component of this flora, restored the fucosylation program, whereas an isogenic strain carrying a transposon insertion that disrupts its ability to use L-fucose as a carbon source did not. Simplified models such as this should aid the study of open microbial ecosystems.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Bacteroides / growth & development
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Bacteroides / metabolism
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Bacteroides / physiology*
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Base Sequence
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Cell Differentiation
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Cell Lineage
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Colony Count, Microbial
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Ecosystem
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Fucose / metabolism*
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Fucosyltransferases / genetics
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Fucosyltransferases / metabolism
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Galactoside 2-alpha-L-fucosyltransferase
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Germ-Free Life
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Glycoconjugates / metabolism*
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Intestinal Mucosa / cytology
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Intestinal Mucosa / microbiology*
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Intestine, Small / cytology
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Intestine, Small / metabolism
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Intestine, Small / microbiology*
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Male
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Mice
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Mice, Inbred Strains
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Polymerase Chain Reaction
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RNA, Messenger / metabolism
Substances
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Glycoconjugates
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RNA, Messenger
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Fucose
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Fucosyltransferases