Alterations in the gut microbiota play a crucial role in host physiology and metabolism; however, the molecular pathways underlying these changes in diet-induced obesity are unclear. Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is associated with metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Therefore, we examined whether changes in the regulation of mTOR signaling induced by diet (a high-fat diet [HFD] or normal-chow diet) and/or therapeutics (resveratrol [a specific inhibitor of mTOR complex 1] or rapamycin [an inhibitor of both mTOR complex 1 and 2]) altered the composition of the gut microbiota in mice. Oral administration of resveratrol prevented glucose intolerance and fat accumulation in HFD-fed mice, whereas rapamycin significantly impaired glucose tolerance and exacerbated intestinal inflammation. The abundance of Lactococcus, Clostridium XI, Oscillibacter, and Hydrogenoanaerobacterium increased under the HFD condition; however, the abundance of these species declined after resveratrol treatment. Conversely, the abundance of unclassified Marinilabiliaceae and Turicibacter decreased in response to a HFD or rapamycin. Taken together, these results demonstrated that changes in the composition of intestinal microbiota induced by changes in mTOR activity correlate with obese and diabetic phenotypes.

Calf diarrhea is associated with enteric infections, and also provokes the overuse of antibiotics. Therefore, proper treatment of diarrhea represents a therapeutic challenge in livestock production and public health concerns. Here, we describe the ability of a fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), to ameliorate diarrhea and restore gut microbial composition in 57 growing calves. We conduct multi-omics analysis of 450 longitudinally collected fecal samples and find that FMT-induced alterations in the gut microbiota (an increase in the family Porphyromonadaceae) and metabolomic profile (a reduction in fecal amino acid concentration) strongly correlate with the remission of diarrhea. During the continuous follow-up study over 24 months, we find that FMT improves the growth performance of the cattle. This first FMT trial in ruminants suggest that FMT is capable of ameliorating diarrhea in pre-weaning calves with alterations in their gut microbiota, and that FMT may have a potential role in the improvement of growth performance.

As part of a study to investigate the microbial diversity in the intestine of Apis mellifera, we isolated strain MRM1T from the midgut. MRM1T was a Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile, non-spore forming and rod-shaped bacteria. Creamy beige-coloured colonies were circular with entire margins in Lactobacilli MRS agar. The strain grew at 25-37 °C (optimum, 30-37 °C) and at a pH range of 4.0 to 9.0 (optimum pH, 7.0-8.5). The strain tolerated 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl (optimal growth occurred in the absence of NaCl). On the basis of the results of a phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences, we determined that MRM1T represents a member of the genus Bombella with the highest sequence similarity to Bombella intestini LMG 28161T (98.8 %). The major quinone was Q10, and dominant fatty acids (>10 %) were C19 : 0cyclo ω8c (33.6 %), C16 : 0 (22.2 %), C18 : 1ω7c (15.9 %) and C14 : 0 (12.5 %). The polar lipid profile of MRM1T included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, one unidentified phospholipid and four unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of MRM1T was 59.5 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, MRM1T represents a novel species of the genus Bombella, for which the name Bombella apis sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain MRM1T (=KCTC 52452T=JCM 31623T).

Endozoicomonas atrinae sp. nov., isolated from the intestine of a comb pen shell Atrina pectinata A novel bacterium, designated strain WP70 T , was isolated from the gut of a comb pen shell (Atrina pectinata) collected from the southern sea of Yeosu in Korea. The isolate was Gram-stainnegative, aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain WP70 T belonged to the genus Endozoicomonas. The highest level of sequence similarity (98.4 %) was shared with Endozoicomonas elysicola MKT110 T . Optimal growth occurred in 2 % (w/v) NaCl at 30 6C and at pH 7. The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C 16 : 1 v7c and/or C 16 : 1 v6c), summed feature 8 (C 18 : 1 v7c and/or C 18 : 1 v6c) and C 16 : 0 . The main respiratory quinone was Q-9. The polar lipids comprised phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, three unidentified phospholipids, an unidentified aminolipid, an unidentified aminophospholipid and an unidentified lipid. The genomic DNA G+C content was 50.5 mol% and DNA-DNA hybridization values indicated ,11 % genomic relatedness to the closest species. Physiological, biochemical, chemotaxonomic and genotypic analyses indicated that strain WP70 T represents a novel species of the genus Endozoicomonas, for which the name Endozoicomonas atrinae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WP70 T (5KACC 17474 T 5JCM 19190 T ).The genus Endozoicomonas belongs to the order Oceanospirillales within the class Gammaproteobacteria, and was first proposed by Kurahashi & Yokota (2007). Members of the genus Endozoicomonas are Gram-stain-negative and strictly aerobic or facultatively anaerobic rod-shaped bacteria, and at the time of writing there are five species of the genus with validly published names: Endozoicomonas elysicola (Kurahashi & Yokota, 2007), Endozoicomonas montiporae (Yang et al., 2010), Endozoicomonas numazuensis (Nishijima et al., 2013), Endozoicomonas euniceicola and Endozoicomonas gorgoniicola (Pike et al., 2013). All species of the genus Endozoicomonas were isolated from marine environments; sources include sponges (Nishijima et al., 2013), corals (Pike et al., 2013, Yang et al., 2010 and sea slugs (Kurahashi & Yokota, 2007).The comb pen shell (Atrina pectinata) belongs to the Pinnidae family, and is a large wedge-or fan-shaped suspension-feeding bivalve (Okutani, 1997), which is a valuable seafood resource in Korea, China and Japan. It is distributed throughout the coastal waters of East Asia, and its habitat ranges from muddy-to-sandy sediments to tidal flats or shallow subtidal environments up to 20 m deep (Yurimoto et al., 2003). Although three bacterial species have been isolated from Atrina pectinata-associated sources, Agromyces atrinae and Kocuria atrinae from fermented Atrina pectinata seafood (Park et al., 2010a, b) and Polaribacter atrinae from the gut of Atrina pectinata (Hyun et al., 2014), information about the microbiota within live comb pen shells is limited. Here, a novel Endozoicomonaslike ...

Orbus sasakiae sp. nov., a bacterium isolated from the gut of the butterfly Sasakia charonda, and emended description of the genus Orbus Joon Yong Kim, Jina Lee, Na-Ri Shin, Ji-Hyun Yun, Tae Woong Whon, Min-Soo Kim, Mi-Ja Jung, Seong Woon Roh, Dong-Wook Hyun and Jin-Woo Bae ). An emended description of the genus Orbus is provided.Orbus, a genus in the class Gammaproteobacteria, was first introduced by Volkmann et al. (2010). At the time of writing, Orbus hercynius is the only recognized species within this genus and was originally isolated from the faeces of wild boars in Germany. The major fatty acids of the genus Orbus are monounsaturated, even-numbered, straight-chain C 18 (C 18 : 1 v7c) and saturated, even-numbered, straight-chain C 16 (C 16 : 0 ) components (Volkmann et al., 2010). Here, we isolated an Orbus-like strain, designated C7 T , from butterfly gut. Based on taxonomic characterization and phylogenetic analysis, we propose that strain C7T represents a novel species belonging to the genus Orbus. Strain C7T was isolated from the gut of the butterfly Sasakia charonda in South Korea. Cells were isolated by the standard dilution-plating method and were incubated under aerobic conditions at 20 u C on trypticase soy agar (TSA; Difco). To obtain pure cultures, a single colony was repeatedly transferred. Gram reactions were performed using a Gram staining kit (bioMérieux) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Cell morphology and Gram staining of strain C7T were observed using a light microscope (ECLIPSE 50i; Nikon). Motility was examined by the method of Tittsler & Sandholzer (1936). Growth under anaerobic conditions was monitored after 7 days incubation in an anaerobic chamber (N 2 /H 2 /CO 2 , 90 : 5 : 5) at 37 u C on TSA medium. The growth of strain C7 T on CIN agar medium (CIN; BBL) was tested. Based on the experiments described above, strain C7T was determined to be coccoid (0.5-1.0 mm in diameter), Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic and non-motile. Growth of strain C7T was observed on CIN agar. All experiments were performed in triplicate.Growth at different temperatures (4, 15, 20, 25, 30, 37, 45 and 65 u C), pH values (pH 4.0-11.0, at intervals of 1.0 pH unit) and NaCl concentrations (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12 and 15 %, w/v) was tested in trypticase soy broth (TSB; Difco). pH was adjusted by adding the following buffers: 10 mM MES (C 6 H 13 NO 4 S) (for pH 4, 5 and 6), 10 mM TAPS (C 7 H 14 NO 6 S) (for pH 7, 8 and 9) or 10 mM Na 2 HPO 4 (for pH 10 and 11). The strains were cultivated in TSB at 20 u C for all experiments, unless stated otherwise. After incubation for 24 h, 48 h or 7 days, the turbidity of the cultures was measured as the optical density at 600 nm (OD 600 ) using a spectrophotometer (SYNERGY MX; BioTek). Strain C7T grew with 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl, atAbbreviations: PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; PG, phosphatidylglycerol.