Higher-Level Production of Volatile Fatty Acids In Vitro by Chicken Gut Microbiotas than by Human Gut Microbiotas as Determined by Functional Analyses

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the composition and function of gut microbiota. Here, we compared the bacterial compositions and fermentation metabolites of human and chicken gut microbiotas. Results generated by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3 region showed the compositions of human and chicken microbiotas to be markedly different, with chicken cecal microbiotas displaying more diversity than human fecal microbiotas. The nutrient requirements of each microbiota growing under batch and chemostat conditions were analyzed. The results showed that chicken cecal microbiotas required simple sugars and peptides to maintain balanced growth in vitro but that human fecal microbiotas preferred polysaccharides and proteins. Chicken microbiotas also produced higher concentrations of volatile fatty acids than did human microbiotas. Our data suggest that the availability of different fermentable substrates in the chicken cecum, which exist due to the unique anatomical structure of the cecum, may provide an environment favorable to the nourishment of microbiotas suited to the production of the higher-energy metabolites required by the bird. Therefore, gut structure, nutrition, immunity, and life-style all contribute to the selection of an exclusive bacterial community that produces types of metabolites beneficial to the host.

An In Vitro Chicken Gut Model Demonstrates Transfer of a Multidrug Resistance Plasmid from Salmonella to Commensal Escherichia coli

“…However, importantly, the community appeared to be stabilizing by day 6 and did not come to be dominated by a single taxon. The changes in bacterial community we observed reflect the differing abilities of bacteria to grow under the culture conditions used, and such changes in bacterial community during a chemostat experiment are widely reported and not unexpected (17, 21–24, 29). Indeed, analysis using culture-independent methods, as performed in our study, is more likely to reveal these changes, since it provides much greater insight into microbial communities present in chemostat models than that offered by many other methods that have been used to examine chemostat bacterial populations, such as short-chain fatty acid production, detection of selected bacterial taxa by culture or PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and qualitative methods such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (18).…”

Assembly of hundreds of novel bacterial genomes from the chicken caecum

“…The function of the cecal microbiota in commercial chicken flocks remains somewhat unclear (16). However, several studies have implicated it as playing a role in nutrition, including in the production of SCFAs and the recycling of nitrogen from uric acid (10, 11, 76). Differences have also been observed in the cecal microbiota communities between chickens with differing feed efficiencies and abdominal fat accumulation (13–15).…”

Intestinal microbiome of poultry and its interaction with host and diet

“…8,14 A recent study demonstrated in vitro that the chicken intestinal microbiome required simple sugars and peptides for balanced growth whereas human intestinal microbiome preferred polysaccharides and proteins. 16 Chicken microbiome also produced greater concentrations of SCFAs than human microbiome. Given the shorter digestive tract and faster digesta transit in poultry than in mammalian animals, more sugars and peptides may be available in the intestines of poultry than in the colon of human, which in turn selected an intestinal microbiome adapted to simple sugars and peptides.…”