Mucosal Microbiota and Metabolome along the Intestinal Tract Reveal a Location-Specific Relationship
Ce Yuan, Melanie L. Graham, Christopher Staley, Subbaya Subramanian
Abstract
In a healthy colon, the microbiota produces a vast amount of metabolites that are essential to maintaining homeostasis in the colon microenvironment. In fact, these metabolites produced by the microbiota have been linked to diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and colorectal cancer. In this study, we used healthy nonhuman primate models to investigate the relationship between microbiota and tissue metabolites. We found that both microbiota and metabolites have location-specific signatures along the intestine. Most importantly, we found that metabolites from food sources correlate with multiple bacteria in different intestinal locations. Overall, this work presents a systems-level map of the association between the microbiota and the metabolites in healthy nonhuman primates, provides candidates for experimental validation, and suggests a possibility to regulate the gut microbiota through specific prebiotic combinations.