396 Microbial Endocrinology: The intersection of microbiology and neurobiology to examine microbiome-behavior relationships including selectively bred taste phenotype.

摘要

The mechanisms which govern the ability of the microbiota to interact with the host extending from infection to behavior to taste are still incompletely understood. Microbial endocrinology, which represents the intersection of two seemingly disparate fields, microbiology and neurobiology, has been proposed as a mechanism by which the host and microbiota interact. Its use as a mechanism to explore bi-directional communication between the microbiota and host is based on the shared presence of neurochemicals that are exactly the same in structure in the host as well as in the microorganism. As such, neurochemistry serves as a common evolutionary-based language by which the microbiota communicates with the host in a bi-directional manner. To date, we have demonstrated the relevance of microbial endocrinology in infectious disease where microbial recognition of host stress-based neurochemicals contributes to pathogenicity. Further, shared neurochemistry has been shown to be an integral part of the microbiota-gut-brain axis contributing to microbiota-driven changes in animal behavior. In order to demonstrate its possible relevance to taste, we employed rats which have been selectively bred over many generations to exhibit a taste phenotype displaying low or high-saccharin consumption. Utilizing Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing and multivariate analysis of microbial community and composition we have shown for the first time that rodent lines created through selective pressure on taste differ in microbial community structure. We are examining whether microbiota from several animal species differ in their capacity to produce neurochemicals that may impact taste and host behavior such as through the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Isolates from microbial niches obtained from dairy cattle, pigs and chickens are being examined for neurochemical production in an in vitro system that employs the same feed as consumed by the animal. The goal is to identify the potential of the microbiota to influence behavior and taste of the host.