Orthogonal Dietary Niche Enables Reversible Engraftment of a Gut Bacterial Commensal

Abstract

Interest in manipulating the gut microbiota to treat disease has led to a need for understanding how organisms can establish themselves when introduced into a host with an intact microbial community. Here, we employ the concept of orthogonal niche engineering: a resource typically absent fromthe diet, seaweed, creates a customized niche foran introduced organism. In the short term, co-introduction of this resource at 1% in the dietalong with an organism with exclusive access to this resource, Bacteroides plebeius DSM 17135, enables it to colonize at a median abundance of 1%and frequently up to 10 or more percent, both on pulsedand constant seaweed diets. In a two-monthfollow-up after the initial treatment period, B.plebeius stops responding to seaweed in mice initially on the constant seaweed diet, suggesting treatment regime will affect controllability. These results offer potential for diet-based intervention to introduce and control target organisms.