Abstract
Active microbes likely have larger impact on gut health status compared to inactive or dormant microbes. We investigate the composition of active and total mucosal microbiota of treatment-naïve ulcerative colitis (UC) patients to determine the microbial picture at the start-up phase of disease, using both a 16S rRNA transcript and gene amplicon sequencing. DNA and RNA were isolated from the same mucosal colonic biopsies. Our aim was to identify active microbial members of the microbiota in early stages of disease and reveal which members are present, but do not act as major players. We demonstrated differences in active and total microbiota of UC patients when comparing inflamed to non-inflamed tissue. Several taxa, among them the Proteobacteria phyla and families therein, revealed lower transcriptional activity despite a high presence. The Bifidobacteriaceae family of the Actinobacteria phylum showed lower abundance in the active microbiota, although no difference in presence was detected. The most abundant microbiota members of the inflamed tissue in UC patients were not the most active. Knowledge of active members of microbiota in UC patients could enhance our understanding of disease etiology. The active microbial community composition did not deviate from the total when comparing UC patients to non-IBD controls.
Highlights
Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease represent two of the most common types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Forty-six ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and 39 symptomatic non-IBD controls were included in the study, and 114 and 39 biopsy samples were collected, respectively
The present study shows that the most abundant bacterial taxa, found in the inflamed and non-inflamed human mucosal tissue microbiota in UC patients, differed from the most active taxa
Summary
Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease represent two of the most common types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 16S rRNA gene sequencing is widely used for the determination of the total microbial community composition. A potential drawback in using 16S rRNA gene sequencing is that its results comprise a total mixture of active, dormant and dead bacteria. The observation that active microbes seem to have a larger impact on gut health status than inactive or dormant microbes highlights the importance of studying metabolically active microbiota in both diseased and healthy individuals[20,21,22]. We investigated the composition of both the active and total microbiota of newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve UC patients to uncover the microbial picture at the time of disease diagnosis
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