Escherichia coli limits Salmonella Typhimurium infections after diet shifts and fat-mediated microbiota perturbation in mice

• Published in: Nature microbiology Vol. 4; no. 12; pp. 2164 - 2174
• Main Authors: Wotzka, Sandra Y., Kreuzer, Markus, Maier, Lisa, Arnoldini, Markus, Nguyen, Bidong D., Brachmann, Alexander O., Berthold, Dorothée L., Zünd, Mirjam, Hausmann, Annika, Bakkeren, Erik, Hoces, Daniel, Gül, Ersin, Beutler, Markus, Dolowschiak, Tamas, Zimmermann, Michael, Fuhrer, Tobias, Moor, Kathrin, Sauer, Uwe, Typas, Athanasios, Piel, Jörn, Diard, Médéric, Macpherson, Andrew J., Stecher, Bärbel, Sunagawa, Shinichi, Slack, Emma, Hardt, Wolf-Dietrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.12.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/326/2565/2134; 631/326/41/2531; Animal Feed; Animals; Bile; Bile Acids and Salts - administration & dosage; Bile salts; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Colonization; Diet; Dietary Fats - administration & dosage; E coli; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - physiology; Female; Food composition; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Infectious Diseases; Letter; Life Sciences; Male; Medical Microbiology; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microbial Interactions; Microbiology; Microbiota; Oleic acid; Oleic Acids - administration & dosage; Parasitology; Pathogens; Plasmids; Salmonella; Salmonella Typhimurium; Salmonella typhimurium - physiology; Salts; Virology
• ISSN: 2058-5276
• DOI: 10.1038/s41564-019-0568-5

The microbiota confers colonization resistance, which blocks Salmonella gut colonization 1 . As diet affects microbiota composition, we studied whether food composition shifts enhance susceptibility to infection. Shifting mice to diets with reduced fibre or elevated fat content for 24 h boosted Salmonella Typhimurium or Escherichia coli gut colonization and plasmid transfer. Here, we studied the effect of dietary fat. Colonization resistance was restored within 48 h of return to maintenance diet. Salmonella gut colonization was also boosted by two oral doses of oleic acid or bile salts. These pathogen blooms required Salmonella ’s AcrAB/TolC-dependent bile resistance. Our data indicate that fat-elicited bile promoted Salmonella gut colonization. Both E. coli and Salmonella show much higher bile resistance than the microbiota. Correspondingly, competitive E. coli can be protective in the fat-challenged gut. Diet shifts and fat-elicited bile promote S . Typhimurium gut infections in mice lacking E. coli in their microbiota. This mouse model may be useful for studying pathogen–microbiota–host interactions, the protective effect of E. coli , to analyse the spread of resistance plasmids and assess the impact of food components on the infection process. Short-term exposure to a high-fat diet reduces colonization resistance to Salmonella Typhimurium infection in mice and is associated with increase bile salts and plasmid transfer; however, E. coli can provide a protective effect under these conditions.