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Biofilm feeding: Microbial colonization of food promotes the growth of a detritivorous arthropod.

ABSTRACT: Feeding on plant material is common among animals, but how different animals overcome the dietary deficiencies imposed by this feeding strategy is not well understood. Microorganisms are generally considered to play a vital role in the nutritional ecology of plant feeding animals. Commonly microbes living inside animal bodies are considered more important, but recent studies suggest external microbes significantly shape plant-feeding strategies in invertebrates. Here we investigate how external microbes that typically form biofilm on primary plant material affect growth rates in a terrestrial isopod species Porcellio scaber. We experimentally manipulated the amount of biofilm on three different primary diet sources and quantified growth and survival of individuals that fed on food with either a small or large amount of biofilm. In addition, we tested how dietary manipulation shapes the composition of bacterial communities in the gut. The presence of visible biofilm significantly affected the growth of isopods: individuals that fed on the primary diet source with a large amount of biofilm gained more mass than individuals feeding on a diet with marginal biofilm. Diet also significantly affected the bacterial gut community. The primary diet source mainly determined the taxonomic composition of the bacterial community in the isopod gut, whereas the amount of biofilm affected the relative abundance of bacterial taxa. Our study suggests that terrestrial isopods may cope with low-quality plant matter by feeding on biofilm, with decomposition of plant material by organisms outside of the feeding organism (here a terrestrial isopod) probably playing a major role. Future investigations may be directed towards the primary diet source, plant matter, and the secondary diet source, biofilm, and should assess if both components are indeed uptaken in detritivorous species.

SUBMITTER: Horvathova T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4829882 | biostudies-other | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:BackgroundOrogastric tube feeding is indicated in neonates with an impaired ability to ingest food normally and can be administered with an intermittent bolus or continuous feeding schedule.ObjectivesThe objectives were to 1) compare the long-term effect of continuous with intermittent feeding on growth using the newborn pig as a model, 2) determine whether feeding frequency alters lean tissue and fat mass gain, and 3) identify the signaling mechanisms by which protein deposition is controlled in skeletal muscle in response to feeding frequency.DesignNeonatal pigs were fed the same amount of a balanced formula by orogastric tube either as an intermittent bolus meal every 4 h (INT) or as a continuous infusion (CON). Body composition was assessed at the start and end of the study by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and hormone and substrate profiles, muscle mass, protein synthesis, and indexes of nutrient and insulin signaling were measured after 21 d.ResultsBody weight, lean mass, spine length, and skeletal muscle mass were greater in the INT group than in the CON group. Skeletal muscle fractional protein synthesis rates were greater in the INT group after a meal than in the CON group and were associated with higher circulating branched-chain amino acid and insulin concentrations. Skeletal muscle protein kinase B (PKB) and ribosomal protein S6 kinase phosphorylation and eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4E-eIF4G complex formation were higher, whereas eIF2? phosphorylation was lower in the INT group than in the CON group, indicating enhanced activation of insulin and amino acid signaling to translation initiation.ConclusionsThese results suggest that when neonates are fed the same amounts of nutrients as intermittent meals rather than continuously there is greater lean growth. This response can be ascribed, in part, to the pulsatile pattern of amino acids, insulin, or both induced by INT, which enables the responsiveness of anabolic pathways to feeding to be sustained chronically in skeletal muscle.

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Biofilm feeding: Microbial colonization of food promotes the growth of a detritivorous arthropod.

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