Project description:Submerged cultivation using low-value agro-industrial side streams allows large-scale and efficient production of fungal mycelia, which has a high nutritional value. As the dietary properties of fungal mycelia in poultry are largely unknown, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of feeding a Pleurotus sapidus (PSA) mycelium as a feed supplement on growth performance, composition of the cecal microbiota and several physiological traits including gut integrity, nutrient digestibility, liver lipids, liver transcriptome and plasma metabolome in broilers. 72 male, 1-day-old Cobb 500 broilers were randomly assigned to three different groups and fed three different adequate diets containing either 0% (PSA-0), 2.5% (PSA-2.5) and 5% (PSA-5.0) P. sapidus mycelium in a three-phase feeding system for 35 days. Each group consisted of 6 cages (replicates) with 4 broilers/cage. Body weight gain, feed intake and feed:gain ratio and apparent ileal digestibility of crude protein, ether extract and amino acids were not different between groups. Metagenomic analysis of the cecal microbiota revealed no differences between groups, except that one α-diversity metric (Shannon index) and the abundance of two low-abundance bacterial taxa (Clostridia UCG 014, Eubacteriales) differed between groups (P < 0.05). Concentrations of total and individual short-chain fatty acids in the cecal digesta and concentrations of plasma lipopolysaccharide and mRNA levels of proinflammatory genes, tight-junction proteins, and mucins in the cecum mucosa did not differ between groups. None of the plasma metabolites analyzed using targeted-metabolomics differed across the groups. Hepatic transcript profiling revealed a total of 144 transcripts to be differentially expressed between group PSA-5.0 and group PSA-0 but none of these genes was regulated greater 2-fold. Considering either the lack of effects or the very weak effects of feeding the P. sapidus mycelium in the broilers it can be concluded that inclusion of a sustainably produced fungal mycelium in broiler diets at the expense of other feed components has no negative consequences on broilers´ performance and metabolism.

Project description:Chronic diseases arise when pathophysiological processes achieve a steady state by self-reinforcing. Here, we explored the possibility of a self-reinforcement state in a common condition, chronic constipation, where alterations of the gut microbiota have been reported. The functional impact of the microbiota shifts on host physiology remains unclear, however we hypothesized that microbial communities adapted to slow gastrointestinal transit affect host functions in a way that reinforces altered transit, thereby maintaining the advantage for microbial self-selection. To test this, we examined the impact of pharmacologically (loperamide)-induced constipation (PIC) on the structural and functional profile of altered gut microbiota. PIC promoted changes in the gut microbiome, characterized by decreased representation of butyrate-producing Clostridiales, decreased cecal butyrate concentration and altered metabolic profiles of gut microbiota. PIC-associated gut microbiota also impacted colonic gene expression, suggesting this might be a basis for decreased gastrointestinal (GI) motor function. Introduction of PIC-associated cecal microbiota into germ-free (GF) mice significantly decreased GI transit time. Our findings therefore support the concept that chronic diseases like constipation are caused by disease-associated steady states, in this case, caused by reciprocating reinforcement of pathophysiological factors in host-microbe interactions. We used microarrays to detail the global gene expression profile in the proximal colon smooth muscle tissues of germ-free, conventionalized, or specific pathogen free mouse C57Bl/6 female and male specific pathogen free (SPF) mice were bred and housed in the animal care facility at the University of Chicago. Mice of 8–10 weeks of age were treated with 0.1% loperamide in the drinking water for 7 days. Age matched, germ-free (GF) C57Bl/6 mice were gavaged orally with cecal luminal contents harvested from control or loperamide-treated C57Bl/6 donor mice. Recipient mice were sacrificed 4 weeks post-colonization.

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