Diversity and dynamics of bacteriocins from the human microbiome

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Zheng, Jinshui
  • Gänzle, Michael G.
  • Lin, Xiaoxi B.
  • Ruan, Lifang
  • Sun, Ming

• Human commensal microbiota are an important determinant of health and disease of the host. Different human body sites harbour different bacterial microbiota, bacterial communities that maintain a stable balance. However, many of the factors influencing the stabilities of bacterial communities associated with humans remain unknown. In this study, we identified putative bacteriocins produced by human commensal microbiota. Bacteriocins are peptides or proteins with antimicrobial activity that contribute to the stability and dynamics of microbial communities. We employed bioinformatic analyses to identify putative bacteriocin sequences in metagenomic sequences obtained from different human body sites. Prevailing bacterial taxa of the putative bacteriocins producers matched the most abundant organisms in each human body site. Remarkably, we found that samples from different body sites contain different density of putative bacteriocin genes, with the highest in samples from the vagina, the airway, and the oral cavity and the lowest in those from gut. Inherent differences of different body sites thus influence the density and types of bacteriocins produced by commensal bacteria. Our results suggest that bacteriocins play important roles to allow different bacteria to occupy several human body sites, and to establish a long-term commensal relationship with human hosts.

• Date created

  2015-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Streptococcus-Mutans
  • Class-II Bacteriocins
  • Gram-Positive Bacteria
  • Mode
  • Oral-Cavity
  • Visualization
  • Human Gut Microbiome
  • Sequence
  • Biosynthesis
  • Lactic-Acid Bacteria

• Type of Item

  Article (Draft / Submitted)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-6bgs-b350

• License

  © 2014 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: "Zheng, J., Gänzle, M. G., Lin, X. B., Ruan, L., & Sun, M. (2015). Diversity and dynamics of bacteriocins from the human microbiome. Environmental Microbiology, 17(6), 2133-2143.", which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12662. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.