Dietary nutrients are an important determinant of gut microbial composition (Asnicar et al, Nat Med 27:321-332, 2021; Arifuzzaman. et al, Nature 611:578-584, 2022; Bolte. et al, Gut 70:1287-1298, 2021). Commensal bacteria compete and cross-feed on host-derived nutrients to maintain stable gut microbial communities (Kolodziejczyk. et al, Nat Rev Microbiol. 17:742-753, 2019; Ma. et al, Gut Microbes 12:1785252, 2020). However, the changes to the gut bacteria induced by fasting are not well-defined. Here, we propose a powerful method to selectively and effectively increase specific gut bacteria by combining fasting and administration of microbiota-accessible carbohydrates (MACs). Fasting alters the gut microbial community structure, and the fasting + MAC intervention has profound effects on the gut microbiome with increased specific bacteria and fecal IgA levels than MAC administration alone. The changes in gut microbiota composition are specific to the type of MAC administered. We identified the most effective protocol to combine with fasting + MAC to increase the levels of specific bacteria such as Bifidobacterium. Overall, the integrating fasting with MACs effectively alters the gut microbiome, suggesting that fasting can prepare the environment for gut microbial modulation by MACs.
Experiment 1
Subjects
- Location of subjects
- Japan
- Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.
- Mus musculus
- Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology
- Alimentary part of gastrointestinal system GI tract,Alimentary system,Alimentary tract,Gastro-intestinal system,Gastroenterological system,Gastrointestinal (GI) tract,Gastrointestinal system,Gastrointestinal tract,Alimentary part of gastrointestinal system,alimentary part of gastrointestinal system
- Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
- Ad libitum
- Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies
- Fasting
- Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
- C57BL/6J mice subjected to a 36-hour fasting period.
- Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group
- 5
- Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group
- 5
- Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any)
- The study does not mention an antibiotic exclusion period.
Lab analysis
- Sequencing type
- 16S
- 16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene
- V3-V4
- Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance
- Illumina
Statistical Analysis
- Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).
- relative abundances
- Statistical test
- ANOVA
- Dunn's test
- PERMANOVA
- Welch's T-Test
- Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any)
- 0.05
- MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?
- No
Alpha Diversity
- Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
- unchanged
- Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness
- unchanged
- Richness Number of species
- unchanged
- Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample
- unchanged
Experiment 2
Differences from previous experiment shown
Subjects
- Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies
- Ad libitum + FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide)
- Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies
- Fasting + FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide)
- Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group
- BALB/cAJcl mice subjected to a 36-hour fasting period with 10% FOS administration.
- Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any)
- The study does not mention an antibiotics exclusion period.
Lab analysis
Statistical Analysis
Alpha Diversity
- Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness
- decreased
- Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness
- decreased
- Richness Number of species
- decreased
- Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample
- decreased
