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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.11.11.378349

Longitudinal effects of antibiotics and fecal transplant on lemur gut microbiota structure, associations, and resistomes

Bornbusch, S. L.·Harris, R. L.·Grebe, N. M.·Roche, K.·Dimac-Stohl, K.·Drea, C. M.
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Abstract

Antibiotics alter the diversity, structure, and dynamics of host-associated microbial consortia, including via development of antibiotic resistance; however, patterns of recovery from dysbiosis and methods to mitigate negative effects, remain poorly understood. We applied an ecological framework via long-term, integrated study of community structure, across scales, to improve understanding of host-microbe symbiosis during dysbiosis and recovery. We experimentally administered a broad-spectrum antibiotic alone or with subsequent fecal transfaunation to healthy, male ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) and longitudinally tracked the diversity, composition, associations, and resistomes of their gut microbiota. Whereas microbial diversity recovered rapidly in lemurs, antibiotics caused long-term instability in community composition - effects that were attenuated by fecal transfaunation. Antibiotic resistance genes, which were universally present, including in treatment-naive subjects, increased during and persisted after antibiotic treatment. Long-term, integrated study post antibiotic-induced dysbiosis revealed differential, metric-dependent evidence of recovery, beneficial effects of fecal transfaunation, and negative consequences to lemur resistomes.

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Bornbusch, S. L., Harris, R. L., Grebe, N. M., Roche, K., Dimac-Stohl, K., Drea, C. M.. 2020-11-11. Longitudinal effects of antibiotics and fecal transplant on lemur gut microbiota structure, associations, and resistomes. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.11.378349

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