Journal article

The gut microbiota of toll-like receptor 2-deficient mice exhibits lineage-specific modifications

Eric J Albert, Katrin Sommerfeld, Sharon Gophna, Jean S Marshall, Uri Gophna

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS | WILEY | Published : 2009

Abstract

Mutations in toll-like receptors that mediate bacterial recognition by the mammalian innate immune system have the potential to substantially alter the composition of an individual's microbiota. Here we tested this hypothesis by comparing the intestinal microbiota of toll-like receptor 2-deficient mice, both young and middle aged, with that of wild-type mice of the same genetic background, housed together under specific pathogen-free conditions. Bacterial DNA was extracted from mouse caecal tissue samples, amplified using universal bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene primers, and cloned into a plasmid vector. Insert-containing colonies were picked for high-throughput sequencing, and sequence da..

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Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

This study was supported by The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada and The Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We thank Yi-song Wei for her excellent technical assistance and Dr Shizuo Akira for generously providing us with the TLR2-deficient mice. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments.