Characterization of the intestinal microbiome and lactobacilli community: influence of dietary and environmental factors

The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is colonized by a dense and diverse bacterial community called the commensal microbiota, which plays an important role in overall health of individuals. However, due to the extreme complexity of microbiota composition and limits of research tools, there were many challenges in identify and compare individual members of the microbiota, and the impacts of multiple factors on the development of microbiota were poorly understood. This is a comprehensive study on applying traditional culture dependent methods, as well as the latest developed molecular biological tools, in neonatal piglets’ intestinal microbiome and lactobacilli community structure research. In Chapter 2, the latest progress of methods used in microbiota research were described and compared, the known impact of different environmental and dietary factors were discussed. In Chapter 3, a new protocol of Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis was developed to facilitate lactobacilli composition study. In Chapter 4, both culture dependent methods and the novel T-RFLP tools were used to reveal the impact of piglet age and route of delivery on ileal Lactobacillus diversity. In Chapter 5, a powerful molecular biological tool, pyrosequencing, was used to test how route of delivery and nutrition altered the piglet ileal microbiota. Multiple important observations were made; several issues were discussed in these studies. The conclusions were important add-ons to current microbiota research, and can have long-lasting impacts on infant nutrition study in the future.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Food Science & Human Nutrition

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Long

Contributors dc:contributor

• Miller, Michael J.
• Donovan, Sharon M.
• Chassy, Bruce
• Jin, Yong-Su

• microbiota
• microbiome
• pyrosequencing
• terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP)
• Lactobacilli
• gastrointestinal (GI) tract

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Long Chen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42397

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/42397