Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, Vo Van Kiet, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
PLoS Biol. 2018 Mar 8;16(3):e2004108. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004108. eCollection 2018 Mar.
Genetic and environmental factors shape host susceptibility to infection, but how and how rapidly environmental variation might alter the susceptibility of mammalian genotypes remains unknown. Here, we investigate the impacts of seminatural environments upon the nematode susceptibility profiles of inbred C57BL/6 mice. We hypothesized that natural exposure to microbes might directly (e.g., via trophic interactions) or indirectly (e.g., via microbe-induced immune responses) alter the hatching, growth, and survival of nematodes in mice housed outdoors. We found that while C57BL/6 mice are resistant to high doses of nematode (Trichuris muris) eggs under clean laboratory conditions, exposure to outdoor environments significantly increased their susceptibility to infection, as evidenced by increased worm burdens and worm biomass. Indeed, mice kept outdoors harbored as many worms as signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) knockout mice, which are genetically deficient in the type 2 immune response essential for clearing nematodes. Using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing of fecal samples, we discovered enhanced microbial diversity and specific bacterial taxa predictive of nematode burden in outdoor mice. We also observed decreased type 2 and increased type 1 immune responses in lamina propria and mesenteric lymph node (MLN) cells from infected mice residing outdoors. Importantly, in our experimental design, different groups of mice received nematode eggs either before or after moving outdoors. This contrasting timing of rewilding revealed that enhanced hatching of worms was not sufficient to explain the increased worm burdens; instead, microbial enhancement and type 1 immune facilitation of worm growth and survival, as hypothesized, were also necessary to explain our results. These findings demonstrate that environment can rapidly and significantly shape gut microbial communities and mucosal responses to nematode infections, leading to variation in parasite expulsion rates among genetically similar hosts.
遗传和环境因素塑造了宿主对感染的易感性,但环境变异如何以及多快改变哺乳动物基因型的易感性仍然未知。在这里,我们研究了半自然环境对近交 C57BL/6 小鼠线虫易感性谱的影响。我们假设,自然暴露于微生物可能会直接(例如,通过营养相互作用)或间接(例如,通过微生物诱导的免疫反应)改变室内饲养的小鼠中线虫的孵化、生长和存活。我们发现,虽然 C57BL/6 小鼠在清洁的实验室条件下对高剂量的线虫(旋毛虫)卵具有抗性,但暴露于户外环境会显著增加它们的感染易感性,这表现在增加的蠕虫负荷和蠕虫生物量上。事实上,在户外饲养的小鼠体内寄生的蠕虫数量与信号转导和转录激活因子 6(STAT6)敲除小鼠一样多,后者在清除线虫所必需的 2 型免疫反应中存在遗传缺陷。通过对粪便样本的 16S 核糖体 RNA 测序,我们发现户外小鼠的微生物多样性增强,并且存在特定的细菌分类群与线虫负荷具有预测关系。我们还观察到,在户外饲养的感染小鼠的固有层和肠系膜淋巴结(MLN)细胞中,2 型免疫反应减少,1 型免疫反应增加。重要的是,在我们的实验设计中,不同组的小鼠要么在搬到户外之前要么之后接受线虫卵。这种对比性的“返野”时间揭示了增强的蠕虫孵化不足以解释增加的蠕虫负荷;相反,正如假设的那样,微生物增强和 1 型免疫促进蠕虫的生长和存活,也是解释我们结果所必需的。这些发现表明,环境可以迅速而显著地塑造肠道微生物群落和黏膜对线虫感染的反应,导致遗传相似的宿主之间寄生虫排出率的变化。