Browsing by Author "Afrizal"

Bacteria are dominant members of the human gut microbiota, defined as the complex communities of microorganisms in the intestine which play an important role in regulating the health of their host, including the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). CRC is the fourth leading cancer-related mortality worldwide. Animal models are very useful in CRC research, as they allow studying molecular mechanism underlying the disease. Due to closer similarity to human beings in terms of nutrition and gastrointestinal physiology, pig models are of great value in research when compared with murine models. However, our current knowledge of the pig gut microbiome is still limited and a large number of gut bacterial species are yet to be isolated and characterised. Here, we characterised bacteria isolated from the intestine of wildtype pigs and transgenic APC1311/+ siblings (APC pigs) that develop colonic adenomas. A total of 12 novel bacteria, including 1 member of a potentially novel family, were identified from 256 strains isolated using anaerobic culturing. In addition, five other bacteria with a standing name in the nomenclature but not yet included in the pig collection were added. A draft genome was generated for four of the novel bacteria and thereby the functional potential of strains and compared their similarity. In addition, the morphology, bile salt hydrolase (BSH), 7α-dehydroxylation, carbohydrate fermentation, prevalence and abundance of all strains were analysed. The draft genome analysis confirmed the novel species status of the four bacteria. Furthermore, it also revealed the presence of genes associated with BSH, antibiotic resistance, butyrate production and carbohydrate utilization. Only two of 12 tested bacteria were positive for BSH, while none of the two bacteria selected for fermentation experiments was positive for 7α-dehydroxylation. One isolate of the species Paraclostridium benzoelyticum was found to exhibit significantly higher tolerance to NaCl than the same species described in the literature. In terms of prevalence, almost all of the bacteria (16 of 17) seem to be rare in pig, even though they appeared to be more enriched in the pig intestine when compared with other host species. Interestingly, the majority of positive samples for the bacterium representing the potentially novel family originated from the intestine of elderly human individuals. Overall, we could show that a substantial number of novel bacteria can still be isolated by classical anaerobic culture techniques using multiple rich or selective media. Even though we were able to identify most of the isolated bacteria and performed several assays to describe their properties, additional phylogenetic and taxonomic tests and development of optimal media/conditions for the novel bacteria are required in order to gain a deeper understanding of the role of these bacteria in the intestinal microbial ecosystem.