Work

Temporal Variability of Escherichia coli Diversity in the Gastrointestinal Tracts of Tanzanian Children with and without Exposure to Antibiotics

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: This study increases the number of resident Escherichia coli genome sequences, and explores E. coli diversity through longitudinal sampling. We investigate the genomes of E. coli isolated from human gastrointestinal tracts as part of an antibiotic treatment program among rural Tanzanian children. Phylogenomics demonstrates that resident E. coli are diverse, even within a single host. Though the E. coli isolates of the gastrointestinal community tend to be phylogenomically similar at a given time, they differed across the interrogated time points, demonstrating the variability of the members of the E. coli community in these subjects. Exposure to antibiotic treatment did not have an apparent impact on the E. coli community or the presence of resistance and virulence genes within E. coli genomes. The findings of this study highlight the variable nature of specific bacterial members of the human gastrointestinal tract.

Source: mSphere

DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00558-18