Published in:
Open Access 01-12-2021 | Antibiotic | Research
Dock2 affects the host susceptibility to Citrobacter rodentium infection through regulating gut microbiota
Published in: Gut Pathogens | Issue 1/2021
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Background
Dysregulated gut microbiota is one of major pathogenic factors in the development of colitis. Dock2 acts as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) and activates small G protein RAC1. Our previous study showed that, compared to wild type (WT) mice, Dock2−/− mice were more susceptible to colitis induced by Citrobacter rodentium infection. However, it is not clear whether gut microbiota affects the host susceptibility to enteric bacterial infection in Dock2−/− mice.
Results
In this study, we demonstrated that Dock2 regulated the gut microbiota and affected the host susceptibility to C. rodentium infection by co-housing, fecal microbiota transfer and antibiotic treatment methods. Microbiota analysis by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing showed that Dock2 increased the abundance of prevotellaceae-NK3B31-group and Lactobacillus but decreased that of Helicobacter.
Conclusions
These results suggest that Dock2 regulates the composition of gut microbiota and affects the host susceptibility to C. rodentium infection.