Different Substrate Preferences Help Closely Related Bacteria To Coexist in the Gut

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I receive financial support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Heterologous ectoine production in Escherichia coli : By-passing the metabolic bottle-neck

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Some are more equal than others : the role of ‘keystone’ species in the degradation of recalcitrant substrates

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Process-based modelling of Microbial community dynamics in the human colon

Acknowledgments We thank the Scottish Goverment’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) for funding this research. Funding Statement The Scottish Goverment’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Ser581 vices Division (RESAS) funded this researchPeer reviewedPostprin

Dietary fibre complexity and its influence on functional groups of the human gut microbiota

Open Access via the Cambridge University Press Agreement Acknowledgments We would like to thank Professor Wendy Russell (University of Aberdeen) and Professor Stephen Fry (University of Edinburgh) for useful discussions and Ms Pat Bain (University of Aberdeen) for graphics support. Financial Support PL, SHD and AWW receive funding from the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) division. MS is funded by a Rowett Institute RESAS studentship and a University of Aberdeen Elphinstone Scholarship. IM is funded by an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership grant in partnership with Enterobiotix Ltd and University of Aberdeen (Partnership No. KTP 12019)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

microPop: modelling microbial populations and communities in R

We thank the Scottish Goverment’s Rural and Environment Science and Ana-lytical Services Division (RESAS) for funding this research. Also many thanks to Rafael Munoz-Tamayo for sharing his matlab code for the rumen modelPeer reviewedPostprin

Motor anticipation failure in infants with autism: a retrospective analysis of feeding situations

Previous studies on autism have shown a lack of motor anticipation in children and adults with autism. As part of a programme of research into early detection of autism, we focussed on an everyday situation: spoon-feeding. We hypothesize that an anticipation deficit may be found very early on by observing whether the baby opens his or her mouth in anticipation of the spoon's approach. The study is based on a retrospective analysis from family home movies. Observation of infants later diagnosed with autism or an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 13) and infants with typical development (n = 14) between 4 and 6 months old show that the autism/ASD group has an early anticipation deficit

Beyond purified dietary fibre supplements : compositional variation between cell wall fibre from different plants influences human faecal microbiota activity and growth in vitro

Funding Michael Solvang was funded by a Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science & Analytical Services (RESAS) PhD studentship and Freda Farquharson, Graham Horgan, Wendy Russell and Petra Louis also received financial support from RESAS. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Maxwell Compute Cluster funded by the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Ericaceous dwarf shrubs contribute a significant but drought-sensitive fraction of soil respiration in a boreal pine forest

Boreal forests often have a dense understorey of ericaceous dwarf shrubs with ecological adaptations that contrast those of the canopy-forming trees. It is therefore important to quantify contributions by understorey shrubs to ecosystem processes and disentangle shrub- and tree-driven responses to climatic factors. We quantified soil respiration driven by the pine canopy and the ericaceous shrub understorey over 3 years, using a factorial pine root exclusion and shrub removal experiment in a mature Pinus sylvestris forest. Soil temperature and moisture-related responses of respiration attributed to autotrophs (shrubs, pine roots) and heterotrophs were compared. Additionally, we assessed effects of interactions between these functional groups on soil nitrogen availability and respiration. Understorey shrubs accounted for 22% +/- 10% of total autotrophic respiration, reflecting the ericaceous proportion of fine root production in the ecosystem. Heterotrophic respiration constituted about half of total soil respiration. Shrub-driven respiration was more susceptible to drought than heterotrophic- and pine-driven respiration. While the respiration attributed to canopy and understorey remained additive, indicating no competitive release, the plant guilds competed for soil N. Synthesis. Ericaceous understorey shrubs accounted for a small, yet significant, share of total growing season soil respiration. Overlooking understorey respiration may lead to erroneous partitioning and modelling of soil respiration mediated by functional guilds with contrasting responses to soil temperature and moisture. A larger contribution by heterotrophs and pine root-associated organisms to soil respiration under drought conditions could have important implications for soil organic matter accumulation and decomposition as the climate changes in boreal forests

β-Glucan is a major growth substrate for human gut bacteria related to Coprococcus eutactus

A clone encoding carboxymethyl cellulase activity was isolated during functional screening of a human gut metagenomic library using Lactococcus lactis MG1363 as heterologous host. The insert carried a glycoside hydrolase family 9 (GH9) catalytic domain with sequence similarity to a gene from Coprococcus eutactus ART55/1. Genome surveys indicated a limited distribution of GH9 domains among dominant human colonic anaerobes. Genomes of C. eutactus-related strains harboured two GH9-encoding and four GH5-encoding genes, but the strains did not appear to degrade cellulose. Instead, they grew well on β-glucans and one of the strains also grew on galactomannan, galactan, glucomannan and starch. Coprococcus comes and Coprococcus catus strains did not harbour GH9 genes and were not able to grow on β-glucans. Gene expression and proteomic analysis of C. eutactus ART55/1 grown on cellobiose, β-glucan and lichenan revealed similar changes in expression in comparison to glucose. On β-glucan and lichenan only, one of the four GH5 genes was strongly upregulated. Growth on glucomannan led to a transcriptional response of many genes, in particular a strong upregulation of glycoside hydrolases involved in mannan degradation. Thus, β-glucans are a major growth substrate for species related to C. eutactus, with glucomannan and galactans alternative substrates for some strains