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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2003, p. 2100-2109, Vol. 69, No. 4
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.4.2100-2109.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Secretory Antibodies Do Not Affect the Composition of the Bacterial Microbiota in the Terminal Ileum of 10-Week-Old Mice

Leanne Sait, Maja Galic, Richard A. Strugnell, and Peter H. Janssen*

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia

Received 7 October 2002/ Accepted 17 January 2003

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis was conducted on the 16S rRNA genes of the bacterial communities colonizing the epithelial surfaces of the terminal ilea of open conventionally housed mice in an institutional small-animal facility. Polymeric-immunoglobulin-receptor-deficient (pIgR-/-) mice that were unable to secrete antibodies across mucosal surfaces were cohoused with normal and otherwise genetically identical wild-type (C57BL/6) mice for 4 weeks. If secretory antibodies played a role in modeling the gastrointestinal microbiota, C57BL/6 mice would have had a more distinct and uniform microbiota than their pIgR-/- cage mates. The T-RFLP profiles of the bacterial communities were compared by using Sorensen's pairwise similarity coefficient, a newly developed weighted pairwise similarity coefficient, and on the basis of Shannon's and Simpson's diversity indices. No systematic differences were observed between the dominant components of the mucosa-associated bacterial communities of the terminal ileal walls of the two types of mice, indicating that secretory antibodies do not control the composition of this microbiota. Similar analyses of experiments conducted at two different times, between which the bacterial community composition of the mouse colony in the small-animal facility appeared to have changed, showed that differences could have been detected, had they existed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Phone: 61 (3) 8344-5706. Fax: 61 (3) 9347-1540. E-mail: pjanssen{at}unimelb.edu.au.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2003, p. 2100-2109, Vol. 69, No. 4
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.4.2100-2109.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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