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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1440134
This article is part of the Research Topic Early-life Gut Microbiota Perturbations and its Impacts on Host Health and Disease: From Underlying Mechanisms to Therapeutic Opportunities View all 6 articles

Lactiplantibacillus argentoratensis AGMB00912 Protects Weaning Mice from ETEC Infection and Enhances Gut Health

Provisionally accepted
Ki-Nam Yoon Ki-Nam Yoon 1,2Jihye Yang Jihye Yang 3Seo-Joon Yeom Seo-Joon Yeom 1Sang-Su Kim Sang-Su Kim 1Jong-Heum Park Jong-Heum Park 1Beom-Seok Song Beom-Seok Song 1Jong-Bang Eun Jong-Bang Eun 2Seung-Hwan Park Seung-Hwan Park 4JU HUCK LEE JU HUCK LEE 4Hyeun Bum Kim Hyeun Bum Kim 5Ju-Hoon Lee Ju-Hoon Lee 3*Jae-Kyung Kim Jae-Kyung Kim 1*
  • 1 Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Chonnam National University Graduate School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
  • 3 Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 4 Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
  • 5 Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Maintaining a healthy intestinal environment, optimal epithelial barrier integrity, and balanced gut microbiota composition are essential for the growth performance of weaning pigs. We identified Lactiplantibacillus argentoratensis AGMB00912 (LA) in healthy porcine feces as having antimicrobial activity against pathogens and enhanced short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. Herein, we assess the protective role of LA using a weaning mouse model with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infection. LA treatment improves feed intake and weight gain and alleviates colon shortening. Furthermore, LA inhibits intestinal damage, increases the small intestine villus height compared with the ETEC group, and enhances SCFA production. Using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and other bioinformatic tools, including InterProScan and COGNIZER, we validated the presence of SCFA-producing pathways of LA and Lactiplantibacillus after whole genome sequencing. LA mitigates ETEC-induced shifts in the gut microbiota, decreasing the proportion of Escherichia and Enterococcus and increasing SCFA-producing bacteria, including Kineothrix, Lachnoclostridium, Roseuburia, Lacrimispora, Jutongia, and Blautia. Metabolic functional prediction analysis revealed enhanced functions linked to carbohydrate, amino acid, and vitamin biosynthesis, along with decreased functions associated with infectious bacterial diseases compared to the ETEC group. LA mitigates the adverse effects of ETEC infection in weaning mice, enhances growth performance and intestinal integrity, rebalances gut microbiota, and promotes beneficial metabolic functions. These findings validate the functionality of LA in a small animal model, supporting its potential application in improving the health and growth performance of weaning pigs.

    Keywords: post-weaning diarrhea, short-chain fatty acid, Lactiplantibacillus argentoratensis AGMB00912, growth performance, intestinal barrier integrity, Gut Microbiota

    Received: 30 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yoon, Yang, Yeom, Kim, Park, Song, Eun, Park, LEE, Kim, Lee and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ju-Hoon Lee, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea
    Jae-Kyung Kim, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.