A model of host-microbial interactions in an open mammalian ecosystem

The maintenance and significance of the complex populations of microbes present in the mammalian intestine are poorly understood. Comparison of conventionally housed and germ-free NMRI mice revealed that production of fucosylated glycoconjugates and an alpha 1,2-fucosyltransferase messenger RNA in the small-intestinal epithelium requires the normal microflora. Colonization of germ-free mice with Bacteroides thetaiotadmicron, a component of this flora, restored the fucosylation program, whereas an isogenic strain carrying a transposon insertion that disrupts its ability to use L-fucose as a carbon source did not. Simplified models such as this should aid the study of open microbial ecosystems.