Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) strains carry virulence genes (VGs) which are rarely found in strains other than E. coli. These strains are abundantly found in gut mucosa of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); however, it is not clear whether their prevalence in the gut is affected by the diet of the individual. Therefore, in this study, we compared the population structure of E. coli and the prevalence of AIEC as well as the composition of gut microbiota in fecal samples of healthy participants (n = 61) on either a vegan (n = 34) or omnivore (n = 27) diet to determine whether diet is associated with the presence of AIEC. From each participant, 28 colonies of E. coli were typed using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD)–PCR. A representative of each common type within an individual was tested for the presence of six AIEC-associated VGs. Whole genomic DNA of the gut microbiota was also analyzed for its diversity profiles, utilizing the V5-V6 region of the16S rRNA gene sequence. There were no significant differences in the abundance and diversity of E. coli between the two diet groups. The occurrence of AIEC-associated VGs was also similar among the two groups. However, the diversity of fecal microbiota in vegans was generally higher than omnivores, with Prevotella and Bacteroides dominant in both groups. Whilst 88 microbial taxa were present in both diet groups, 28 taxa were unique to vegans, compared to seven unique taxa in the omnivores. Our results indicate that a vegan diet may not affect the number and diversity of E. coli populations and AIEC prevalence compared to omnivores. The dominance of Prevotella and Bacteroides among omnivores might be accounted for the effect of diet in these groups.

中文翻译：

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健康素食者与杂食者的黏附侵入性大肠杆菌种群和肠道菌群的比较研究。

粘附侵袭性大肠杆菌（AIEC）菌株携带的毒力基因（VG）在大肠杆菌以外的菌株中很少见。这些菌株广泛存在于炎症性肠病（IBD）患者的肠粘膜中。然而，尚不清楚它们在肠道中的流行是否受到个体饮食的影响。因此，在这项研究中，我们比较了纯素食者（n = 34）或杂食动物的健康参与者（n = 61）的粪便样本中大肠杆菌的种群结构和AIEC的患病率以及肠道菌群的组成（n = 27）饮食以确定饮食是否与AIEC的存在有关。每个参与者的28个殖民地使用随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）–PCR对大肠杆菌进行分型。测试了一个个体中每种常见类型的代表是否存在六个与AIEC相关的VG。还利用16S rRNA基因序列的V5-V6区分析了肠道菌群的整个基因组DNA的多样性。两个饮食组之间大肠杆菌的丰度和多样性没有显着差异。两组之间与AIEC相关的VG的发生也相似。但是，纯素食者中粪便微生物群的多样性通常高于杂食动物，其中有普氏菌和拟杆菌。在两组中都占主导地位。在两个饮食组中都存在88个微生物分类单元，而纯素食者则只有28个分类单元，而杂食动物则只有7个独特的分类单元。我们的结果表明，与杂食动物相比，纯素食饮食可能不会影响大肠杆菌种群的数量和多样性以及AIEC的流行。杂食动物中普雷沃氏菌和拟杆菌的优势可能是这些人群饮食效果的原因。