IBD stress impacts gut microbiome intra-species diversity

Intra-species genomic variation results from diversity-generating processes and supplies the raw material for subsequent natural selection. Environmental stress can be regarded as the ultimate accelerator of these processes, especially for microorganisms, which can alter their DNA if presented with nutrient limitation, toxins, or pathogen attack. Chronic intestinal inflammation, as in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), may be regarded as prolonged environmental stress for gut commensal bacteria, bringing many enteric species down to undetectable levels.

However, it remains unclear how the microbes that survive the IBD gut environment actually respond to IBD stress, and whether their stress response may leave a transient or permanent signature in their genomes.

To investigate whether IBD stress induces and selects for certain genetic diversity, we performed metagenomic analyses on gut species in IBD patients and Controls. We focused on strain diversity within single individuals, which might be the result of more recent diversification processes under stress. We found measurable differences at the genome level between IBD and Controls, yet this was species-dependent. We then investigated gene-level diversity and found that certain functions were more likely to be enriched with either neutral divergence, functional divergence, or both. Functions that were enriched in IBD with both kinds of diversity were associated with motility and iron-scavenging, among others. These results may point towards functions that are under selection in the context of IBD stress, and could inform future mechanistic work, exploring previously unknown routes of bacterial diversification and adaptation to stress in the gut microbiome.