Poster 14
Presenter: Jason Bubier
Thursday, 4:00 – 6:00pm

Effect of genetic diversity of collaborative cross mice on intestinal microbial communities and their association with disease related traits in mice.

Jason Bubier¹, James Campbell², Carmen M. Foster², Tatiana Vishnivetskaya², Suman Duvvuru³, Vivek M. Philip¹, Charles Philips⁴, Cymbeline T. Culiat², Michael A. Langston⁴, Anthony V. Palumbo², Mircea Podar², and Elissa J. Chesler^1,2,3
1The Jackson Laboratory Bar Harbor ME 04605 ²Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory ³Genome Science and Technology Program, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory ⁴Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Many human gastrointestinal disorders including Crohn’s disease, peptic ulcer formation, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBD) have been associated with the presence, absence or over-abundance of various normal microbiota. In addition, the connection between the gut, the brain and behavior is becoming increasingly apparent. Mice possess microbial populations similar to those of humans at high levels of taxa, The host genetic diversity is an important selection on the environmental habitat of the microbiota. Together the genetic diversity and the microbial diversity may contribute to the complex heterogeneity of diseases seen in the host pathophysiology. To assess the relation between host genetic variation and microbial population composition across the whole genome and microbiome, we sampled intestinal mRNA and luminal microflora from of the inbreeding funnels of the Collaborative Cross. In addition, for these same mice, we acquired various metabolic phenotypes and basal behavioral measures that were correlated to the genetic diversity of the population, the gene co-expression networks in the gut and the individual microbiomes. Intestinal gene expression QTLs and microbial abundance QTL were mapped. In addition, microbe to gene co-expression was analyzed and integrated with GeneWeaver.org. Using the integrated online tools, the networks of microbe and gene co-expression sets were examined to identify molecular relations among various biological processes and various disease states. For example one co-expression group containing the genes associated with three different families from the Clostridiales and Bacteroidales orders is similar to a group of differentially expressed mucosal genes in IBD patients. Integrative analyses of these data reveal the relation among microbial diversity and host genetic variation.