Dietary supplementation with strawberry induces marked changes in the composition and functional potential of the gut microbiome in diabetic mice

• Published in: The Journal of nutritional biochemistry 2019-04, Vol.66, p.63-69
• Main Authors: Petersen, Chrissa, Wankhade, Umesh D., Bharat, Divya, Wong, Kiana, Mueller, Jennifer Ellen, Chintapalli, Sree V., Piccolo, Brian D., Jalili, Thunder, Jia, Zhenquan, Symons, J. David, Shankar, Kartik, Anandh Babu, Pon Velayutham
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthocyanins; Berry fruits; Bifidobacterium; Diabetic mice; Gut microbiome; Strawberry
• ISSN: 0955-2863; 1873-4847
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2019.01.004

Gut microbiota contributes to the biological activities of berry anthocyanins by transforming them into bioactive metabolites, and anthocyanins support the growth of specific bacteria, indicating a two-way relationship between anthocyanins and microbiota. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that strawberry supplementation alters gut microbial ecology in diabetic db/db mice. Control (db/+) and diabetic (db/db) mice (7 weeks old) consumed standard diet or diet supplemented with 2.35% freeze-dried strawberry (db/db + SB) for 10 weeks. Colon contents were used to isolate bacterial DNA. V4 variable region of 16S rRNA gene was amplified. Data analyses were performed using standardized pipelines (QIIME 1.9 and R packages). Differences in predictive metagenomics function were identified by PICRUSt. Principal coordinate analyses confirmed that the microbial composition was significantly influenced by both host genotype and strawberry consumption. Further, α-diversity indices and β-diversity were different at the phylum and genus levels, and genus and operational taxonomical units levels, respectively (P