_Mouse_gut_microbiota_resilience_study

FUT2-deficent mice represent the murine model of human non secretor status. Homozygosity for FUT2 ((1,2) fucosyltransferase) null alleles determines the lack of (1,2)fucosylated glycans in the gastrointestinal tract epithelia and secretions. 20% of people of European, Asian and African descent do not present fucose on their mucosae and secretions due to homozygosity for FUT2 null alleles and thus are called non secretors.Non secretors are more susceptible to various diseases like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and type I diabetes and gut microbiota composition seems to be possibly associated with the onset of these non-communicable diseases. We are studying the composition of gut microbiota from WT and FUT2-KO mice before and after intestinal insults to understand if inflammation or infections can modify non secretor microbiota and determine a lower bacterial resilience and delayed microbial community re-establishment in KO subjects. 16s libraries from gut microbiome DNA extracted from mouse faecal samples will be generated and sequenced on MiSeq platform.