Microbial Ecology of Candida albicans in BALB/cJ mice

Treatment of mice with broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as the commonly prescribed beta-lactam antibiotic amoxicillin, results in a significant disruption of the gastrointestinal (GI) bacterial community structure. Marked shifts in community structure of the indigenous bacterial microbiota include decreased numbers, reduced diversity, changes in richness and evenness, and even pathogen outgrowth. Following cessation of antibiotics, bacterial communities in the intestinal tract will try-to re-assemble to a pre-antibiotic structure. However, complete recovery is not consistently the case and the factors that shape post-antibiotic community reassembly, including the presence of the yeast Candida albicans, and its effect on host intestinal gene expression are an area of active investigation.