Mucosal Glycan Foraging Enhances the Fitness and Transmission of a Saccharolytic Human Distal Gut Symbiont

Gene expression profiles of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in vitro during growth on host mucosal polysaccharides as sole carbon sources. All substrates in this series are derived from porcine gastric mucin and include mucin O-glycans and glycosaminoglycans. Two different culture formats used: 800ml batch-culture bioreactors and 5ml tube cultures (format is indicated within each sample title). Each set of growths was referenced to a minimal medium glucose reference corressponding to the same culture format. Unfractionated porcine mucosal glycan (PMG) growths were compared to previously published in vivo datasets, which were referenced to the 800ml minimal medium glucose reference dataset.