Catestatin selects for the colonization of antimicrobial-resistant gut bacterial communities. Murine microbiota

To this end, we treated wild-type mice and mice with a knockout in the CST coding region of the chromogranin-A gene (CST-KO) with CST for 15 consecutive days. CST treatment was associated with a shift in the diversity and composition of the microbiota in the CST-KO mice. This effect was less prominent in WT mice. Levels of the microbiota-produced short-chain fatty acids, in particular, butyrate and acetate were significantly increased in CST-treated CST-KO mice but not the WT group. Remarkably, both CST-treated CST-KO and WT mice showed a significant increase in microbiota-harbouring phosphoethanolamine transferase-encoding genes, which facilitate their antimicrobial resistance.