The infant gut commensal Bacteroides dorei presents a generalized transcriptional response to various Human Milk Oligosaccharides

Many factors influence the infant gut microbiome establishment, one of the most important being feeding mode, i.e breastfeeding or formula. The relationship between breastfeeding, specifically Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) being a considerable fraction of breast-milk, to increased abundance of Bifidobacterium species, is well established. However, additional bacteria, such as Bacteroides, were shown to utilize HMOs, while the mechanisms that account for this ability are not understood. In this study, we establish a system for the isolation, identification and cultivation of various Bacteroides strains from infant stool samples. Then, we perform growth curves of the isolates on various HMOs (2-Fucosyllactose, Difucosyllactose, 3-Sialyllactose, 6-Sialyllactose, Lacto-N-Tetraose and Lacto-N-neotetraose), and perform RNA sequencing of a B. dorei isolate to explore the transcriptional response to growth on HMOs.