Bacterial diversity in the feces, oropharynx and lungs of germ-free mice with experimentally induced asthma colonized with microbiota from Pglyrp1-/- or wild type mice

Changes in intestinal or respiratory microbiomes in infants correlate with increased incidence of asthma, but the causative role of microbiome in the susceptibility to asthma and host genes that regulate these changes in microbiome are mostly unknown. Pglyrp1-/- mice (lacking bactericidal Peptidoglycan Recognition Protein 1) are more resistant to experimentally induced asthma than wild type mice. This increased resistance to allergic asthma in Pglyrp1-/- mice could be transferred to germ-free wild-type mice by colonization of mothers and newborns with microbiota from Pglyrp1-/- mice. This project compares bacterial diversity in the feces, oropharynx and lungs of germ-free mice that were colonized with microbiota from Pglyrp1-/- or wild type mice and then sensitized with house dust mite (HDM) allergen to induce experimental allergic asthma.