Toxoplasma gondii-Induced Long-Term Changes in the Upper Intestinal Microflora during the Chronic Stage of Infection

Figure 1

Individual differences at species level in acute T. gondii-infected and healthy mice of the first cohort. 5 CD1 mice were infected IP with 500 T. gondii tachyzoites (GT1) in PBS, along with 5 control CD1 mice by the IP route with PBS only. The group was sacrificed at 5 dpi. Whole 16S rDNA libraries were sequenced using the MiSeq Illumina sequencing platform to profile small intestinal microbiome. Sequences were analyzed using QIIME pipeline focusing on the v3-v4 region. The graph shows (a) the log-transformed ratios of averaged standard deviation of the relative abundance of highly variable species in infected and control mice and (b) the percentage of highly variable species of the upper intestinal microflora in each mouse. Lactobacillus, Proteus, and Bacteroidetes species are increasingly unstable in the acute infected mice, while Bacillaceae species appear unstable in the uninfected mice.

(a)

(b)