A healthy dietary pattern is associated with microbiota diversity in recently diagnosed bipolar patients: The Bipolar Netherlands Cohort (BINCO) study

BACKGROUND

Diet largely impacts the gut microbiota, and may affect mental and somatic health via the gut-brain axis. As such, the relationship between diet and the microbiota in Bipolar Disorder (BD) could be of importance, but has not been studied before. The aim was therefore to assess whether dietary quality is associated with the gut microbiota diversity in patients with recently diagnosed BD, and whether changes occur in dietary quality and microbiota diversity during their first year of treatment.

METHODS

Seventy recently (<1 year) diagnosed patients with BD were included in the "Bipolar Netherlands Cohort" (BINCO), and a total of 45 participants were assessed after one year. A 203-item Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) data yielded the Dutch Healthy index (DHD-15), and the microbiota composition and diversity of fecal samples were characterized by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Associations and changes over time were analyzed using multivariate regression analyses and t-tests for paired samples.

RESULTS

Included patients had a mean age of 34.9 years (SD ± 11.2), and 58.6 % was female. Alpha diversity (Shannon diversity index), richness (Chao1 index) and evenness (Pielou's Evenness Index) were positively associated with the DHD-15 total score, after adjustment for sex, age and educational level (beta = 0.55; P < 0.001, beta = 0.39; P = 0.024, beta = 0.54; P = 0.001 respectively). The positive correlations were largely driven by the combined positive effect of fish, beans, fruits and nuts, and inverse correlations with alcohol and processed meats. No significant changes were found in DHD-15 total score, nor in microbiota diversity, richness and evenness indexes during one year follow-up and regular treatment.

CONCLUSION

A healthy and varied diet is associated with the diversity of the microbiota in BD patients. Its potential consequences for maintaining mood stability and overall health should be studied further.

#EUROmicroMOOC: using Twitter to share trends in Microbiology worldwide

Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks that, in recent years, has been increasingly used by researchers as a platform to share science and discuss ongoing work. Despite its popularity, Twitter is not commonly used as a medium to teach science. Here, we summarize the results of #EUROmicroMOOC: the first worldwide Microbiology Massive Open Online Course taught in English using Twitter. Content analytics indicated that more than 3 million users saw posts with the hashtag #EUROmicroMOOC, which resulted in over 42 million Twitter impressions worldwide. These analyses demonstrate that free Microbiology MOOCs shared on Twitter are valuable educational tools that reach broad audiences throughout the world. We also describe our experience teaching an entire Microbiology course using Twitter and provide recommendations when using social media to communicate science to a broad audience.

Single cell analysis of gene expression patterns of competence development and initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis grown on chemically defined media

AIM

Understanding the basis for the heterogeneous (or bistable) expression patterns of competence development and sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Using flow cytometric analyses of various promoter-GFP fusions, we have determined the single-cell gene expression patterns of competence development and initiation of sporulation in a chemically defined medium (CDM) and in biofilms.

CONCLUSIONS

We show that competence development and initiation of sporulation in a CDM are still initiated in a bistable manner, as is the case in complex media, but are sequential in their timing. Furthermore, we provide experimental proof that competence and sporulation can develop under conditions that normally do not trigger these processes.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Some pathogens are able to develop natural competence, which is a serious medical problem with the increased acquired multi-drug resistance of these organisms. Another adaptive microbial response is spore formation. Because of their heat resistance and hydrophobicity, spores of a variety of species are of major concern for the food industry. Using the model organism B. subtilis, we show that competence development and sporulation are initiated in a bistable and sequential manner. We furthermore show that both processes may be noise-based, which has major implications for the control of unwanted differentiation processes in pathogenic and food-spoilage micro-organisms.