Establishment of cellulolytic bacteria in the digestive tract of conventionally reared young mice: effect of the dietary cellulose content in the adult |
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Authors: | Abderrahmane Boulahrouf,Gé rard Fonty,Philippe Gouet |
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Affiliation: | Laboratoire de Microbiologie, INRA, Centre de Clermont-Ferrand-Theix, Ceyrat, France. |
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Abstract: | Cellulolytic bacteria became established 12 days after birth in the caecum and colon of conventionally-reared mice fed a diet containing 5 p. 100 crude cellulose (Weende). Their population reached a level between 10(6) and 10(7) bacteria per gram of digestive contents in 25-day-old animals. However, variations between animals were very large; 20 to 50% of the individuals were free of cellulolytic bacteria. A low cellulolytic population was observed in adult mice fed a cellulose-free diet. The amount of cellulose in the diet and its nature (crude or pure cellulose) affected the number of cellulolytic bacteria: the higher the percentage of cellulose in the diet, the higher the number of cellulolytic bacteria, in particular with crude cellulose-containing diet. |
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Keywords: | Mouse Digestive tract Cellulose Diets Cellulolytic bacteria |
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