accumulation because pigs are prone to deposit excess fat,
and the diets of pigs are easily controlled. Furthermore,
pigs show a high similarity of gastrointestinal structure
with humans [7].
Despite a decade of research establishing a strong
findings provided by several studies have challenged this
view [8, 9]. There are few bacterial strains that have been
isolated and confirmed as having causal roles in obesity
[10–12]. Moreover, the underlying mechanism has not yet
been clearly established [13], although several studies have
indicated that obesity is associated with a low-grade s
modern pig industry, to obtain rapid body weight gain,
commercial formula diets with high concentrations of
proteins and energy have often been provided to
of gut microbial species with fat accumulation of pigs by
performing an association study in 698 commercial
Duroc pigs fed commercial diets (corn-soybean formula
feeds containing 2960–3023 kcal/kg of digestible energy
and 15–17% of protein). We identified P. copri as a main
bacterial species increasing host fat accumulation
increased serum levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS),
branch chain amino acids (BCAAs), aromatic amino
acids (AAAs), and the metabolites of arachidonic acid
metabolism, thereby increasing host intestinal barrier
permeability and causing a chronic iThe expression levels of genes related to lipid
metabolism, transport, and localization in adipose and
muscle tissues were significantly altered. To further
and investigate the diet effect on the colonization of
P. copri isolated in this study, a gavage experiment using
P. copri was carried out in germ-free mice (Additional
file 1: Fig. S1).
Results
Identifying a significant association of P. copri with fat
accumulation of pig