The Oligo-Mouse-Microbiota (OMM12) is a recently developed synthetic bacterial community for functional microbiome research in mouse models (Brugiroux et al., 2016). To date, the OMM12 model has been established in several germ-free mouse facilities world-wide and is employed to address a growing variety of research questions related to infection biology, mucosal immunology, microbial ecology and host-microbiome metabolic cross-talk. The OMM12 consists of 12 sequenced and publically available strains isolated from mice, representing five bacterial phyla that are naturally abundant in the murine gastrointestinal tract (Lagkouvardos et al., 2016). Under germ-free conditions, the OMM12 colonizes mice stably over multiple generations. Here, we investigated whether stably colonized OMM12 mouse lines could be reproducibly established in different animal facilities. Germ-free C57Bl/6J mice were inoculated with a frozen mixture of the OMM12 strains. Within 2 weeks after application, the OMM12 community reached the same stable composition in all facilities, as determined by fecal microbiome analysis. We show that a second application of the OMM12 strains after 72 h leads to a more stable community composition than a single application. The availability of such protocols for reliable de novo generation of gnotobiotic rodents will certainly contribute to increasing experimental reproducibility in biomedical research.

Department for Computational Biology of Infection Research Helmholtz Center for Infection Research Brunswick Germany

German Center for Infection Research LMU Munich Munich Germany

German Center for Infection Research Tübingen Germany

Institute for Laboratory Animal Science and Central Animal Facility Hannover Medical School Hanover Germany

Institute of Food Nutrition and Health ETH Zürich Zurich Switzerland

Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene University of Tübingen Tübingen Germany

Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Nový Hrádek Czechia

Max von Pettenkofer Institute LMU Munich Munich Germany

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Defined Pig Microbiota with a Potential Protective Effect against Infection with Salmonella Typhimurium

A standardized gnotobiotic mouse model harboring a minimal 15-member mouse gut microbiota recapitulates SOPF/SPF phenotypes