Bone biodeterioration-The effect of marine and terrestrial depositional environments on early diagenesis and bone bacterial community

PLoS One. 2020 Oct 15;15(10):e0240512. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240512. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Bacteria play an important role in the degradation of bone material. However, much remains to be learnt about the structure of their communities in degrading bone, and how the depositional environment influences their diversity throughout the exposure period. We genetically profiled the bacterial community in an experimental series of pig bone fragments (femur and humeri) deposited at different well-defined environments in Denmark. The bacterial community in the bone fragments and surrounding depositional environment were studied over one year, and correlated with the bioerosion damage patterns observed microscopically in the bones. We observed that the bacterial communities within the bones were heavily influenced by the local microbial community, and that the general bone microbial diversity increases with time after exposure. We found the presence of several known collagenase producing bacterial groups, and also observed increases in the relative abundance of several of these in bones with tunneling. We anticipate that future analyses using shotgun metagenomics on this and similar datasets will be able to provide insights into mechanisms of microbiome driven bone degradation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria / classification
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Bacteria / growth & development*
  • Bone and Bones / metabolism
  • Bone and Bones / microbiology*
  • Bone and Bones / pathology*
  • Environmental Exposure / analysis*
  • Microbiota*
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Swine

Substances

  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research grant DFF-4090-00037 (AMHE). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.