Figure 1 from Gut Microbiome Profiling in Eμ-TCL1 Mice Reveals Intestinal Changes and a Dysbiotic Signature Specific to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

CLL alters gut bacterial diversity and generates a dysbiotic microbiome compared with WT. A, Study schematic illustrating transgenic Eμ-TCL1 and WT B6 mice were monitored with serial blood and fecal pellet sample collection over 12 months. DNA isolated from fecal pellets was subject to 16S rRNA sequencing at the indicated time points. At study end, mice were sacrificed, and tissues were harvested (n = 7–13 mice/genotype). B, CLL disease burden was measured by the percentage of CD45⁺/CD19⁺/CD5⁺ cells in the peripheral blood via flow cytometric analysis. Asterisks denote the significance between Eμ-TCL1 mice over disease course (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01). Hashtags denote the significance between WT B6 and Eμ-TCL1 mice at each time point (##, P < 0.01; ###, P < 0.001). Two-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparisons was applied for testing. C, Alpha diversity measured by the Shannon diversity index in transgenic Eμ-TCL1 mice compared with age-matched WT B6 mice at 7, 10, and 12 months (*, P < 0.05). Data are presented as box-and-whisker plots, with box edges representing the 25th and 75th percentiles, the center line showing the median value, and whiskers extending to minimum and maximum values. Asterisks denote the significance between WT B6 and Eμ-TCL1 mice at each time point. Unpaired Welch t test was applied for testing. D, PCoA plot depicting Bray–Curtis distance as a measure of beta diversity between transgenic Eμ-TCL1 mice (blue) and age-matched WT B6 mice (red) at all time points (4 – 12 months). E, Alpha diversity measured by the Shannon diversity index in transgenic Eμ-TCL1 mice over time (4–12 months). Data are presented as box-and-whisker plots, with box edges representing the 25th and 75th percentiles, the center line showing the median value, and whiskers extending to minimum and maximum values. F, PCoA plot depicting Bray–Curtis distance as a measure of beta diversity in transgenic Eμ-TCL1 mice over time (4–12 months). G, Relative abundance bar plots of bacterial taxa present in the gut microbiome of Eμ-TCL1 and WT B6 mice over 12 months. Sequences with a quality score of Q28 and higher were assembled for paired-end sequencing using default parameters of Phredd33 encoding and included in the analysis. Per these parameters, a single 4-month WT B6 sample met this criterion and was retained during this step in the analysis. Additional WT B6 samples in the three subsequent time points (7, 10, and 12 months) passed this quality control check and as such were included. Remainder includes all remaining taxa present in the microbiome at decreased abundance.