{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T18:06:35Z","timestamp":1785434795385,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,19]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":69,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,19]],"date-time":"2023-05-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1684454400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["AI171634"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AI171634"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/043z4tv69","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  <jats:italic>Clostridioides difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  and Vancomycin-resistant\n                  <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                  (VRE) are commonly co-isolated from hospitalized patients. We sought to develop a co-culture biofilm model to characterize interactions between these two opportunistic pathogens. Upon growth in biofilm-promoting media containing added glucose, fructose or trehalose, VRE produces sufficient acid to lower the pH and inhibit growth of\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  . We found this effect depended on the carbon source, and that acidification by VRE was necessary and sufficient to suppress\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  growth in liquid medium and in cecal content extracts from germ free mice. VRE frequently dominates the intestine of patients administered antibiotics which can predispose to the development of\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection. We reasoned that it may be possible to suppress\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  growth during co-infection with VRE by supplementing the mouse diet with a fermentable sugar. A VRE-dominated gut microbiota may convert the sugar to acid, lower the pH and reestablish colonization resistance to\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  . Supplementation of the diet of VRE colonized mice with high levels of fructose neither resulted in a lower pH, nor did it prevent colonization by\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  . Taken together, these data suggest that VRE can suppress growth of\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile<\/jats:italic>\n                  by organic acid production in a carbon source-dependent manner in vitro, however, the mammalian intestine may require sophisticated approaches to lower pH therapeutically.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1101\/2023.05.16.541032","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,19]],"date-time":"2023-05-19T12:10:18Z","timestamp":1684498218000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Acidification-dependent suppression of\n                  <i>C. difficile<\/i>\n                  by pathogenic and commensal enterococci"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-4536-147X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Holly R.","family":"Neubauer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-8850-5603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ibukun M.","family":"Ogunyemi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-8101-5456","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alicia K.","family":"Wood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5853-3852","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angus","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-1301-0269","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Avi Z.","family":"Stern","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zainab","family":"Sikander","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lesly-Hannah","family":"Gutierrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Addelis A.","family":"Agosto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8461-117X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter T.","family":"McKenney","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Binghamton Biofilm Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, SUNY, Binghamton NY 13902 USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026031300500474000_2023.05.16.541032v2.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/iub.1315"},{"key":"2026031300500474000_2023.05.16.541032v2.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-2958.2010.07495.x"},{"issue":"9","key":"2026031300500474000_2023.05.16.541032v2.3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"639","DOI":"10.1038\/s41575-025-01092-6","article-title":"Intestinal pH: a major driver of human gut microbiota composition and metabolism","volume":"22","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nature Reviews. 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