Dietary supplementation with low-dose xylooligosaccharide promotes the anti-Salmonella activity of probiotic Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ZS2058 in a murine model

Oligosaccharides have been previously reported to cause an aggravation of Salmonella infection. In this study, we reduced the dietary supplementation of oligosaccharides (1% w/w) and studied their effects on the anti-Salmonella activity of probiotic Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) ZS2058. The results showed that among all five studied oligosaccharides, only xylooligosaccharide (XOS) promoted the anti-Salmonella activity of L. plantarum ZS2058 by increasing the survival rate of the infected mice (66.7% vs. 53.3%). Further study revealed that XOS did not function synergistically with L. plantarum ZS2058, as XOS itself did not improve the survival rate of the infected mice. In an in vitro coculture system, XOS significantly promoted the antagonistic activity (92% increase) of L. plantarum ZS2058 against Salmonella. In Salmonella-infected mice, the combination of XOS and L. plantarum ZS2058 significantly increased the faecal content of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and restored the production of proinflammatory cytokines. More importantly, XOS, L. plantarum ZS2058 and their combination changed the gut microbiota into distinct profiles. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) analysis identified five taxa as marker bacteria for mice treated with a combination of XOS and L. plantarum ZS2058. In particular, Mucispirillum, which was previously reported to protect the host from Salmonella infection, was increased. Here, we showed that low dose XOS could promote the anti-Salmonella activity of the probiotic L. plantarum ZS2058. These results offer new opportunities to cope with this predominant food-borne pathogen with great efficiency and to lay a foundation for developing functional foods with anti-Salmonella potential.