Casein and chicken are assessed to contain high quality
proteins, which are essential for human health. Studies have shown that ingestion of the two
dietary proteins resulted in distinct effects on physiology, liver transcriptome and gut microbiota. However, its underlying mechanism is not fully understood, in particular for a crosstalk between gut microbiota and host under a specific diet intervention. We fed young rats with a
casein or a chicken
protein-based diet (CHPD) for 7 days, and characterized cecal microbiota composition and cecal gene expression. We found that a short-term intervention with a
casein-based diet (CAD) induced a higher relative abundance of beneficial bacterium Lactococcus lactis as well as Bifidobacterium pseudolongum, which upregulated
galactose metabolism of the microbiome compared with a CHPD. The CAD also upregulated gene expression involved in
obesity associated pathways (e.g., Adipoq and Irs1) in cecal tissue of rats. These genes and the bacterial taxon were reported to play an important role in protecting development of
obesity. Furthermore, the differentially represented bacterial taxon L. lactis was positively associated with these differentially expressed genes in the gut tissue. Our results provide a new insight into the crosstalk between gut microbiota and host in response to
dietary proteins, indicating a potential mechanism of
obesity prevention function by
casein.