Fig. 1

Interactions of Blastocystis with representatives of gut bacteria. Blastocystis ST7 isolates B and H were incubated for 24 h at 37 °C in PBS with each of the following bacterial cultures: E. coli, E. faecalis, B. longum, L. brevis, B. fragilis, and B. subtilis. There were higher counts of Blastocystis when incubated with bacteria (a). The highest increase in Blastocystis count was observed between isolate ST7-B and B. longum. The representative gut bacteria also had higher colony-forming unit per milliliter as observed (b) and counted (c) from agar plates, except for B. longum. B. longum’s colony-forming unit per milliliter was not significantly different in the presence of Blastocystis (c). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001