Which four bacterial groups showed no significant difference in total numbers when comparing colonic and ileal biopsies between IBD and small cell GI lymphoma cats?

• A. Clostridium spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Helicobacter spp., Faecalibacterium spp.
• B. Fusobacterium spp., Bacteroides spp., Lactobacillus spp., Enterococcus spp.
• C. Clostridium spp., Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter spp.
• D. Bacteroides spp., Fusobacterium spp., Helicobacter pylori, Peptostreptococcus spp.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is understanding which mucosa-associated bacterial groups stay consistent across gut regions and disease states in cats. The four taxa listed—Clostridium spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Helicobacter spp., and Faecalibacterium spp.—did not show a significant difference in their total numbers when comparing colonic to ileal biopsies in cats with either IBD or small cell GI lymphoma. This suggests their mucosal abundance is relatively stable across the ileum and colon and across these disease contexts, so they don’t drive differences between sites or disease groups in this dataset. In other parts of the gut microbiome, many groups are more sensitive to regional environments or inflammatory conditions and often show shifts between ileum and colon or between IBD and lymphoma; those groups would be more likely to show significant differences.