Abstract
The mineral content in drinking water is an emerging regulator of intestinal health. While certain mineral waters are generally considered beneficial, their health effects under enteric infection conditions remain unclear. Here we show that Mg2+ in drinking water exacerbates inflammation caused by enteric pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium via two interlinked mechanisms: direct activation of its key bacterial competition machinery type VI secretion system (T6SS) and indirect amplification through inflammation-driven dysbiosis. Mg2+ depletes beneficial Akkermansia and enriches Bacteroides, elevating pro-inflammatory bile acids and arginine that enhance T6SS-mediated competitive fitness. These effects vary with host health and water sources. Our findings support the use of low-mineral water for vulnerable groups during infection risk periods, establishing Mg2+ in drinking water as a modifiable risk factor for infectious enteritis.
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Data availability
16S rRNA sequencing data are publicly accessible via NCBI SRA (BioProject, PRJNA1284006). Untargeted metabolomics data are deposited in MetaboLights (study ID MTBLS12690). All other data supporting the findings of this study are available within this article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51878406 to X.B.) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (grant no. 25ZR1401169 to X.B.).
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Conceptualization, T.L., T.D., T.Z. and X.B.; methodology, T.L.; investigation, T.L. and X.B.; writing—original draft, T.L.; writing—review and editing, T.L., T.D. and X.B.; funding acquisition, X.B.; resources, X.B.; supervision, X.B. All authors read, critically revised and approved the final paper.
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Nature Water thanks Vanessa Speight and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.
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Liu, T., Dong, T., Zhang, T. et al. Mg2+ in drinking water boosts Salmonella infection risk by rewiring gut ecology and virulence.
Nat Water (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00584-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00584-2
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