Descripción del proyecto
La microbiota intestinal bajo el microscopio
La comunidad microbiana intestinal, sumamente dinámica, desempeña un papel fundamental en la salud humana pues contribuye a facilitar la descomposición de los alimentos ingeridos, producir metabolitos bioactivos y aumentar la resistencia a las infecciones. El objetivo del proyecto EvoGutHealth, financiado con fondos europeos, es comprender cómo puede cambiar la relación entre el los microbios y los hospedadores por la evolución de las bacterias intestinales. Los científicos del proyecto emplearán una comunidad sintética para probar la hipótesis de que las interacciones metabólicas entre las bacterias individuales pueden afectar a las funciones globales de la microbiota, como la resistencia a los patógenos. Los resultados del proyecto proporcionarán datos fundamentales sobre la microbiota intestinal y ayudarán a elaborar estrategias de intervención beneficiosas que promuevan la salud humana.
Objetivo
The gut is a highly dynamic microbial ecosystem that controls human health through its collective metabolic activities. Microbial communities form metabolic networks that are essential for dietary breakdown, production of bioactive metabolites and resistance to infections. Bacterial lineages making up these networks evolve rapidly to adapt to the microbial, metabolic and immune environment of the gut. The lack of suitable model systems has limited our current understanding of the relevance of microbial community evolution in the gut and its impact on microbe-host mutualism.
EvoGutHealth aims to fill this gap in knowledge by using an innovative, tuneable oligo-microbial model system that allows the study of how a native bacterial consortium evolves in its autochthonous host. Based on our preliminary data, we hypothesize that adaptive evolution shapes synergistic metabolic interactions between individual community members and this eventually affects global microbiome functions such as colonization resistance against pathogens. EvoGutHealth pursues three research goals: First, to identify environmental and host factors that shape the genetic potential of microbial communities in the gut. Second, to uncover how microbial community evolution influences disease-relevant microbiome features and metabolic pathways. Third, to model bacterial metabolic networks and elucidate how they are affected by the genetic alterations of their components.
This combined work will fundamentally advance our understanding of the driving forces underlying metabolic network evolution in the mammalian gut. Moreover, it will illuminate how this evolution translates into functional changes. Finally, EvoGutHealth will provide necessary insight to develop strategies to steer microbial communities towards beneficial interactions promoting human health.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
80539 MUNCHEN
Alemania