Descrizione del progetto
Il microbiota intestinale al microscopio
La comunità microbica altamente dinamica dell’intestino svolge un ruolo fondamentale sulla salute umana agevolando la scomposizione alimentare, la produzione di metaboliti bioattivi e la resistenza alle infezioni. Il progetto EvoGutHealth, finanziato dall’UE, mira a comprendere il modo in cui le relazioni tra microbo e ospite possono cambiare a causa dell’evoluzione dei batteri intestinali. Gli scienziati impiegheranno una comunità sintetica per testare l’ipotesi secondo cui le interazioni metaboliche tra i singoli batteri possono influenzare funzioni globali del microbiota quali la resistenza ai patogeni. I risultati del progetto forniranno conoscenze fondamentali sul microbiota intestinale e contribuiranno a sviluppare strategie di intervento benefico che promuovano la salute umana.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantIstituzione ospitante
80539 MUNCHEN
Germania