Tiny worms in rotting apples Bellies filled with a diversity of microbes Acquired from their decaying abodes And passed down from the worms that came before Providing protection from their malignant counterparts Though only to a selected few Warring families compete to stake claim to grooves within How curious are the controls at work that determine this community Poem by Nina Sokolov Using C. elegans to study the role of host genetics in shaping microbiome structure and function The gut microbiome contributes to host health and fitness. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate the importance of evolutionary processes for shaping host-microbiome interactions. However, identifying host genes shaped by the microbiome, and characterizing their involvement in determining microbiome structure and function has been difficult, in particular in vertebrates, where inter-individual variation masks shared patterns. Work in C. elegans offers the opportunity to work with clonal host populations, reducing noise and highlighting gene signatures, and facilitates genetic manipulation to identify relevant genes. In my talk I will describe our work characterizing the worm gut microbiome and the role of host genetics in shaping its structure and function. I will describe in greater detail the identified involvement of the conserved TGFb/BMP pathway in controlling commensal abundance and function, and will consider the implications of this for pathogenic potential of commensal blooms and dysbiosis. Abstract by Michael Shapira
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AuthorBerkeley EEID Group Archives
February 2020
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