scholarly journals Elucidating host–microbe interactions in vivo by studying population dynamics using neutral genetic tags

Immunology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Hausmann ◽  
Wolf‐Dietrich Hardt
2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (26) ◽  
pp. 7041-7046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujit S. Datta ◽  
Asher Preska Steinberg ◽  
Rustem F. Ismagilov

Colonic mucus is a key biological hydrogel that protects the gut from infection and physical damage and mediates host–microbe interactions and drug delivery. However, little is known about how its structure is influenced by materials it comes into contact with regularly. For example, the gut abounds in polymers such as dietary fibers or administered therapeutics, yet whether such polymers interact with the mucus hydrogel, and if so, how, remains unclear. Although several biological processes have been identified as potential regulators of mucus structure, the polymeric composition of the gut environment has been ignored. Here, we demonstrate that gut polymers do in fact regulate mucus hydrogel structure, and that polymer–mucus interactions can be described using a thermodynamic model based on Flory–Huggins solution theory. We found that both dietary and therapeutic polymers dramatically compressed murine colonic mucus ex vivo and in vivo. This behavior depended strongly on both polymer concentration and molecular weight, in agreement with the predictions of our thermodynamic model. Moreover, exposure to polymer-rich luminal fluid from germ-free mice strongly compressed the mucus hydrogel, whereas exposure to luminal fluid from specific-pathogen-free mice—whose microbiota degrade gut polymers—did not; this suggests that gut microbes modulate mucus structure by degrading polymers. These findings highlight the role of mucus as a responsive biomaterial, and reveal a mechanism of mucus restructuring that must be integrated into the design and interpretation of studies involving therapeutic polymers, dietary fibers, and fiber-degrading gut microbes.


iScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 184-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shweta Saini ◽  
Jennifer Poelmans ◽  
Hannelie Korf ◽  
James L. Dooley ◽  
Sayuan Liang ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 2950-2956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Bulgheresi ◽  
Irma Schabussova ◽  
Tie Chen ◽  
Nicholas P. Mullin ◽  
Rick M. Maizels ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Although thiotrophic symbioses have been intensively studied for the last three decades, nothing is known about the molecular mechanisms of symbiont acquisition. We used the symbiosis between the marine nematode Laxus oneistus and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to study this process. In this association a monolayer of symbionts covers the whole cuticle of the nematode, except its anterior-most region. Here, we identify a novel Ca2+-dependent mannose-specific lectin that was exclusively secreted onto the posterior, bacterium-associated region of L. oneistus cuticle. A recombinant form of this lectin induced symbiont aggregation in seawater and was able to compete with the native lectin for symbiont binding in vivo. Surprisingly, the carbohydrate recognition domain of this mannose-binding protein was similar both structurally and functionally to a human dendritic cell-specific immunoreceptor. Our results provide a molecular link between bacterial symbionts and host-secreted mucus in a marine symbiosis and suggest conservation in the mechanisms of host-microbe interactions throughout the animal kingdom.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (23) ◽  
pp. 8088-8103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youfu Zhao ◽  
Sara E. Blumer ◽  
George W. Sundin

ABSTRACT The enterobacterium Erwinia amylovora is a devastating plant pathogen causing necrotrophic fire blight disease of apple, pear, and other rosaceous plants. In this study, we used a modified in vivo expression technology system to identify E. amylovora genes that are activated during infection of immature pear tissue, a process that requires the major pathogenicity factors of this organism. We identified 394 unique pear fruit-induced (pfi) genes on the basis of sequence similarity to known genes and separated them into nine putative function groups including host-microbe interactions (3.8%), stress response (5.3%), regulation (11.9%), cell surface (8.9%), transport (13.5%), mobile elements (1.0%), metabolism (20.3%), nutrient acquisition and synthesis (15.5%), and unknown or hypothetical proteins (19.8%). Known virulence genes, including hrp/hrc components of the type III secretion system, the major effector gene dspE, type II secretion, levansucrase (lsc), and regulators of levansucrase and amylovoran biosynthesis, were upregulated during pear tissue infection. Known virulence factors previously identified in E. (Pectobacterium) carotovora and Pseudomonas syringae were identified for the first time in E. amylovora and included HecA hemagglutinin family adhesion, Peh polygalacturonase, new effector HopPtoCEA, and membrane-bound lytic murein transglycosylase MltEEA. An insertional mutation within hopPtoC EA did not result in reduced virulence; however, an mltE EA knockout mutant was reduced in virulence and growth in immature pears. This study suggests that E. amylovora utilizes a variety of strategies during plant infection and to overcome the stressful and poor nutritional environment of its plant hosts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 659-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anh The Than ◽  
Fleur Ponton ◽  
Juliano Morimoto

Abstract Population density modulates a wide range of eco-evolutionary processes including inter- and intra-specific competition, fitness and population dynamics. In holometabolous insects, the larval stage is particularly susceptible to density-dependent effects because the larva is the resource-acquiring stage. Larval density-dependent effects can modulate the expression of life-history traits not only in the larval and adult stages but also downstream for population dynamics and evolution. Better understanding the scope and generality of density-dependent effects on life-history traits of current and future generations can provide useful knowledge for both theory and experiments in developmental ecology. Here, we review the literature on larval density-dependent effects on fitness of non-social holometabolous insects. First, we provide a functional definition of density to navigate the terminology in the literature. We then classify the biological levels upon which larval density-dependent effects can be observed followed by a review of the literature produced over the past decades across major non-social holometabolous groups. Next, we argue that host-microbe interactions are yet an overlooked biological level susceptible to density-dependent effects and propose a conceptual model to explain how density-dependent effects on host-microbe interactions can modulate density-dependent fitness curves. In summary, this review provides an integrative framework of density-dependent effects across biological levels which can be used to guide future research in the field of ecology and evolution.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngbin Lim ◽  
Margarita Khariton ◽  
Keara M. Lane ◽  
Anthony L. Shiver ◽  
Katharine M. Ng ◽  
...  

AbstractImaging dense and diverse microbial communities has broad applications in basic microbiology and medicine, but remains a grand challenge due to the fact that many species adopt similar morphologies. While prior studies have relied on techniques involving spectral labeling, we have developed an expansion microscopy method (μExM) in which cells are physically expanded prior imaging and their expansion patterns depend on the structural and mechanical properties of their cell walls, which vary across species and conditions. We use this phenomenon as a quantitative and sensitive phenotypic imaging contrast orthogonal to spectral separation in order to resolve bacterial cells of different species or in distinct physiological states. Focusing on host-microbe interactions that are difficult to quantify through fluorescence alone, we demonstrate the ability of μExM to distinguish species within a dense community throughin vivoimaging of a model gut microbiota, and to sensitively detect cell-envelope damage caused by antibiotics or previously unrecognized cell-to-cell phenotypic heterogeneity among pathogenic bacteria as they infect macrophages.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Condessa Barreto ◽  
Beatriz Abreu ◽  
Isabel Gordo

Iron is critical in host-microbe interactions, and its availability is under tight regulation in the mammalian gut. Antibiotics and inflammation are known to perturb iron availability in the gut, which could subsequently alter host-microbe interactions. Here, we show that an adaptive allele of iscR, encoding a major regulator of iron homeostasis of Escherichia coli, is under fluctuating selection in the mouse gut. In vivo competitions in immune-competent, immune-compromised, and germ-free mice reveal that the selective pressure on an iscR mutant E. coli is modulated by the presence of antibiotics, other members of the microbiota, and the immune system. In vitro assays show that iron availability is an important mediator of the iscR allele fitness benefits or costs. We identify Lipocalin-2, a host's innate immune system protein that prevents bacterial iron acquisition, as a major host mechanism underlying fluctuating selection of the iscR allele. Our results provide a remarkable example of strong fluctuating selection acting on bacterial iron regulation in the mammalian gut.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Blutt ◽  
Mary K. Estes

Infectious diseases affect individual health and have widespread societal impacts. New ex vivo models are critical to understand pathogenesis, host response, and features necessary to develop preventive and therapeutic treatments. Pluripotent and tissue stem cell–derived organoids provide new tools for the study of human infections. Organoid models recapitulate many characteristics of in vivo disease and are providing new insights into human respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neuronal host–microbe interactions. Increasing culture complexity by adding the stroma, interorgan communication, and the microbiome will improve the use of organoids as models for infection. Organoid cultures provide a platform with the capability to improve human health related to infectious diseases. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Medicine, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document