Lab 13 Background
Microbial Population Editing Assay
Microbes, in human body or elsewhere, do not exist in isolation. Recent studies estimated that 500 to 1000 bacterial species exist in the human body at any given time. Indeed, there are approximately 1.3 bacterial cells per every human cell in the human body. Such a large amount of cells interact with each other and form microbial communities. Current evidence suggests that the microbial communities in the human body (also known as human microbiota) affects the physiology and fitness of the host humans.
Our project focuses on the virulence of the T7 bacteriophage, which targets many types of E. Coli bacteria. Since the human body hosts many types of E. Coli bacteria, it is likely that a T7 phage treatment will negatively impact E. Coli bacteria that are part of the microbiota, in addition to the targeted harmful E. Coli bacterium/bacteria.
To understand the effect of T7 phage treatment on a microbial community, a microbial population editing assay will be conducted in this lab. In short, we will treat three types of E. Coli bacteria, 10G, BW25113 and Nissle 1917 (not a T7 phage target) with the T7 phages and monitor the composition change in this microbial community. While this assay by no means testing the real changes in a human body given that many more species exist in the microbiota, this assay nevertheless shines light on the possible effect of the T7 phage treatment on microbial population.
Reference
Ando, H., Lemire, S., Pires, D. P., & Lu, T. K. (2015). Engineering Modular Viral Scaffolds for Targeted Bacterial Population Editing. Cell Syst, 1(3), 187-196. doi:10.1016/j.cels.2015.08.013
Gilbert JA, Blaser MJ, Caporaso JG, Jansson JK, Lynch SV, Knight R. Current understanding of the human microbiome. Nat Med. 2018 Apr 10;24(4):392-400. doi: 10.1038/nm.4517.
Gould AL, Zhang V, Lamberti L, Jones EW, Obadia B, Korasidis N, Gavryushkin A, Carlson JM, Beerenwinkel N, Ludington WB. Microbiome interactions shape host fitness. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Dec 18;115(51):E11951-E11960. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1809349115.
Konopka, A. What is microbial community ecology?. ISME J 3, 1223–1230 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2009.88