As humans, we live in a microbial world, constantly engaging in symbiotic interactions with microbial communities. These interactions, which can be beneficial, neutral, or destructive, play an important role shaping evolutionary dynamics of the host and their associated microbiota. Understanding underlying mechanisms of these interactions is crucial to unravel coevolutionary processes that define life as a so-called metaorganism (Bosch and McFall-Ngai, 2011).

Approach

Specifically, we focus on the role of blood group-related glycosylation in both the host and microbes to uncover genetic basis of evolutionary changes across industrialized as well as non-industrialized communities. To address these questions, we use high-throughput methods for bacterial sorting, isolation, and amplicon sequencing.

Analysis & Validation

This project aims to determine genetic mechanisms and metabolic functions driving reciprocal adaption between human host and its microorganisms. The project will investigate mechanisms of host-microbe interactions, with G protein-coupled receptors as an important updated focal class of host genes, as well as with blood group-related glycosylation in both the host and microbes. These classes of genes represent diverse possibilities for host-microbiome interactions.