"Bacterial Microcompartments: how dynamic nutritional niches can shape microbial communities"Clare, ChaniaBacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are self-assembled protein structures often utilised by bacteria as a modular metabolic unit, enabling the catalysis and utilisation of less common carbon and nitrogen sources within a self-contained subunit, conferring a growth advantage. While the ethanolamine utilisation (eut) BMC has been widely demonstrated in enteropathogens, there is limited research into its activity in commensal species in the human gut. Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is a strong coloniser and probiotic in the gut microbiome, and has been used extensively in microbiome engineering studies. I will present work on the utilisation of ethanolamine and the formation of the eut BMC in EcN, demonstrated through growth assays, qPCR, and visualisation with transmission electron microscopy, revealing further complexity to microbiota community dynamics. Subsequently, flux balance analysis was used to further investigate the metabolic activity of this pathway. At the end of the talk I will discuss how Lotka-Volterra modelling will be used to model the effect this metabolism has on commensal and pathogenic strains grown together in co-culture, aiming to elucidate the methods they use to occupy this nutritional niche and the resulting competition. |
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