UC Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2017 Aug;38:142-147. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.05.012. Epub 2017 Jun 14.
As a useful genetic model, C. elegans can facilitate investigation of the genetic underpinnings of host-microbiota interactions. However, decades of feeding it with Escherichia coli left a gap in our understanding of its interactions with microbes, hindering such use. This is changing, with recent studies characterizing the gut microbiota of worms in their natural habitats, comparing them to those in their environment, and evaluating the significance of gut and environmental commensals. This work defined a shared core gut microbiota significantly influenced by host genetics, and unraveled bacterial contributions to life history traits. Establishing C. elegans as a new model of host-microbiota interactions will benefit from existing knowledge about bacterial modulation of worm physiology, and could draw mechanistic insights from characterized interactions between parasitic nematodes and their symbionts.
作为一个有用的遗传模型，秀丽隐杆线虫可以促进对宿主-微生物相互作用的遗传基础的研究。然而，几十年来用大肠杆菌喂养它，导致我们对其与微生物相互作用的理解存在空白，阻碍了这种用途。这种情况正在改变，最近的研究描述了线虫在其自然栖息地的肠道微生物组，将其与环境中的微生物组进行比较，并评估肠道和环境共生菌的意义。这项工作定义了一个共享的核心肠道微生物组，该微生物组受宿主遗传因素的显著影响，并揭示了细菌对生活史特征的贡献。将秀丽隐杆线虫确立为宿主-微生物相互作用的新模式将受益于现有关于细菌调节线虫生理学的知识，并可以从寄生虫线虫与其共生体之间的特征化相互作用中获得机制见解。
