MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK.
Institute of Clinical Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK.
Lab Anim (NY). 2021 May;50(5):127-135. doi: 10.1038/s41684-021-00724-z. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Microbes are an integral part of life on this planet. Microbes and their hosts influence each other in an endless dance that shapes how the meta-organism interacts with its environment. Although great advances have been made in microbiome research over the past 20 years, the mechanisms by which both hosts and their microbes interact with each other and the environment are still not well understood. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been widely used as a model organism to study a remarkable number of human-like processes. Recent evidence shows that the worm is a powerful tool to investigate in fine detail the complexity that exists in microbe-host interactions. By combining the large array of genetic tools available for both organisms together with deep phenotyping approaches, it has been possible to uncover key effectors in the complex relationship between microbes and their hosts. In this perspective, we survey the literature for insightful discoveries in the microbiome field using the worm as a model. We discuss the latest conceptual and technological advances in the field and highlight the strengths that make C. elegans a valuable biosensor tool for the study of microbe-host interactions.
微生物是这个星球生命的组成部分。微生物及其宿主在无尽的舞蹈中相互影响，这种舞蹈塑造了机体与环境的相互作用方式。尽管在过去的 20 年里，微生物组研究取得了巨大进展，但宿主及其微生物与环境相互作用的机制仍未得到很好的理解。秀丽隐杆线虫已被广泛用作研究许多类似人类过程的模式生物。最近的证据表明，这种蠕虫是一种强大的工具，可以详细研究微生物-宿主相互作用中的复杂性。通过将两种生物体都可用的大量遗传工具与深入的表型分析相结合，已经有可能揭示微生物与其宿主之间复杂关系中的关键效应因子。在这个角度下，我们使用蠕虫作为模型，调查了微生物组领域的文献，以寻找有见地的发现。我们讨论了该领域的最新概念和技术进展，并强调了使秀丽隐杆线虫成为研究微生物-宿主相互作用的有价值的生物传感器工具的优势。
