Ecology of bacteriophages in mucosa during vertebrate host lifespan (Phaging)

Main funder

Funder's project number: 346772

Funds granted by main funder (€)

Funding program

Project timetable

Project start date: 01/09/2022

Project end date: 31/08/2026

Summary

Pathogenic bacteria have a strong affinity towards mucosa. However, the vertebrate mucosal surface is a complex environment including commensal microbiota and host immune mechanisms. An additional factor in mucosal resistance against invading pathogens is the presence of symbiotic bacteriophages. Yet, there are still several fundamental gaps in knowledge regarding the ecology of the phage-bacterium interaction in the mucosal milieu. For example, while interaction with the mucosa directly increases the virulence of many bacterial pathogens, our recent studies suggest that the mucosal environment increases bacterial susceptibility to phage infections, which favours CRISPR-Cas resistance instead of surface resistance. Understanding the ecology of pathogens and their phages in the mucosa is thus central for our health. However, the mucosa of an old individual is drastically different from a younger one, as mucosal barrier and immune responses decline during the senescence, leading to an increased infection susceptibility in the elderly. This change is likely to cause shifts the in the mucosa-phage-bacterium interplay, which may have a major impact on infections and disease resistance in the aging population. Yet, vertebrate host senescence has remained virtually ignored in phage-bacterium interaction and infection ecology studies, biasing our knowledge on host-associated microbiome ecology and health. This project allows us to address these gaps experimentally (in cell cultures and with zebra fish) and broaden our knowledge on the role of the mucosal milieu and its senescence on the ecology of medically relevant phage-bacterium interaction in the vertebrate mucosa. The project is at the core of fundamental and topical questions of host-pathogen interactions, and can open new trajectories in understanding the ecology of host-associated microbial communities and how they shape health and disease during vertebrate lifespan.

Principal Investigator

Primary responsible unit

Follow-up groups

Profiling area: Nanoscience Center (Department of Physics PHYS, JYFL) (Faculty of Mathematics and Science) (Department of Chemistry CHEM) (Department of Biological and Environmental Science BIOENV) NSC; School of Resource Wisdom (University of Jyväskylä JYU) JYU.Wisdom

Related publications and other outputs