SFB 1182: Origin and Function of Metaorganisms

我们并不孤单：所有的多细胞生物都是在微生物的存在下进化的，几乎所有的多细胞生物都是微生物群落的宿主，微生物组。大多数多细胞生物和它们的微生物群形成了一个相互交织的组织单位，即所谓的元生物。微生物组在塑造宿主的生活史中起着至关重要的作用，并影响宿主的多种功能，包括发育、神经系统功能、食物消化、免疫和动物行为。因此，元生物体的观点是关键，以充分了解生物功能。然而，到目前为止，宿主-微生物组相互作用的多样性，对元生物生物学的影响，以及微生物组介导功能的进化和分子基础仍然知之甚少。CRC 1182旨在填补这些重要的当前知识空白。CRC 1182的总体目标是提高我们对宿主-微生物相互作用的进化和功能的一般理解。我们特别感兴趣的是了解微生物组如何影响进化适应，宿主和微生物组如何交流，它们如何调节元生物体内不同类型的相互作用，以及微生物组如何影响宿主的发育，免疫，代谢和疾病。在前两个资助期内，中心收集了关于这些主题的全面知识基础，并激发了新的研究途径，这得益于中心科学家不同的科学背景和建立的模型系统。我们的研究中心已经成为一个紧密联系的社区，他们共同对元生物生物学产生了新的见解，从第二个资助期开始，已有50多篇合作出版物证明了这一点。在拟议的第三个资助期，该知识库将被用于以可预测的方式操纵元生物体，并表征元生物体功能背后的特定分子和生态进化过程。CRC利用了所研究宿主系统的多样性，从植物到早期分支动物宿主（如placozoans、海绵动物、水螅、水母、珊瑚虫），从外生动物模型物种（如秀丽隐杆线虫、果蝇）到不同的脊椎动物宿主（管鱼、小鼠、灵长类动物，包括人类）。CRC特别致力于元生物体进化和功能的实验测试以及跨项目的高水平整合。除了单个项目，CRC 1182将重点关注六个跨模型系统研究，这些研究明确地结合了来自不同元生物模型的数据，以确定控制宿主-微生物组代谢、稳定性和弹性、微生物传播途径和微生物-微生物相互作用的一般原则。总的来说，CRC 1182将使用元生物视角和宿主系统的多样性来促进对多细胞生物生物学的新的综合理解。

We are not alone: All multicellular organisms have evolved in the presence of microbes and almost all are host to a community of microorganisms, the microbiome. Most multicellular organisms and their microbiome form an intertwined, organizational unit, the so-called metaorganism. The microbiome is critically involved in shaping its host’s life-history and influences a diversity of host functions, ranging from development, nervous system functions, food digestion, immunity, and animal behavior. Consequently, the metaorganism perspective is key to a full appreciation of biological functions. To date, however, the diversity of host-microbiome interactions across the tree of life, the resulting effects on metaorganism biology, and the evolutionary and molecular underpinnings of microbiome-mediated functions are still only poorly understood. The CRC 1182 aims to fill these important current knowledge gaps. The overall objectives of the CRC 1182 are to improve our general understanding of the evolution and function of host-microbiome interactions. We are particularly interested in understanding how the microbiome shapes evolutionary adaptation, how host and microbiome communicate, how they modulate different types of interactions within the metaorganism, and how the microbiome shapes host development, immunity, metabolism and disease. During the first two funding periods, the CRC has gathered a comprehensive knowledge base on these topics and stimulated new research avenues, which benefit from the diverse scientific backgrounds and established model systems of the CRC’s scientists. Our CRC has become a tightly connected community, who jointly generated novel insights into metaorganism biology, as evidenced by more than 50 collaborative publications from the 2nd funding period. For the proposed third funding period, this knowledge base will be harnessed to manipulate the metaorganism in a predictable way and characterize specific molecular and eco-evolutionary processes underlying metaorganism function. The CRC takes advantage of the diversity of studied host systems, ranging from plants over early branching animal hosts (e.g., placozoans, sponges, polyps, jellyfish, anthozoans), ecdysozoan model species (e.g., C. elegans, Drosophila) to different vertebrate hosts (pipefish, mouse, primates, including humans). The CRC specifically strives for experimental tests of metaorganism evolution and function and a high level of integration across projects. Next to individual projects, the CRC 1182 will focus on six Cross-Model-System studies, which explicitly combine data from different metaorganism models to identify general principles governing host-microbiome metabolism, stability and resilience, microbial transmission routes, and microbe-microbe interactions. Overall, the CRC 1182 will use the metaorganism perspective and the diversity of considered host systems to contribute to a new integrated understanding of the biology of multicellular organisms.