SPP 2330: New concepts in prokaryotic virus-host interactions - from single cells to microbial communities

在这一优先方案(战略规划方案2330)的框架内，大约25个小组将联合起来，建立一个跨学科联盟，重点是原核生物中病毒与宿主的相互作用。近年来，在原核生物的生物学方面取得了革命性的发现，包括病毒可以利用小分子在群体水平上做出决定，发现了由病毒形成的模糊原核和真核生命之间边界的细胞内分子复合体，以及多种新型的抗病毒免疫系统在单细胞和多细胞水平上发挥作用。这些突破性的最新发现现在已经激发了人们对噬菌体生物学的巨大研究兴趣。有了这个SPP，我们将汇聚一个跨学科的噬菌体研究联盟，结合分子微生物学、生物信息学、数学建模、成像技术、结构生物学和生物化学，组成一个德国卓越的团队，以一种具有国际竞争力的方式引领这一新兴课题。新成立的SPP专注于病毒组织的三个层面的复杂性：病毒细胞生物学，新的单细胞和多细胞抗病毒防御策略，以及病毒对多物种微生物群落的影响。该联盟的基本目标是在分子水平上以及在微生物群落的背景下理解原核病毒-宿主相互作用的新机制。这将使我们能够解决不同病毒生活方式对抗病毒战略演变的影响，并最终阐明社区一级的进化军备竞赛。该联盟的共同努力将引领该领域为这些迅速出现的课题发现新的概念，并将开辟生物学的新视野，在分子生物学、噬菌体疗法、食品加工和农业中具有很高的应用潜力。优先项目的成功从根本上取决于正确的框架条件的建立。因此，我们申请资金用于组织年度会议和国际会议(第三年)，为组织讲习班、学生交流、博士后启动资金、性别平等措施和公共宣传单元提供资金。协调资金将由协调员、协调委员会和两性平等委员会管理--所有这些都得到最高人民大会党的协调助理的支持。

In the frame of this priority programme (SPP 2330) approximately 25 groups will unite to build an interdisciplinary consortium focusing on virus-host interaction in prokaryotes. In recent years, revolutionary discoveries on the biology of prokaryotic viruses were made, including the finding that viruses can use small molecules to make group-level decisions, the discovery of intracellular molecular complexes made by viruses that blur the boundary between prokaryotic and eukaryotic life, and the multitude of novel anti-viral immune systems acting at the unicellular and multicellular level. These ground breaking recent discoveries have now sparked an enormous research interest in phage biology. With this SPP, we will bring together an interdisciplinary consortium on phage research, combining molecular microbiology, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling, imaging techniques, structural biology, and biochemistry to form a German excellence group that will spearhead this emerging topic in an internationally competitive manner.The newly established SPP focuses on three scales of complexity of viral organization: viral cell biology, new unicellular and multicellular anti-viral defense strategies, and viral impact on multispecies microbial communities. The fundamental goals of this consortium are the understanding of new mechanisms in prokaryotic virus-host interactions at the molecular level as well as in the context of microbial communities. This will allow us to address the impact of different viral life styles on the evolution of anti-viral strategies and ultimately will shed light on the evolutionary arms race at the community level. Together, the concerted effort of this consortium will lead the field to uncover new concepts for these rapidly emerging topics and will open up new horizons in biology, with high potentials for applications in molecular biology, phage therapy, food processing, and agriculture.The success of a priority program fundamentally depends on the establishment of the right framework conditions. Therefore, we apply for funding for the organization of annual meetings as well as an international conference (3rd year), funding for the organization of workshops, student exchanges, start-up funding for postdocs, gender equality measures and a public outreach module. The coordination funds will be managed by the coordinator, the coordination committee, and a gender equality board - all supported by the coordination assistant of the SPP.