Bacterial competition in colonic crypts

随着抗生素耐药性的增加，需要新的方法来解决细菌感染。生活在我们肠道中的微生物群落通过防止病原体在胃肠道中定居来保护我们免受病原体的侵害。利用这些群落的力量可能为对抗肠道病原体提供一种可行的替代方案。决定一个细菌物种是否能入侵一个群落的一个关键特征是它们拥有并使用有效的抗菌武器来杀死竞争对手。众所周知，这些武器既能抑制病原体被常驻细菌占据时的入侵，也能使鼠伤寒沙门氏菌等病原体入侵。因此，研究这些武器的使用对于了解微生物群落和相关疾病非常重要。我将运用理论和实验相结合的方法来更好地理解细菌武器，以及建立抵抗病原体入侵的群落的相关目标。我的项目有三个主要目标：1)我将研究细菌如何使用武器入侵社区，使用计算模型和实验来找到最佳的入侵策略。2)我将通过实验和生态网络模型研究细菌群落如何抵抗入侵。3)最后，我将问，随着时间的推移，这种抗定植性是如何通过进化的群落和病原体一起变化的。重点领域：对抗抗菌素耐药性：抗生素耐药性的惊人上升威胁着抗生素前药物的回归。因此，需要开发新的策略来对抗细菌感染。

With the rise in antibiotic resistance novel approaches to tackle bacterial infections are needed. The microbial communities living in our gut give protection against pathogens by preventing them from colonising the gastrointestinal tract. Harnessing the power of these communities may provide a viable alternative to combat enteric pathogens. A key trait determining whether a bacterial species can invade a community is their possession and use of potent antimicrobial weapons to kill competitors. These weapons are known to both inhibit pathogens from invading when possessed by resident bacteria, but also to enable pathogens such as Salmonella Typhimurium to invade. Studying the use of these weapons is therefore important for understanding microbial communities and associated diseases. I will use a combination of theory and experiments to better understand bacterial weapons and the associated goal of assembling communities that are resistant to pathogen invasion. My project has three main goals: 1) I will ask how bacteria use weapons to invade communities, using computational modelling and experiments to find optimal invasion strategies. 2)I will ask how bacterial communities resist invasion by looking at whole communities both experimentally and through ecological network models. 3) Finally, I will ask how this colonisation resistance changes over time by evolving communities and pathogens together. BBSRC priority area:Combatting antimicrobial resistance: The alarming rise in antibiotic resistance is threatening a return of pre-antibiotic medicine. The development novel strategies to combat bacterial infections are therefore needed.