Thesis subject
Who are our microbes in the small intestine and what can they do?
The human gastrointestinal tract is home to a microbial community, termed microbiota, that mainly consists of bacteria. The bacteria make use of the gut habitat as a stable environment with a rich nutrient supply.
In return, the host gains nutritional products from microbial conversion of dietary components that are otherwise indigestible if it would not be for the remarkable variety of enzymes produced by the microbiota. Based on the nature of the interaction between host and gut bacterial populations, it is not surprising that the intestinal microbiota is a key player in maintaining host health or disease development.
The first region where food components and the intestinal bacteria meet is the small intestine, which is also the main site for food digestion and absorption. Therefore, the small intestinal microbiota is expected to have an important influence on host physiology. However, little is known about the small intestinal microbiota, because samples are difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, small intestinal samples can be collected from ileostomy subjects, which are individuals that had their colon surgically removed due to cancer or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). At the end of surgery, the terminal ileum is connected to an abdominal stoma, which offers an opportunity for sampling of ileal contents. Profiling of stoma effluent revealed a bacterial community enriched in Streptococcus sp. and Veillonella sp. Selective agar based culture media were used in our laboratory to obtain isolates from these bacterial populations.
Aim
This project will focus on in-depth characterization of the recently cultivated Streptococcus and Veillonella bacterial isolates from illeostomy effluent (Figure 1). Since these isolates are likely novel species that previously have not been described, this study may reveal new insights in the functioning and interaction of Streptococcus sp. and Veillonella sp. in the small intestine.
Techniques and methods
More information
Project for MSc student with interest in Molecular Ecology
Supervision: Tom van den Bogert, MSc
Erwin Zoetendal, PhD
Contact info: tom.vandenbogert@wur.nl
Tel: 0317-480062
Laboratory of Microbiology
Microbiology building (316), room k.016
Duration 4-6.5 months
Credits: 39 (max)