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Project

Biogeographical analysis of gut microbiome

To better understand the various roles of the human gut microbiota and its relation with the physiology of the host, it is necessary to characterize the human gut microbiota in different niches along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and explore the transitions in community composition along its different compartments. The variability in the microbiome along the GI tract may be due to several factors, among which are the physiological differences among compartments. To date, most studies of gut microbiome have focused on fecal samples as proxies of colon microbiota, or to a less extent, colonic biopsies. There are only few studies that have considered analyzing upper GI microbiome as well. As concluded from these studies, the microbiome load varies throughout the GI tract in the way that several taxa are significantly over- or under- represented throughout the GI tract, and in total the lower GI is richer with regard to the number of species and total bacterial load compared to the upper GI. In this project we will analyse the whole GI tract to investigate how gut microbiota varies along the length and depth of the tract with regard to overall diversity and prevalence of different taxa, and how do these changes correlate with the differences in host's physiology and characteristics along the GI tract. Additionally, this work will allow us to identify and isolate novel bacterial strains of potential interest for biomedical applications.

Date:15 Apr 2019 →  21 Nov 2021
Keywords:gut microbiome, biogeography, gut biogeography, microbiome mapping
Disciplines:Microbiome
Project type:PhD project