Metatranscriptomics and transcriptional interdependencies
The gut microbiota is generally understood as an ecosystem with many
symbiotic interactions. While these interactions have been studied as
co-existence patterns, the microbial activities that are associated with
co-existence remains poorly understood. The presentation will describe how
metagenomics and metatranscriptomics data from human stool samples can be
used to systematically map transcriptional interactions between gut
microbes, and identify pairs of microorganisms whose co-existence correlates
with a change in their gene expression. For example, one may study how
transcriptional interactions may result in reduced gene expression during
co-existence with companion species and whether interactions seem to be
unidirectional or not. The talk will give gene level insight into community
wide transcriptional interactions, and highlight that regulation of gene
expression plays an important role in functional replacements, and stresses
that microbes are best understood in their community context.