Department of Biology Special Seminar: Will Ludington

Description

Will Ludington, a staff scientist in the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University, will give a talk titled "Host-Microbiome Specificity in Colonization of the Gut" for the Biology Department.

Abstract:

Animals throughout the metazoa selectively acquire specific symbiotic gut bacteria from their environment to aid host fitness. Current models of colonization suggest these bacteria use weakly specific receptors to stick to host tissues and that colonization results when they stick in a region of the host gut that overlaps with their nutritional niche. An alternative model is that unique receptorligand binding interactions provide specificity for target niches. I will present live imaging data of individual symbiotic bacterial cells colonizing the gut of living Drosophila melanogaster to show that symbionts specifically recognize a distinct physical niche in their host's gut. Using experimental evolution, we find that recognition is controlled by a colonization island that is widely conserved in commensals and pathogens. Our findings indicate a genetic mechanism of host specificity that is broadly conserved. By developing fly genetics tools for the niche region, we are now beginning to study the host mechanisms of colonization specificity regulation.

This is a hybrid event; to attend virtually, use the Zoom link.