Presenter(s): Zoë Wong − Biology, Psychology
Faculty Mentor(s): Karen Guillemin
Oral Session 4S
Research Area: Natural Science (Biology)
The microbes that live both in and on us, collectively known as our microbiota, are estimated to include 3.8 ·1013 cells (Sender, et al., 2016). While this considerable community plays an active role in host health, it also contributes to disease phenotypes including states of inflammation and excess cell proliferation. Previous work has shown that secretion of a bacterial chitin binding protein (CBP), GbpA, by Aeromonas veronii is sufficient to induce cell proliferation in zebrafish (Banse et al., unpublished). Chitin serves as an important Carbon and Nitrogen source for hosts and microbes that can breakdown colloidal chitin (Tran et al., 2011). Interestingly, CBPs are found in microbes that are not capable of utilizing chitin as a nutrient source, which suggests that bacteria have an ulterior motive for CBP translation (Tran et al., 2011). To investigate the relevance of GbpA expression, we propose to use Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism because of their short generation time, ability to be reared germ-free, and established assay for measuring cell proliferation in the midgut epithelium (Jones et al., 2017). We hypothesize that the CBP domain of GbpA (domain 1, GbpAD1) is necessary and sufficient for increased cell proliferation in Drosophila. Chitinases and other CBPs are linked to pro-proliferative states of inflammation and we would expect this result to be replicated in Drosophila (Tran et al., 2011). The highly-conserved sequence identity of CBPs makes it an interesting avenue for exploring the intricacies of bacterial-host interactions.