Global Microbiome Congress

Abstract

The gut microbiome is made of around 4 trillion microorganisms, predominantly bacteria, which play an important role in the nutrient digestion as well as in the general immune response. The dysbiosis and alterations of the gut microbiome can lead to an overreaction of the immune system and so to inflammation and autoimmune disease like the inflammatory bowel disease.

In the following project, the effects of high fat diet and exercise on different strains of BXD mice, with diverse susceptibilities to metabolic diseases, are analyzed during their lifespan. 
Associations between certain bacteria and metabolic diseases have been identified by analyzing the meta-genome and meta-transcriptome in parallel with the transcriptome of the host’s cecum. This has been achieved by performing classical bioinformatic analysis, but also by implementing different machine learning algorithms, permitting multi-omics integration. 

The genera Lactococcus, Bacteroides, Lachnospiraceae_unclassified and the unannotated genus GGB28904 are more abundant in mice fed with a high fat diet, whereas the genera Prevotella, Duncaniella and Heminiphilus are more abundant in those fed with a chow diet, considered as healthy. A decrease in the abundance of the genera Lachnospiraceae_unclassified and GGB28904 has also been observed in mice with access to voluntary exercise. 

These findings will guide us in designing mechanistic experiments to understand how health can be improved by altering the microbiome composition, which may become an indispensable pillar to precision medicine through gut microbiome engineering

Biography

Arianna Lamanna is a PhD student at Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, an interdisciplinary centre of the University of Luxembourg, in the research group Gene-Expression and Metabolism led by Associate ProfessorEvan Williams. She has completed a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Luxembourg and a master’s degree in systems biology at Maastricht University.