12/10/2017
NERVE CELLS CONTROL THE BODY'S BACTERIAL COMMUNITY
The researc group of Dr. Thomas Bosch in Kiel, Germany has proven that there is close cooperation between the nervous system and the microbial population of the body
A central aspect of life sciences is to explore the symbiotic cohabitation of animals, plants and humans with their specific bacterial communities. Scientists refer to the full set of microorganisms living on and inside a host organism as the 'microbiome'.
Over the past years, evidence has accumulated that the composition and balance of this microbiome contributes to the organism’s health. For instance, alterations in the composition of the bacterial community are implicated in the origin of various so-called environmental diseases.
However, it is still largely unknown just how the cooperation between organism and bacteria works. An important breakthrough has now been achieved by the Bosch lab.
Using the freshwater polyp Hydra as a model organism, the Kiel-based researchers and their international colleagues investigated how the simple nervous system of these animals interacts with the microbiome. They were able to demonstrate, for the first time, that small molecules secreted by nerve cells help to regulate the composition and colonisation of specific types of beneficial bacteria along the Hydra’s body column. The scientists published their new findings in Nature Communications, for which MMGC could provide assistance.
