Friday, October 12, 2012: 10:40 AM
Hall 4E/F (WSCC)
The presence and composition of the complex communities of microorganisms associated with vertebrate animals play a vital role in the development and health of the host vertebrate. However, how these communities establish within hosts is poorly understood. It is possible that various ecological traits (i.e. metabolic strategy, competitive ability, morphology, and specialized enzymes) of these microbes determine which of them are able to colonize and which are excluded. Further, the importance of these traits could vary with the age of the host. We address these questions using the model vertebrate, zebrafish (Danio rerio), which can be reared germ free and inoculated with known microbes. Using culture-dependent methods and 16s rRNA sequencing we have isolated and classified 19 taxa of microbes from the zebrafish gut, representing 17 unique genera and 6 phyla of the known gut community. By measuring the correlation between several ecological traits of these strains and the relative abundance of these strains within the zebrafish intestinal community at six different ages, we explore whether these traits are relevant drivers of microbial community composition in the vertebrate gut. Understanding the ecological processes determining the presence and composition of microbial communities in vertebrate hosts is critical for developing safe and effective therapies (e.g probiotics) for treating infectious disease.