MINERVA · Role of Metabolic INteractions in the Eco-evolutionary dynamics of bacteRial communities in the VAgina
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-04-01 → 2023-03-31
- EU contribution
- €184,708
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Role of Metabolic INteractions in the Eco-evolutionary dynamics of bacteRial communities in the VAgina
More than one out of four women in the world suffers from bacterial vaginosis. Their vaginal secretions become more abundant and have a strong fishy odor. Women with bacterial vaginosis show increased risks of getting most sexually transmissible infections and are more prone to complications during pregnancy. We know that bacterial vaginosis is linked to a modification of the vaginal microbiome, the ensemble of bacteria, fungi and viruses that inhabit the vagina. The vaginal microbiome is different in women suffering from bacterial vaginosis: i) certain bacterial species are preferentially present in the case of bacterial vaginosis; ii) it contains a higher diversity of bacterial species, and iii) it displays increased levels of a particular metabolic activity related to specific sugar molecules, the sialic acids. We know little, however, about the relative contribution of each of these bacterial species to the disease or to the changes in metabolic activity. We know even less about the interactions between bacteria from the same species and between different species, and about how these interactions are related to vaginal health and disease. In addition, bacterial species associated with bacterial vaginosis can also be found in the vaginal microbiome of healthy women, blurring our understanding of the development of bacterial vaginosis. The MINERVA project addressed these questions with the ultimate aim of understanding the role of the bacterial metabolism of special sugars in the transition from vaginal health to disease. We used clinical isolates of three bacterial species of the vaginal microbiome and evaluated their genetic diversity and their metabolic profiles.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a polymicrobial syndrome that modifies vaginal secretions and increases risks of reproductive complications and most sexually transmissible infections. This syndrome is associated with a shift in vaginal microbiota composition from lactic-acid producing bacteria to specific bacterial communities. Concomitant with such shift, sialidases can be detected in vaginal secretions where they release sialic acids (SA), sugar molecules that some bacteria can use as a nutrient source and to escape host’s immunity. While the presence of sialidases is used as a BV diagnosis method, we still know little about SA metabolism in the species associated with BV, and even less about SA-related interactions in the community.The proposed project will directly address this question with the ultimate aim of understanding the role of SA metabolism in the transition from health to disease. I will focus my research on the three most prevalent BV-associated bacteria: Gardnerella vaginalis, Prevotella bivia and Atopobium vaginae. First, I will investigate the genomic organization and distribution of the genes involved in SA metabolism. Second, I will link these genotypes to phenotypes by experimentally assessing the expression of those genes in clinical samples from BV-positive and negative women. Third, I will assess the evolutionary stability of SA metabolism genes and bring insight into the respective roles of SA availability and host’s immune system in the evolution of bacterial SA metabolism. Finally, I will create ex-vivo minimal model communities of BV bacteria and examine the ecological interactions between species.By going beyond a taxonomic description to better understand eco-evolutionary functioning, this project will expand our view of the BV microbiome both at the species level, examining in particular intraspecies diversity in genetic composition and expression, and at the community level through the investigation of SA-related interactions.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union