Laboratory of Microbial Ecology Dept Biology, UPR-RP

Oct 2009

How microbes and hosts interact ?PI. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Ph.D

People currently working in the lab (left to right): Kassandra de Jesus (undergrad. student), Angela Alicea (Undergraduate student), Ida Pantoja (Ph.D. student), Filipa Godoy-Vitorino (visiting Postdoc) and Miguel Rivera (Undergraduate student)

PI: María Gloria Domínguez Bello, Ph.D.

Associate ProfessorDepartment of BiologyUniversity of Puerto Rico (UPR) E-mail:maria.dominguez1@upr.edu

PERSONNEL

Overview on the lab’s projects

1-The microbiota of animals and humans- The foregut of the Hoatzin

- The human stomach

2- Antibiotic resistance in animals - Feral and Domestic goats - Vertical transfer of resistance genes in mice

The Foregut of the Hoatzin

-Neotropical flying bird

-Varied folivorous diet (with phytochemicals)

-Smallest vertebrate and only bird withan enlarged crop (foregut)

-Microbiota degrades dietary fiber ->VFA

AIM: MICROBIAL COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY

Bacterial composition-Clone libraries of 16S rRNA genes-Phylogenetic microarray: G2 PhyloChip-Bacterial isolates cultivated in anaerobic M10 media

-Characterization of bacterial community in 6 adult bird crops

-Bacterial succession in the crop from chicks to adults

-Bacterial and archaeal community differences in birds of different geographical regions

-Differences in community structure in foregut and hindgut systems (Hoatzin and cow)

-Characterization of isolated bacteria from the hoatzin crop

Fungal composition-Clone libraries of 18S rRNA genes

Flavobacteriaceae Clostridiaceae Lachnospiraceae

Coriobacteraceae, Desulfovibrionaceaecertain Lachnospiraceae, Alteromonadaceae Verrucomicrobia DSS1Deferribacteres

Chicks Adults

40 PHYLA!

CLONED BACTERIA UNDETECTED BY CHIP

SUCCESSIONAL CHANGES

DIFFERENCES WITHIN LOCATIONS

FOR DETAILS SEE OUR POSTERS!!!

Sequencing the hoatzin crop microbiome: a source of novel carbohydrate-active enzymes

JGI- Walnut Creek (Berkeley)

The Human stomach

Changes in the structure of the human gastric bacterial community in relation to Helicobacter pylori status

- Sampled gastric biopsies-10 rural Amerindian patients from Amazonas,Venezuela (6 Hp+ and 4 Hp-)-2 recent US immigrants from South Asia and Africa (Hp+) -hybridized 16S amplicons onto the G2 PhyloChip

Patients from developing countries in this study were strongly dominated by four phyla, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria.

PhyloChip detected a large number (43) of bacterial phyla in the human stomach

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

FERAL GOATS OF MONA ISLAND

AIM: Comparion of antibiotic resistance genes in fecal bacteria, in 5 domesticated goats and 5 feral goats from the Mona island

Feral and domestic all harbor intestinal bacteria with antibiotic resistance genes (with an increase in the number of genes in rhe domestic ones).

• Stool samples collected from 6 female mice, pre-tetracycline treatment and post-tetracycline treatment and its offspring.

There is vertical transfer of tetracycline resistance genes from mother to offspring at early stages in life, without the selective pressure of antibiotics.

Vertical transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in mice

Students trained Jan 2004–Oct 2009

Undergraduate students= 20 (currently 3)

Graduate students= 3 (currently 1 with thesis)

PhD theses finalized= 2

GO SEE OUR 6 POSTERS!• ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENES IN FERAL GOATS OF MONA ISLAND, by Michelle Jovanne Rivera-Rivera and Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

•THE CROP BACTERIAL BIOTA IN ADULT HOATZINS FROM DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS by Filipa Godoy-Vitorino and Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

•AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE HOATZIN CROP BACTERIAL AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE HOATZIN CROP BACTERIAL COMMUNITY COMMUNITY by Filipa Godoy-Vitorino and Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

•MOLECULAR TYPIFICATION OF BACTERIAL ISOLATES FROM THE HOATZIN CROP (OPISTHOCOMUS HOAZIN) by Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, Kassandra M. De Jesús Laboy and Maria Gloria Domiguez-Bello

•DIVERSITY OF FUNGI IN THE HOATZIN CROP: AN 18S RDNA-BASED APPROACH by Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, Miguel Rivera and Maria G. Dominguez-Bello

•DETECTING VERTICAL TRANSFER OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENES IN THE ABSENCE OF ANTIBIOTICS by Ida Pantoja-Feliciano, Angela Alicea Serrano and Maria Gloria Domiguez-Bello