Epithelial defense in Hydra
Final Report Abstract
Using a a wide range of state-of-the-art microscopic and functional methods, our efforts provided novel and important information about the role of Hydra´s glycalix as habitat for a complex and stably associated microbial community. We also showed that mucosal surfaces appeared for the first time about 560 million years ago in Cnidaria suggesting a common origin for both systems. In addition, and initially not planned, we uncovered a number of functional aspects involved in controlling the bacterial colonizers living within the glycocalyx including novel antimicrobial peptides produced in nerve cells. The last mentioned result led us to propose that the nervous system with its rich repertoire of neuropeptides is involved in controlling resident beneficial microbes and that it emerged to orchestrate multiple functions including host-microbiome interactions. All relevant observations were publilshed in international journals. The uncovered interactions between Hydra and its microbial colonizers will be central in our future research activities and indicate that the ultimately simple “holobiont” Hydra provides both a new perspective on the relationship between bacteria and animal cells and also a new prism for viewing the emergence and evolution of epithelial-based innate immunity.
Publications
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(2015) Bacteria-bacteria interactions within the microbiota of the ancestral metazoan Hydra contribute to fungal resistance. ISME J. 9(7):1543-56
Fraune S, Anton-Erxleben F, Augustin R, Franzenburg S, Knop M, Schröder K, Willoweit- Ohl D, Bosch TC
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(2015) Which games are growing bacterial populations playing? J. Royal Society Interface
Li X-Y, C Pietschke, S Fraune, PM Altrock, TCG Bosch and A Traulsen
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(2016) The Origin of Mucosal Immunity: Lessons from the Holobiont Hydra. mBio. 7(6). pii: e01184-16
Schröder K, Bosch TC
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(2017) A secreted antibacterial neuropeptide shapes the microbiome of Hydra. Nature Comm. 8(1):698
Augustin R, Schröder K, Murillo Rincón AP, Fraune S, Anton-Erxleben F, Herbst EM, Wittlieb J, Schwentner M, Grötzinger J, Wassenaar TM, Bosch TCG
