Abstract
An individual can be viewed as a combination of human cells and a similar number of bacterial cells living in and on the body, together the holobiont. The evolution of this entity includes the evolution of the microbiota. The gut microbiome is widely studied and associated with disease and lifestyle. However, these studies almost exclusively look at population stucture changes and not at the effects of evolution. This proposal will study how prevalent and important evolution is in the infant gut microbiome by analysing metagenomes of dozens of feacal samples of 12 infants during the first year of life. This initial investigation will lead to hypotheses about the association of evolution with events in the infant's life. The focus will be on: mode of birth (C-section versus vaginal), feeding (breastfed, formula fed and introduction of solid food) and antibiotic treatment. These hypotheses will be tested on a larger cohort of infants, where we can make selections based on known metadata. This proposal will give a first insight in the role of evolution in the infant microbiome.
Netherlands