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Optogenetic control of gut bacterial metabolism to promote longevity
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Gut microbial metabolism is associated with host longevity. However, because it requires direct manipulation of microbial metabolismin situ, establishing a causal link between these two processes remains challenging. We demonstrate an optogenetic method to control gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the host gut. We genetically engineer anEscherichia colistrain that synthesizes and secretes colanic acid (CA) under the quantitative control of light. Using this optogenetically-controlled strain to induce CA production directly in theCaenorhabditis elegansgut, we reveal the local effect of CA in protecting intestinal mitochondria from stress-induced hyper-fragmentation. We also exploit different intensities of light to determine that the lifespan-extending effect of CA is positively correlated with its levels produced from bacteria. Our results show that optogenetic control offers a rapid, reversible and quantitative way to fine-tune gut bacterial metabolism and uncover its local and systemic effects on host health and aging.
- Subjects :
- 0303 health sciences
media_common.quotation_subject
030302 biochemistry & molecular biology
Longevity
Microbial metabolism
Biology
Optogenetics
Mitochondrion
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease_cause
3. Good health
Cell biology
03 medical and health sciences
Gene expression
medicine
Escherichia coli
Caenorhabditis elegans
Bacteria
030304 developmental biology
media_common
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........05aaf90cfd2fcef73e2345428b02f68a