Stability, resistance and change in mammalian microbiota and their associations with host health

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Spencer, M. (2011). Stability, resistance and change in mammalian microbiota and their associations with host health. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

What is the nature of a complex organism? Metagenomic research and its insights into biosystem function have fundamentally altered the answer to this question. High-throughput sequencing technology has revealed the multitude of microbes that live in and on human beings and other mammals. Metagenomics is beginning to uncover the relationships between microbiome and host that contribute to a complex organism's biological processes. The vast quantities of data generated by sequencing have also created analytical challenges that require new methods to identify biologically meaningful results. The research described in this dissertation applies many of these techniques to elucidate the role of microbiota in human health. Chapter 1 presents results from our study of human choline metabolism that identified a relationship between the human gut microbiome and health. Primer design and qPCR experiments that confirm Chapter 1 results are explained in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 characterizes the microbial community from cystic fibrosis lung infection exposed to repeated courses of antibiotic therapy. An experiment designed to improve the resolution of ARISA, a metagenomic profiling technique, is described in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the relationship between gut microbial community composition and exercise in mice is investigated. In total, the work in this dissertation identifies several novel relationships between microbiota, host and environmental factors that may prove important in identifying underlying biological mechanisms that will improve human health.

Details
Author

Spencer, Melanie

Title

Stability, resistance and change in mammalian microbiota and their associations with host health

Physical Description

1 online resource (175 pages) : PDF

Date

2011

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

What is the nature of a complex organism? Metagenomic research and its insights into biosystem function have fundamentally altered the answer to this question. High-throughput sequencing technology has revealed the multitude of microbes that live in and on human beings and other mammals. Metagenomics is beginning to uncover the relationships between microbiome and host that contribute to a complex organism's biological processes. The vast quantities of data generated by sequencing have also created analytical challenges that require new methods to identify biologically meaningful results. The research described in this dissertation applies many of these techniques to elucidate the role of microbiota in human health. Chapter 1 presents results from our study of human choline metabolism that identified a relationship between the human gut microbiome and health. Primer design and qPCR experiments that confirm Chapter 1 results are explained in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 characterizes the microbial community from cystic fibrosis lung infection exposed to repeated courses of antibiotic therapy. An experiment designed to improve the resolution of ARISA, a metagenomic profiling technique, is described in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the relationship between gut microbial community composition and exercise in mice is investigated. In total, the work in this dissertation identifies several novel relationships between microbiota, host and environmental factors that may prove important in identifying underlying biological mechanisms that will improve human health.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Biology
Microbiology
Bioinformatics

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Choline
Cystic Fibrosis
Metagenomics
Microbiome
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Subject Area

Information Technology

Advisor(s)

Fodor, Anthony

Committee Members

Schlueter, Jessica
Livesay, Dennis
Steck, Todd

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2011.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Spencer_uncc_0694D_10174

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1601