Influence of intestinal microbiota metabolic cross-talk on host metabolic allocation during animal juvenile growth – MicroMetabo

The gut microbiota shapes animal growth trajectory in different nutritional environment. Despite recent progresses, the molecular mechanisms behind such mutualism remain poorly understood. This is partly due to the fact that the gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem, mostly composed of bacteria, which construct multiplex, high-order nutritional and metabolic networks among themselves and with the host. Given this complexity, no study has elucidated to what extent and how the microbiota metabolic activities contribute to host juvenile growth. In MicroMetabo, we will identify the metabolic networks of the gut microbiota and determine how they shape their host metabolic resources availability and allocation during juvenile growth. To this end, we will use a simple gnotobiotic model allowing full control over the diet, the host and the members of its microbiota, and will combine large-scale metabolomics and precise metabolite tracking with genetic and biochemical approaches.