Taking a Closer Look at the Disturbed Human Gut Microbiome: A Study of the Interplay between E. faecalis and variant E. coli Mutants.

This research project aims to identify the interplay between various E. coli strains (isolated from mice) and E. faecalis both of which play crucial roles in the human gut microbiome. E. faecalis can drive inflammation in the gut microbiome (Langfelder, et al. 2019). The mouse isolated E. coli that I am working with is being compared to the results of clinical strains of E. coli as the project goes on. We know due to Dr. Bleich’s sequencing work that more E. coli in the mouse model gut microbiome leads to more E. faecalis; but the question is: ‘Why?’ and ‘If there are more E. faecalis present will it lead to more E. coli?’We also know from other studies as well as Dr. Bleich’s sequencing data, that L-Ornithine production from E. faecalis’ biofilm can act as signaling molecule to increase expression of siderophores in E. coli. when Iron is limited (Keogh, Damien, et al. 2016). We experimented with DTPA (Pentetic Acid, metal chelator for Iron) to identify variations in size and morphology in the bacterial colonies. We know the morphologies can change based on genetic and environmental cues as well (Serra, D. O., et al. 2013) which is the purpose for control variables, to maintain consistency throughout experimentation