SPP 1316:  Host-adapted Metabolism of Bacterial Pathogens

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Biology ; Chemistry ; Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering
• Term: from 2008 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 33588101

What enables bacteria to proliferate with their host organisms and to cause disease? To answer this question, it is not sufficient to understand the function of specific virulence determinants such as toxins or invasins. Traditionally, the interaction with the host defense has been defined as the basis microbial pathogenicity, leading to the characterisation of defensive and offensive virulence determinants. More recently, it became obvious that the co-evolution of host and pathogen also resulted in an adaptation of the metabolism of the pathogen. Examples are "fitness factors" such as iron uptake systems or the reduction or extension of metabolic pathways. Recently developed highly sensitive bioanalytical techniques now allow the in-depth study of the adaptation of the pathogen's metabolism to the host organism.
In the framework of this Priority Pogramme researchers will investigate how bacterial pathogens adapt their metabolism during colonisation of host organisms, how the metabolism of pathogenic bacteria and host organism is interconnected and which mechanisms of control are active.
Projects in this Priority Pogramme aim to identify metabolic pathways that are important for the bacteria during infection and to determine the metabolic fluxes. The metabolic reactions of the host organisms and the genetic mechanisms of metabolic adaptation will be unraveled.
Specific aims of the programme are:
(1) to generate integrated knowledge of the host-adapted metabolism during host pathogen-interactions,
(2) to generate a network of closely collaborating researchers in infection biology, medicine, microbial physiology, bioanalytics and bioinformatics,
(3) to develop and optimise approaches of bioanalytics and bioinformatics for the analyses of metabolic pathways during infection,
(4) to identify novel targets for the development of future antimicrobial strategies based on the analysis of the host-adapted bacterial metabolism.
The Priority Pogramme will investigate a novel theme in infection biology. The high demand for specialised methods and instrumentation has previously hampered studies in this area. Due to a close interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers with complementary expertise in infection biology, bioanalytics and bioinformatics, an efficient analysis of the complex interplay of the metabolism of pathogenic bacteria and their host will now be possible.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Switzerland

Projects

• A post-transcriptional link between Salmonella metabolism and virulence (Applicant Vogel, Jörg )
• Adaptation of metabolism and virulence of Streptococcus suis to host environments (Applicant Goethe, Ralph )
• Adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in virulence and metabolism: requirements for chronic lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients (Applicant Hogardt, Michael )
• Amino acid and C1 carbon source metabolism in the Salmonella typhimurium phagosome: Role of amino acids and glycine conversion in intracellular growth (Applicant Tedin, Ph.D., Karsten )
• Analysis of Staphylococcus aureus persister cells and their roles in infection (Applicant Götz, Friedrich )
• Carbon sources for salmonella growth in infected host tissues (Applicant Bumann, Dirk )
• Center of Isotopologue Profiling (Z-Projekt) (Applicant Eisenreich, Wolfgang )
• Control of metabolism of host and pathogen by the Yersinia type three secretion system (Applicant Wilharm, Gottfried )
• Gene regulatory mechanisms of metabolic adaptation in Neisseria meningitidis in ex vivo infection models (Applicant Schoen, Christoph )
• Host adapted metabolism in bacterial infections: Data integration and refined metabolic modelling (Applicant Dandekar, Thomas )
• Host-adapted metabolism of Staphylococcus aureus Small-Colony Variants (Applicant Becker, Karsten )
• Host adapted N-metabolism of Listeria monocytogenes (Applicants Eisenreich, Wolfgang ;  Fuchs, Thilo Martin )
• Identification of host-adapted metabolic functions important for Yersinia pseudotuberculosis virulence (Applicants Dersch, Petra ;  Schomburg, Dietmar ;  Wittmann, Christoph )
• Metabolic cross-talk between Bartonella henselae and host cells (Applicant Kempf, Volkhard A. J. )
• Metabolism of intracellular Salmonella enterica: One liefstyle in intracellular infections (Applicants Dandekar, Thomas ;  Hensel, Michael )
• Metabolism of phytate and inositol by Legionella and implications for bacterial virulence (Applicant Hilbi, Hubert )
• Metabolism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa under conditions of persistent infection of the cystic fibrosis lung (Applicants Schobert, Max ;  Schomburg, Dietmar )
• Modeling metabolism in intracellular infections comparing Salmonella and Listeria (Applicant Dandekar, Thomas )
• Priority Program 1316: administration and conferences (Applicant Hensel, Michael )
• Regulation and in vivo relevance of myo-inositol utilization by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Applicant Fuchs, Thilo Martin )
• Regulation of carbon metabolism in staphylococci: The impact of catabolite control protein A and related factors on pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis (Applicant Bischoff, Markus )
• Regulation of Metabolism and Pathogenicity Networks in Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) (Applicant Schmidt, Herbert )
• Regulation of the metabolic adaptation of the phytopathogenic bacteria Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris and Xanthomonas campestris pv. armoraciae during infection of Arabidopsis thaliana (Applicants Becker, Anke ;  Niehaus, Karsten )
• Technology development and application for studying metabolism of extracellular and intracellular pathogens under real-time controlled culture conditions (Applicant Zeng, An-Ping )
• The influence of glutamine transporters and global regulators on metabolism, colonization and virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae (Applicant Hammerschmidt, Sven )
• The intracellular metabolism of Legionella pneumophila and its regulation (Applicants Eisenreich, Wolfgang ;  Heuner, Klaus )
• The role of peptide catabolism on the colonization and growth dynamics of Campylobacter jejuni (Applicant Hofreuter, Dirk )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Hensel