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20.11.2015 Microbial symbionts and meta-organisms:

Microbial symbionts and meta-organisms: No one is alone
New DFG Collaborative Research Centre approved.
 
Microbial symbionts and meta-organisms: No one is alone
New DFG Collaborative Research Centre approved.

Good arguments eventually lead to success. The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) has approved a proposal by scientists from Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen and Ploen requesting 10 million Euros for a Collaborative Research Centre on interactions between animals and their beneficial microbes.
“We would like to understand how an organism and the microbes that colonize it form a functional unit, the so-called meta-organism. The interactions in these multi-member communities are shaped by evolutionary and ecological factors that influence the lifecycles and fitness of all members of the meta-organism and play an important role in the balance between health and disease," writes Professor Thomas Bosch from the University of Kiel.”

The Director of the Bremen Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier, is very excited to be a part of this new DFG Collaborative Research Centre. She says: "For several years we have been studying mussels that live at hydrothermal vents in the deep-sea. The mussels would not be able to colonize these extreme environments if they didn't have bacterial symbionts that provide them with nutrition. In collaboration with other researchers from the DFG Collaborative Research Centre we plan on investigating the interactions between the mussel host and its bacterial symbionts.”


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier
Direktorin am Max-Planck-Institut für Marine Mikrobiologie
Tel.: +49 421 2028 932
Mail: ndubilie(at)mpi-bremen.de

Dr. Manfred Schlösser
Press officer
Tel.: +49 421 2028 704
Mail: mschloes(at)mpi-bremen.de

Dr. Fanni Aspetsberger
Press officer
Tel.: +49 421 2028 645
Mail: faspetsb(at)mpi-bremen.de
 
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