{"637342":{"#nid":"637342","#data":{"type":"news","title":"The Hidden Social Networks of Microbes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis story by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/gina-lewin\u0022\u003EGina Lewin\u003C\/a\u003E, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/marvin-whiteley\u0022\u003EMarvin Whitley\u003C\/a\u003E, initially appeared on the website of \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biomusings.org\/en\/home\/the-hidden-social-networks-of-microbes\u0022\u003EBiomusings.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E Listen to the podcast narration \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/2lmKNAhRLFMBnbKWou18AX\u0022\u003Ehere.\u003C\/a\u003E Content has been modified for the College of Sciences website.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003EIn your mouth there are \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosbiology\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pbio.1002533\u0022\u003Ebillions\u003C\/a\u003E of bacterial cells growing on your teeth and below your gumline. These microbes are not each alone in a little bubble, but instead interact with each other and with your human cells. Undoubtedly, these interactions are important; they determine the behavior of individual microbes, the composition of your oral microbiome, and ultimately, the development of cavities and gum disease. But conceptualizing these interactions and understanding their impact is a huge challenge.\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs a microbial ecologist, there is no way I can study the millions of possible pairwise interactions among the hundreds of species in our oral microbiota, not to mention any higher-level interactions. Instead, I must prioritize my efforts. I assume that due to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/go.biomusings.org\/XCyzqt\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Espatial structure\u003C\/a\u003E of the oral microbiota, not all of these possible interactions are actually occurring. Further, many of the interactions likely have only a minuscule impact on the overall behavior of the community, the evolution of the microbes involved, or the progression of diseases. Yet, this still leaves an unknown, and possibly vast number of important interactions to try to understand, leading me to ponder basic, unanswered questions. When and how do microbes within a community interact? And potentially even more importantly, when and how do those interactions matter?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThese questions are not unique to the oral microbiota. A better understanding of microbial interactions is important across environments, from our microbiome, to soil and plant-associated communities, to the microbes driving carbon cycling in our oceans. There is a basic science value in understanding these important, complex communities. Additionally, scientists hypothesize that altering key interactions can allow us to shift our communities, for example from a diseased state to a healthy state. To determine whether this is actually feasible requires researchers to identify the key interactions and to understand the implications of microbial interactions on both ecological and evolutionary timescales. Thus, while I research the oral microbiota because of its importance to human health, ease of study, and interesting spatial and temporal community dynamics, I hope that my work has broad relevance across systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERecently, in collaboration with my co-authors, I \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/go.biomusings.org\/8mstPu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Estudied\u003C\/a\u003E the interactions formed by the oral pathogen \u003Cem\u003EAggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans\u003C\/em\u003E (\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E) in pairwise coinfection with 25 different microbes in a mouse abscess infection model. Each of these 25 microbes altered the set of essential genes that \u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E needed to survive in the abscess, implying that each microbe interacted with \u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E in some manner. Further, we found that each interaction altered \u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026rsquo;s essential genes in a unique way.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERead the remainder of the original story on the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biomusings.org\/en\/home\/the-hidden-social-networks-of-microbes\u0022\u003EBiomusings website.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EListen to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/2lmKNAhRLFMBnbKWou18AX\u0022\u003Epodcast episode.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGina Lewin, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Marvin Whiteley, investigates the interactions between oral microbes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Gina Lewin, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Marvin Whiteley, investigates the interactions between oral microbes."}],"uid":"35185","created_gmt":"2020-07-29 12:58:52","changed_gmt":"2020-07-29 13:17:10","author":"kpietkiewicz3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-07-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-07-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"637344":{"id":"637344","type":"image","title":"The hidden social network of microbes","body":null,"created":"1596028289","gmt_created":"2020-07-29 13:11:29","changed":"1596028289","gmt_changed":"2020-07-29 13:11:29","alt":"","file":{"fid":"242446","name":"microbes.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/microbes.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/microbes.png","mime":"image\/png","size":601559,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/microbes.png?itok=JFTP3H6d"}},"637343":{"id":"637343","type":"image","title":"Gina Lewin","body":null,"created":"1596028217","gmt_created":"2020-07-29 13:10:17","changed":"1596028217","gmt_changed":"2020-07-29 13:10:17","alt":"","file":{"fid":"242445","name":"Gina_Lewin.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Gina_Lewin.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Gina_Lewin.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":42092,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Gina_Lewin.jpg?itok=epmFYLwY"}},"637345":{"id":"637345","type":"image","title":"Interactions within a microbial community are complex, and defining each of them is not trivial.","body":null,"created":"1596028421","gmt_created":"2020-07-29 13:13:41","changed":"1596028421","gmt_changed":"2020-07-29 13:13:41","alt":"","file":{"fid":"242447","name":"Microbial+Interactions+Gina+Lewin+Biomusings.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Microbial%2BInteractions%2BGina%2BLewin%2BBiomusings.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Microbial%2BInteractions%2BGina%2BLewin%2BBiomusings.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1522112,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Microbial%2BInteractions%2BGina%2BLewin%2BBiomusings.png?itok=qVrEr21p"}}},"media_ids":["637344","637343","637345"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/events\/week-microbiology-twim-podcast-recording","title":"\u0022This Week in Microbiology\u0022 (TWiM) podcast recording"},{"url":"https:\/\/cos.gatech.edu\/news\/periodontitis-bacteria-love-colon-and-dirt-microbes","title":"Periodontitis Bacteria Love Colon and Dirt Microbes"}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"7572","name":"microbes"},{"id":"185406","name":"oral microbes"},{"id":"184353","name":"microbial ecology"},{"id":"4320","name":"ecology"},{"id":"181944","name":"human health"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGrace Pietkiewicz\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Assistant\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nkatiegracepz@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kpietkiewicz3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}