Role of Selective Sulfur Nutrients across Human and Environmental Microbiomes and for Precision Microbiome Editing
Duration of contract: 4 years
Planned starting date: ASAP
Place of work: University of Vienna
Main supervisor: Wolfgang Wanek (CV | Lab Homepage)
Supervision team: Alexander Loy, Thomas Böttcher, Ruth Birner-Grünberger
This position has been filled.
Project description:
Metabolic activities and interactions in human gut, soil, and plant rhizosphere microbiomes will be analyzed upon incubation with sulfur compounds, such as sulfo(no)lipids and sulfoquinovose, in in-vitro microcosms using a multi-omics approach and stable isotope tracing, including sulfur-related fluxomics and stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) combined with fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). Newly isolated sulfo(no)lipid/sulfoquinovose-utilizing strains or cultures from public collections will represent candidate probiotics for each ecosystem. Precision editing of complex microbiomes will initially be tested in in-vitro microcosms. In-vivo precision editing of microbiota will be evaluated in gnotobiotic mice colonized with defined human strain consortia, and in greenhouse experiments for soil microbiomes.
The PhD student will develop and apply a stable isotope-based sulfometabolomics approach, using 34S labelled organic compounds, help with plant-soil experiments, and measure sulfometabolite concentrations and fluxes in gut and soil microbiomes. This will be done in close collaboration with a Postdoc contributing metagenomics-transcriptomics and gut systems analysis.