Research focus 2: Bacteria – Bacteria interactions

In their natural habitats, bacteria reside in communities with other bacterial species, which can result in conditions that differ greatly from a pure culture and lead to cooperative or competitive relationships between the bacteria. Our model systm is composed of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, which are two pathogens that habitat the same niches in the human body. While S. aureus is well recognized as the predominant Cystic fibrosis pathogen throughout childhood, P. aeruginosa is the second most relevant and is predominant during adulthood. Recent studies have begun to shed some light on the relationship between these two pathogens and on the molecular mechanisms of their interaction. However, little is known on how post-transcriptional regulation affects these relationships.  We investigate the RNA-RNA interaction network in different bacterial species in a community and study the role sRNAs play in these relationships.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (on the right) and Staphylococcus aureus (on the left) that were grown in co-culture.