Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

How can the humble zebrafish teach us about the human microbiome? John Rawls discusses the benefits of using animal models Take the MTM Listener Survey  Julie’s Biggest Takeaways:   Zebrafish and other model animals provide opportunities to understand host-microbe interactions. Zebrafish are particularly useful for imaging studies, due to their translucent skin and the ease of in vivo microscopy. This allows zebrafish to be used to in studies of spatial architecture or longitudinal studies (imaging the same fish specimen over time) in ways that other model organisms can’t be.   Zebrafish get their first microbes from their mother, just like mammals! The chorion, a protective coating that surrounds the zebrafish embryo, is seeded with microbes from passing through the cloaca of the female zebrafish. Surface-sterilizing this chorion allows researchers to generate germ-free animals that are very useful for microbiome studies.   A gut epithelial transcription factor is regulated by a signal from the gut microbiot