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SUMMARY:Microbial lipids and their application to study ancient microbiome
 s and environments - Ainara Sistiaga\, University of Copenhagen / Massachu
 setts Institute of Technology
DTSTART:20220128T131500Z
DTEND:20220128T140000Z
UID:TALK169064@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruairidh Macleod
DESCRIPTION:We live surrounded by microbes\, they are everywhere\, living 
 within and with us. They are essential for our environment and profoundly 
 affect our health by impacting our metabolisms\, immunity and even behavio
 ur. Despite its importance\, the role of the microbes in human evolution h
 as been historically overlooked\, in part due to the challenge of obtainin
 g microbiome data from ancient material. Further\, the extent to which hum
 an evolution has impacted gut microbiomes through genetic mutations\, popu
 lation migrations and changes in lifestyle is poorly understood. Archaeolo
 gy potentially offers remarkable insights into the role that these factors
  may have played in the evolution of the gut microbiome\, by studying mumm
 ified gut contents\, coprolites or latrines. Ancient faecal matter offers 
 the best opportunity to investigate the composition of the ancestral human
  gut microbiome. Even though recent advances in genomics are radically exp
 anding our knowledge of ancient organisms and their microbiomes\, the pict
 ure is far from complete as we are not substantially closer to understandi
 ng how these microorganisms mechanistically contributed to the host phenot
 ypes due to the difficulty in characterizing the diversity of molecules pr
 oduced by gut microorganisms\n\nThe metabolism of gut bacteria produces sp
 ecific lipids and metabolites that can be identified from ancient material
 s. As lipids are much more resistant to natural degradation than DNA and p
 roteins\, they can be used to infer the composition of ancient microbiomes
 . Such relationship has been extensively studied in environmental microbes
  but not in the gut microbiome.  During this talk I will present some prel
 iminary data showing how the study of microbial lipids can be useful to re
 construct the ancestral microbiome and past environments.\n\nRegister onli
 ne: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvdeqsqz0pGdcdefnh_oqGcok
 WCqQqjpys\n
LOCATION:Online via zoom
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