Understanding complex host-microbe interactions in Hydra

Abstract

Any multicellular organism may be considered a metaorganism or holobiont-comprised of the macroscopic host and synergistic interdependence with bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses and numerous other microbial and eukaryotic species including algal symbionts. Defining the individual microbehost conversations in these consortia is a challenging but necessary step on the path to understanding the function of the associations as a whole. Dissecting the fundamental principles that underlie all host-microbe interactions requires simple animal models with only a few specific bacterial species. Here I present Hydra as such a model with one of the simplest epithelia in the animal kingdom, with the availability of a fully sequenced genome and numerous genomic tools, and with few associated bacterial species. © 2012 Landes Bioscience.