SPP 2330:  New concepts in prokaryotic virus-host interactions - from single cells to microbial communities

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Biology ; Chemistry ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering ; Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441953848

In the frame of this priority programme (SPP 2330) approximately 25 groups will unite to build an interdisciplinary consortium focusing on virus-host interaction in prokaryotes. In recent years, revolutionary discoveries on the biology of prokaryotic viruses were made, including the finding that viruses can use small molecules to make group-level decisions, the discovery of intracellular molecular complexes made by viruses that blur the boundary between prokaryotic and eukaryotic life, and the multitude of novel anti-viral immune systems acting at the unicellular and multicellular level. These ground breaking recent discoveries have now sparked an enormous research interest in phage biology. With this SPP, we will bring together an interdisciplinary consortium on phage research, combining molecular microbiology, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling, imaging techniques, structural biology, and biochemistry to form a German excellence group that will spearhead this emerging topic in an internationally competitive manner.The newly established SPP focuses on three scales of complexity of viral organization: viral cell biology, new unicellular and multicellular anti-viral defense strategies, and viral impact on multispecies microbial communities. The fundamental goals of this consortium are the understanding of new mechanisms in prokaryotic virus-host interactions at the molecular level as well as in the context of microbial communities. This will allow us to address the impact of different viral life styles on the evolution of anti-viral strategies and ultimately will shed light on the evolutionary arms race at the community level. Together, the concerted effort of this consortium will lead the field to uncover new concepts for these rapidly emerging topics and will open up new horizons in biology, with high potentials for applications in molecular biology, phage therapy, food processing, and agriculture.The success of a priority program fundamentally depends on the establishment of the right framework conditions. Therefore, we apply for funding for the organization of annual meetings as well as an international conference (3rd year), funding for the organization of workshops, student exchanges, start-up funding for postdocs, gender equality measures and a public outreach module. The coordination funds will be managed by the coordinator, the coordination committee, and a gender equality board - all supported by the coordination assistant of the SPP.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Belgium, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Frunzke, Julia )
• “Dynamic and mechanisms of early life interactions between bacteriophage and its bacteria host in the skin” (Applicant Gomez de Agüero, Mercedes )
• Glycocode-guided bacteriophage-host interaction in the evolution of the genus Staphylococcus (Applicant Peschel, Andreas )
• Identity, infection strategy, and biogeochemical impact of nitrifier-infecting viruses (Applicant Pester, Michael )
• Impact of phage microdiversity on marine heterotrophic bacteria – a single cell perspective (Applicants Moraru, Ph.D., Cristina ;  Stryhanyuk, Ph.D., Hryhoriy )
• Inhibition of phage infection by secondary metabolites produced by actinobacterial species (Applicant Frunzke, Julia )
• Interplay of the phages phi29 and SPP1 with the B. subtilis (p)ppGpp response (Applicant Bange, Gert )
• Interrogating the contributions of novel immune systems to anti-phage defense in their native bacterial hosts (Applicant Beisel, Chase )
• It’s sweet to move on – bacteriophage infection and processing of glycan-based biofilms (Applicant Barbirz, Stefanie )
• Molecular cross-talk between Sa3int phages and their Stapylococcus aureus host (Applicant Wolz, Christiane )
• Molecular factors whereby giant phage ΦKZ modulates host protein synthesis (Applicant Vogel, Jörg )
• Molecular insight into viral infection of Methanoarchaea and their respective viruses (Applicant Schmitz-Streit, Ruth Anne )
• Molecular mechanisms of virus egress in haloarchaea (Applicant Quax, Tessa )
• Molecular principles of quorum sensing-mediated phage defense in Vibrio cholerae (Applicant Papenfort, Kai )
• Novel anti-phage resistance mechanisms channelled through transcriptional regulation (Applicants Lindell, Ph.D., Debbie ;  Steglich, Claudia )
• Systematic identification of phage-host cross-talk in the human gut microbiome (Applicants Deng, Li ;  Müller, Christian L. ;  Söding, Johannes )
• The role of m6A-RNA modification to control phage replication (Applicants Brameyer, Sophie ;  Jung, Kirsten )
• The role of membrane vesicles for archaeal virus-host interactions (Applicant Erdmann, Susanne )
• The role of small open reading frames in Shewanella oneidensis phage LambdaSo in host takeover and phage proliferation (Applicant Thormann, Kai )
• Understanding bacterial epitranscriptomics on the basis of Escherichia coli – T4 phage interactions (Applicant Höfer, Katharina )
• Understanding the nature of anti-phage defense islands in microbes (Applicant Sorek, Ph.D., Rotem )
• What is the role of cyanophage-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes in the virocell? (Applicant Frankenberg-Dinkel, Nicole )
• Z-Project - Bacteriophage Repository, Services and Database Construction (Applicants Overmann, Jörg ;  Wittmann, Johannes )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Julia Frunzke