Multiomic approach to characterize the link between the structural biodiversity and the microbial activity along the natural evolution of periphytic biofilm

In the global change context, one major challenge for human and environmental health is to better understand the response of microbial communities to multiple stressors in terms of acclimation, adaptation and resilience in order to preserve ecosystem function and services. In particular, as regard chemical contamination of aquatic systems, one major goal is to characterize how the natural fluctuation of the structural biodiversity and microbial community functioning due to environmental changes might modulate their sensitivity to the chemical stress. 

In this context, the omics methods and their combination pave the way to new perspectives in microbial eco(toxi)cology to tackle the knowledge gap. Among others, these omics encompass:
Metagenomic allowing to explore simultaneously the diversity of species within a microbial community and its functional potential (gene reservoir); Untargeted meta-metabolomic providing a comprehensive picture of the microbial activity in response to the environment by analyzing all the small molecules from biochemical reactions within the community.

Objectives

MICROBIOMIQ aims to better understand the link between the microbial activity (i.e. metabolome), the structural biodiversity (diversity of species and genes) and the sensitivity to the chemical stress associated to natural fluctuation in the species composition and the functioning of periphytic communities due to changing environmental conditions along the year. Thus, through the combination of metagenomic and meta-metabolomic on periphyton, this project will focus on the modulation of the photosynthetic function that is strongly involved in primary production and overall biogeochemical cycles. 
The outcomes of the project will allow to better understand the adaptive mechanisms (e.g. phenotypic plasticity) in the sensitivity of ecosystem functions (i.e. photosynthesis) to the chemical stress and their time sequence. The collected data would be further used to support the development of management tools in a water quality biomonitoring purpose.

Methodology

MICROBIOMIQ will implement investigation on the field and in controlled conditions based on a multi-disciplinary approach coupling metagenomic, meta-metabolomic, photosynthetic yield assessment and physico-chemical characterization of the medium. The combination of these methods will allow an innovative and accurate way to characterize the relationship between the changing environmental conditions, the taxonomic diversity, the microbial activity and the photosynthetic function and their sensitivity to the chemical stress in natural and in controlled conditions through the implementation of bio-informatics tools.

Participants

Structures INRAE

• Département AQUA
  • EABX Research Unit – Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Change
• Département ECODIV
  • BIOGECO Joint Research Unit - Biodiversity, genetic and communities