Gut Immunity agasint intracellulr pathogens

In order to design diets that are more effective or functional feeds, we have to understand the mechanisms controlling nutrients uptake, microbiota composition and gut immunity. The present project will isolate and characterize leukocytes and cytokines from the gastrointestinal tract of salmon and study how changes in the microbiota affect the mucosal immunity. A possible mechanism by which the host senses these changes in microbiota may be through the secretion of extracellular vesicles (EVs), once secreted, EVs may induce modulation on immune cells inducing either activation or tolerance. Thereby suggesting EVs as a major key link between the two kingdoms: microbiota and host. On the other hand, infectious disease are still a major challenge in the aquaculture industry. How bacterial from microbiota manage to control and avoid colonization of pathogenic strain and how functional feed can boost mucosal immunity to improve resilient on salmon. The present project will address those questions, where the main goal are isolate EVs from commensal bacteria and study the interplay between EV and virulent factors isolated from pathogenic bacteria affecting salmon industry. In the present project, a guest researcher from Chile will travel to Norway to perform these experiments using the expertise of our group on nutrition and fish immunology. He will interact with researcher in Norway and transfer his know-how on microbiology and virulent mechanism. This will be highly beneficial and will generate new knowledge within this field. Strengthening the collaboration between Norway and Chile, both of the main actors within salmonid aquaculture worldwide.