Studies have shown that gut microbes can influence several aspects of the host’s life, including aging. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the human gut environment, elucidating how a specific microbial species contributes to longevity has been challenging.
To explore the influence of bacterial products on the aging process, scientists at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University developed a method that uses light to directly control gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the gut of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans.
The team reports (“Optogenetic control of gut bacterial metabolism to promote longevity”) in eLife that green-light-induced production of colanic acid by resident Escherichia coli bacteria protected gut cells against stress-induced cellular damage and extended the worm’s lifespan. The researchers indicate that this method can be applied to study other bacteria and propose that it also might provide in the future a new way to fine-tune bacterial metabolism in the host gut to deliver health benefits with minimal side effects.
“Gut microbial metabolism is associated with host longevity. However, because it requires direct manipulation of microbial metabolism in situ, establishing a causal link between these two processes remains challenging. We demonstrate an optogenetic method to control gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the host gut. We genetically engineer an E. coli strain that secretes colanic acid (CA) under the quantitative control of light,” the investigators wrote.
“Using this optogenetically-controlled strain to induce CA production directly in the C. elegans gut, we reveal the local effect of CA in protecting intestinal mitochondria from stress-induced hyper-fragmentation. We also demonstrate that the lifespan-extending effect of this strain is positively correlated with the intensity of green light, indicating a dose-dependent CA benefit on the host.
“Thus, optogenetics can be used to achieve quantitative and temporal control of [the microbiome] metabolism in order to reveal its local and systemic effects on host health and aging.
“We used optogenetics, a method that combines light and genetically engineered light-sensitive proteins to regulate molecular events in a targeted manner in living cells or organisms,” said co-corresponding author Meng Wang, PhD, the Robert C. Fyfe endowed chair on aging and professor of molecular and human genetics at the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor.
In the current work, the team engineered E. coli to produce the pro-longevity compound colanic acid in response to green light and switch off its production in red light. They discovered that shining the green light on the transparent worms carrying the modified E. coli induced the bacteria to produce colanic acid, which protected the worm’s gut cells against stress-induced mitochondrial fragmentation. Mitochondria have been increasingly recognized as important players in the aging process.
“When exposed to green light, worms carrying this E. coli strain also lived longer. The stronger the light, the longer the lifespan,” continued Wang, who is also an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of Baylor’s Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Optogenetics offers a direct way to manipulate gut bacterial metabolism in a temporally, quantitatively, and spatially controlled manner and enhance host fitness.”
“For instance, this work suggests that we could engineer gut bacteria to secrete more colanic acid to combat age-related health issues,” added co-corresponding author Jeffrey Tabor, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and biosciences at Rice University. “Researchers also can use this optogenetic method to unravel other mechanisms by which microbial metabolism drives host physiological changes and influences health and disease.”
