Apr 15, 2020
Computational biologist Dr.
Reyes discusses the basics of bacteriophages (viruses that infect
bacteria) and bacteria interactions as well as current
research.
He covers
Alejandro Reyes Muñoz is an
assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at La
Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. He has investigated
the importance of gut health and the interactions of
microbes in the gut.
In this podcast, he discusses phage-host interactions. He explains
to listeners that it is important to consider the biodiversity of
all the different environments that exist for bacteria, including
the human gut.
He explains why the question
"what is a virus/host interaction like" is a very complex one. He
adds that there are many different ways in which a virus and host
need to interact to get to the point of a successful infection.
Furthermore, he comments that the worst thing a pathogen can do to
itself is to kill a host quickly.
He describes more about this complicated and active relationship
that has created a city-like architecture of
microbes in the human gut, elucidating the importance of gut
health. He also explains how genetic material is exchanged between
the two and why each gains various benefits and what they
are.
He also addresses the
coronavirus strain we currently are facing and discusses what
scientist have observed about its mutation rate as well as the type
of virus it is and what that implies about its behavior. Reyes also
tells listeners about the complexity of understanding genomes and
while scientists may sequence a virus genome, they can't predict
what about 70% of that genome codes for.
Finally, he describes his current work as developing computational
methods to id some of the genes that those phages are coding
for.
For more information about the coronavirus sequencing, he directs listeners to a phylogenetic tree available at https://nextstr ain.org/ncov/global
For more about the work of Alejandro Reyes Muñoz, see his lab website at https://bcem.uniandes.edu.co/bcem-lab/areyes.html