Achieving Biological Balance

Kent Kotaka ’22 works in William Ludington's lab examining how two groups of bacteria, Acetobacter and Lactobacillus, get along in the guts of a special breed of Drosophila fruit flies. These flies can tolerate long periods without food, meaning their resident microbes must likewise deal with nutrient resource limitations. By adding ratios of the critical nutrients carbon (for energy metabolism) and nitrogen (for protein synthesis), the researchers can gauge when the bacterial groups reach a state of symbiotic cooperation. “If we know factors that contribute to the microbiome’s stability,” says Kotaka, “we are better informed about how to treat its instability and imbalance.”

Kotaka hopes ongoing microbiome investigations will inspire scientists to take more holistic approaches to biology. “For a long time, biology was about studying each cell, each protein, each gene in isolation,” says Kotaka. “But I think exciting patterns emerge when you focus on interactions that occur on organism, population, or even ecosystem levels.”

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Full article on Kent Kotaka's research:
➜ https://magazine.krieger.jhu.edu/2022...

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