This Scientific Program aims to shed light on the mechanisms by which microorganisms reach a high degree of closely woven metabolic and genetic integration with their eukaryotic hosts during the process of mutualist symbiosis. Endosymbiotic bacteria (intracellular, either obligate or facultative) of insects and their intestinal microbiota represent the preferred experimental models.
Research approaches include genome sequencing and metagenomics, comparative and evolutionary as well as functional analyses (transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics). The functional study of complex regulatory and metabolic networks requires new bioinformatics and theoretical tools.
